Five of a Kind: the Chicago Greystone

The Classical Greystone: stately symbol brought by the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

Before the The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was held in Chicago, popular residential architectural styles like Italianate and Romanesque featured curved arches, fanciful cornice bracketing, and incised lintels and window hoods. Another popular style was the Queen Anne Victorian with twisting turrets and towers, fanciful spindle work, a multitude of colors, and an asymmetric appearance.

These styles would quickly fade and give way to Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts, which were on full display in the architecture of the Fair.

Design and construction of the grounds of the Fair was led by Daniel Burnham of Burnham and Root. Burnham had a vision of grand miniature city in a Neoclassical style that combines ancient Greek forms and icons with Renaissance ideas.

The effect was immediate and monumental as the style of the Fair captured the imagination of attendees. The idea of the "White City" envisioned by the fair became apparent in state government buildings, grand residences, banks, and small civic structures across the country.

The Classical Chicago Greystone didn't instantly arrive on its own after the Fair, however. It was more of an evolution of the existing flat-fronted Italianate two-flats in inner-ring older neighborhoods. Bronzeville, Woodlawn, and Gold Coast feature many of the Romanesque Greystones built before 1893.

The Neoclassical Greystone built between the mid-1890s and early 1910s is featured in this print: a two-flat with equilateral hexagonal bay window, classical triangular pediment and/or cornice details, and a front clad in Indiana limestone.

Though the outward appearance these Greystones often look identical, there are small design and trim differences, mostly in porches, doors, and the cornice and pediment.

The Greystone is most commonly associated with Chicago, mostly because of the nearby location of limestone (Indiana) and proximity to the Fair. It faded in the 1910s as the Arts and Crafts and Prairie School Styles arrived. The greystone lost the limestone facade and became the more utilitarian-looking brick two-flat. Many constructed in the 1900s-1910s started featuring stained-glass built-ins and other Arts and Crafts influences.

In Chicago you can find them in neighborhoods like North Lawndale, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Andersonville, Bronzeville, Woodlawn, and Lake View, among others.

While the vast majority are two and three-flat structures, there are a few single-story greystones, mostly in the neighborhood of K-Town on the West Side.

___

Each print is pressed by hand with a spoon, so there will be slight variations in final appearance.

Print is 16"x20" on kitakata paper.

Signed/numbered edition of 25.