Nickerson House

Nickerson, Samuel, House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Chicago Landmark
Samuel M, Nickerson House
Location:	Chicago, IL
Coordinates:	41°53′38.28″N 87°37′36.36″W / 41.8939667°N 87.6267667°W / 41.8939667; -87.6267667Coordinates: 41°53′38.28″N 87°37′36.36″W / 41.8939667°N 87.6267667°W / 41.8939667; -87.6267667
Built:	1883
Architect:	Burling & Whitehouse; Burling,Edward
Architectural style:	Late Victorian
Governing body:	Private
NRHP Reference#:	76000700 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	November 7, 1976
Designated CL:	September 28, 1977

The Samuel Nickerson House, located at 40 East Erie Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, is a Chicago Landmark. The house, built in 1883, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

After the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, the Near North Side became a fashionable neighborhood for business owners. The house was built for Samuel Nickerson, the founder of the First National Bank of Chicago as well as having interests in liquor and wine businesses and an explosives company. Designed by the architectural firm of Burling and Whitehouse, the house is decorated with a large amount of marble (giving it the nickname of "Marble Palace"), carved and inlaid wood, tile, mosaics, and hand-tooled leather.^[2]

In 1900, Nickerson sold the house to Lucius George Fisher who owned the house until his death in 1916. After purchasing the house, he hired George Washington Maher to redesign Nickerson's art gallery making it a trophy room and rare book library. Among other features, Maher had a stained glass dome built to replace the room's skylight. As part of the remodeling, new book cases and a monumental mantlepiece, attributed to Robert E. Seyfarth who was an architect in Maher's office at the time, were installed in the gallery. The glass tile fire surround of the mantle was created by the Chicago firm of Giannini & Hilgart. After Fisher's death the house was sold to a group of prominent Chicagoans who then donated it to the American College of Surgeons.

The house was acquired by Chicago businessman Richard Driehaus in 2003 who has since restored and opened the property to the public as the Richard H. Driehaus Museum. The museum opened to the public in 2008, displaying Driehaus' personal collection of 19th century decorative arts objects, including a large private collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany statues, wall art, and lamps. ^[3]

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
2. ^ "Chicago Landmarks: Nickerson House". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. http://www.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/N/NickersonHouse.html. Retrieved 2007-06-25. 
3. ^ "Driehaus Museum opens: Modernists need not enter". Time Out Chicago. May 14, 2008. http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/?p=4074.