Cool Building Wednesday: The Yale Apartments
Yale Apartments (photo by Lee Bey)
The Yale Apartments at 6565 S. Yale is a gem of Chicago architecture–a very fine example of Richardsonian Romanesque design tucked away on a side street in Englewood.
Built in 1892, The Yale shows Englewood’s roots as a middle-class, gaslight era suburb. At seven commanding stories, The Yale was taller than anything around it. Apartments–ringing a light court and atrium–were accessible by an open cage elevator. There were two other apartment buildings like it in city: the extant Brewster Apartments at 2800 N. Pine Grove, built in 1893, and the storied–please click on this link–Mecca Apartments at 33rd and State which were demolished in the early 1950s to build IIT’s Crown Hall.
(photo by Lee Bey)
(photo by Lee Bey)
(photo by Lee Bey)
The Yale might have been lost, too, if it weren’t for the city and developer John Luce stepping in to save the then-dilapidated structure. By 2003, the building was rehabbed and converted to affordable housing for senior citizens. It was also designated a city landmark.
And I didn’t get a chance to peek in to see what the rehabbed interior court looks like, but Heidi Sperry from the city’s Landmarks Division did. Check out her photo of it here. Nice.
In other news: a trio of homes related to Chicago African American literary figures likely will be granted full landmark status by the Chicago City Council today. The former houses of Black Boy author Richard Wright (4831 S. Vincennes); Raisin in the Sun playwright Lorraine Hansberry (6140 S. Rhodes); and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, (7458 S. Evans) will be before council members.
And thanks to architecture blogger/critic Lynn Becker for the shout out today. And dammit, his blog is good too.
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I love your blog!Your pictures are incredible and show Chicago architecture in a new and fascinating light.
I wonder what the old courtyard looked like, because I wonder if they used it in an early episode of “ER.”
Very cool, indeed!
My grandparents lived in the Yale in the 1940′s. During the war, my mother and I lived with them while awaiting the birth of my brother in 1944. We lived on the top floor. and there was a penthouse that led to the roof. I remember walking out on the roof (with supervision, of course)!
It was a beautiful apartment with floor to ceiling windows. I still have some of the furniture that was in the apartment.
Thanks Lee – reminds me of when I moved permanently to Chicago as a teenager and we’d drive around and see these magnificent buildings.
Compared to the great artwork of the building, it maddens me when these new condos with bare concrete walls sprout all over. The worst offender is on Wells in River North. Hideous bare concrete should be outlawed. At least spray some stain on !
Mister Bey!!!
I stumbled thru one and a half semesters at IIT and four years of drafting at Lindblom, both of which made me a maven for good old Chicago architecture. Loved your entry on the Yale appartments. I actually saw the interior during lunchtime in grade school(got any photos of the original Parker Elementary school?)–almost got my butt kicked and narrowly avoided a whupping, but it was worth it.
I really miss the architecture bookstore on Wabash. I’d heard the owner was going to do a book on the architecture of Chicago Public Schools. Have you heard anything?
Thanks for so many photos of the south side–Chicago does exist south of Roosevelt!
Thanks
Barron Hall