19th Annual Benefit: A Walk Through Time

Sunday, June 12, 2016
House Walk from 1:00-4:00pm
Reception & Silent Auction from 4:00-5:00pm

Glessner House Museum
1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616
$50 per person / $40 for members (coupon code required)

This very special tour provides attendees with the rare opportunity to visit the interiors of several historic homes in the Prairie Avenue Historic District. See beautifully carved wood moldings, leaded glass windows, fireplaces in elaborate tile, mosaic, and marble, and much more! Glessner House Museum is also included on the tour as well as historic Second Presbyterian Church with its landmarked Arts and Crafts interior and collection of Tiffany windows. Clarke House Museum will be open to the public for free that afternoon as well.  Following the tour, attendees are invited to return to the museum for a reception and silent auction, featuring theatre tickets, Chicago memorabilia, collectibles, architectural fragments, and other items of interest.

Glessner House Museum

Preview auction items (new or 2016!) and place absentee bids.

Absentee bids will be accepted from 9:00am on Monday June 6, 2016 through 5:00pm on Friday June 10, 2016. Bidding re-opens at 12:30pm on Sunday June 12 and closes at 4:45pm.

Kimball House

To purchase tour tickets, click here.

Tour the Mansions of Historic Prairie Avenue

Kimball and Coleman houses on S. Prairie Avenue

Sunday June 14, 2015
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Glessner House Museum
1800 S. Prairie Avenue
Chicago, IL
$50 per person/$45 members

This very special (annual) tour provides attendees with the rare opportunity to visit the interiors of several historic homes in the Prairie Avenue Historic District.

See the beautifully carved wood moldings, leaded glass windows, fireplaces in elaborate tile, mosaic, and marble, and much more! Glessner and Clarke House Museums are also included on the tour as well as historic Second Presbyterian Church with its landmarked Arts and Crafts interior and collection of Tiffany windows.

Following the tour, attendees are invited to return to the museum for a reception and silent auction, featuring theatre tickets, Chicago memorabilia, collectibles, architectural fragments, and other items of interest.

For reservations (recommended), please call 312.326.1480.

Glessner House Museum presents “A Walk Through Time” June 8, 2014

This very special tour, the annual benefit for Glessner House Museum, presents attendees with the rare opportunity to visit the interiors of seven historic homes in and around the Prairie Avenue Historic District. Visitors will be treated to a breath-taking array of beautifully carved wood moldings, leaded glass windows, and fireplaces in elaborate tile, mosaic, and marble. The Glessner and Clarke House Museums are also included on the tour as well as historic Second Presbyterian Church with its important arts and crafts interior and collection of windows including nine by Tiffany Studios and two by Morris and Company.

Tile fireplace in the William Reid house.

Highlights include the dramatic two-story stair hall of the William Kimball house, a stunning mahogany-paneled music room illuminated by a stained glass dome in the William Reid house (1894, Beers Clay and Dutton, architects), an elaborately carved fireplace faced in onyx in the Joseph Coleman house (1886, Cobb & Frost, architects), and the last opportunity to tour the Harriet Rees house (1888, Cobb & Frost, architects) before it is moved one block to the north later this summer. Tour hours are 1 – 4 p.m.

Following the tour, attendees are invited to return to the coach house of Glessner House Museum for a reception and silent auction, featuring theatre tickets, Chicago memorabilia, collectibles, architectural fragments, and other items of interest.

For more information, or to make reservations, please call 312-326-1480. Glessner House Museum is located at 1800 S. Prairie Avenue in Chicago's South Loop.

A Walk Through Time

Sunday June 8, 2014

1:00 – 4:00pm

$50 per person

$45 for museum members

A Walk Through Time on the "Sunny Street of the Sifted Few"

The William W. Kimball House at
1801 S. Prairie Ave., a Chicago landmark
built in 1892, Solon S. Beman, architect.
One of the homes featured on the 2013 tour.

Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie Avenue, Chicago, will present its annual house tour of the Prairie Avenue Historic District entitled “A Walk Through Time” on Sunday June 9, 2013 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.  The tour will feature the interior of six private homes constructed between 1868 and 1894; an 1870 mansion now serving as a boutique hotel; the Glessner and Clarke house museums; and historic Second Presbyterian Church with its large collection of Tiffany windows.  Tickets are $50.00 per person and may be purchased in advance or at the door.  For reservations, please call 312-326-1480, or visit Glessner House Museum Web site for further information.

This very special tour presents attendees with the rare opportunity to see the interiors of several mansions built in the late 19th century on what was then known as the “sunny street of the sifted few.” These homes feature a breath-taking array of beautifully carved wood moldings, leaded glass windows, and fireplaces faced in elaborate tile, mosaic, and marble. For a complete listing of the homes on the tour click here.

Following the tour, participants are invited back to the Glessner House Museum coach house for a reception and silent auction, featuring an array of wonderful items old and new!

Book 2 takes place during
The 1893 World’s Fair.

For a fictional account of what life on Prairie Ave. was like, you might enjoy the “Avenue of Dream” series, which is set on that “sunny street of the sifted few.” The books take place during the years 1892 through 1896, during one of the most exciting eras in Chicago history. Book 1, The Pursuit of Lucy Banning and Books 2, The Dilemma of Charlotte Farrow, in the series are available at bookstores everywhere and at Amazon.com. Book 3, The Invention of Sarah Cummings, releases this September.

Check out the review of The Pursuit of Lucy Banning in USAToday. 

Prairie Avenue comes alive with special events this week

Chicago’s First Gold Coast

The Pursuit of Lucy Banning is set on Prairie Ave. during
the late nineteenth century.

Prairie Avenue was Chicago’s first “Gold Coast” where the richest of the rich lived during the Gilded Age. We have a few reminders of those glory days and this week celebrates, in various ways, that history. Below are some of the unique events happening in the Prairie District this week.

Debut novel set on historic Prairie Avenue
The publication of The Pursuit of Lucy Banning, book one in the new “Avenue of Dreams” series will be celebrated June 5, 2012 at the Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie Ave. at 6:30 p.m. Author Olivia Newport will be signing copies of her debut novel. The Pursuit of Lucy Banning is set on Prairie Ave. during the late 1890s. Lucy Banning and her family are involved with the planning of the World Columbian Exposition of 1893, an event that changed Chicago and the world. Newport and research partner and Glessner House docent, Steve Reginald, will be discussing the series and how it came to be.

Farmers Market in the Prairie District

The Wheeler Mansion was built in 1870.

The Wheeler Mansion Market, 2020 S. Calumet, will make its debut June 6, 2012, 4:00 p.m. - 8 p.m.

The Wheeler Mansion Market is a an upscale farmers market featuring “local farmers, artisan producers, and independently owned and operated businesses; including an artfully curated selection of jewelry, furniture, art, and handcrafted products by local designers.”

The Wheeler Mansion, like the Glessner House, is one of the few remaining mansions that once populated the Prairie District. Today is an upscale bed and breakfast.





Take a walk through time

A Walk Through Time is the “annual tour of historic mansions of Prairie Avenue” presented by the Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie Ave.

Sunday June 10, 2012 from 1:00 to 4:00pm
$50 per person / $45 for museum members
Prepaid reservations recommended to 312.326.1480

This very special tour, the annual benefit for Glessner House Museum, presents attendees with the rare opportunity to visit the interiors of several historic homes along and near Prairie Avenue.  Visitors will be treated to a breath-taking array of beautifully carved wood moldings, leaded glass windows, and fireplaces in elaborate tile, mosaic, and marble.  The Glessner and Clarke House Museums are also included on the tour as well as historic Second Presbyterian Church, with its important arts and crafts interior and collection of windows, including nine by Tiffany and two by Edward Burne-Jones.  Following the tour, attendees are invited to return to the coach house of Glessner House Museum for a reception and silent auction, featuring theatre tickets, Chicago memorabilia, collectibles, and other items of interest.

A Walk Back in Time

Time Tunnel
If you walked down S. Prairie Ave. yesterday, you might have thought you were in the nineteenth century. Not to worry, it was just the annual "A Walk Back in Time" fund-raiser presented by the Glessner House Museum.

Annual Event
Once a year, about a dozen existing Prairie Ave. mansions open their doors to the public. The Glessner House is the only Prairie Ave. survivor that is open to the public all year, so getting the opportunity to see the other surving mansions is a real treat.

Elegant not Stuffy
My favorite was the William H. Reid House at 2013 S. Prairie Ave. The three-story Classical Revival structure was a row home, one of a group of attached houses that extended south from Cullerton Ave. But the Reid House is the only survivor. It was built for Reid in 1894. Reid was a successful banker and had the home designed by the firm of Beers, Clay and Dutton. What makes this home remarkable is the fact that it has always been a single-family home. Many of its original features are completely intact, including the nine fireplaces and stained-glass dome in the music room. The dome features a beautiful fleur-de-lis pattern. The home is elegant and rich, without feeling stuffy or overdone.

The walk began at 1 p.m. and continued until 4 p.m. After the walk, there was a reception and silent auction at the Glessner coach house. Among the many items auctioned, was the artwork of artist Jack Simmerling. Simmerling has painted many watercolor paintings of Prairie Ave. mansions, including the Kimball and Glessner houses.