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The Brewster Apartments (originally known as Lincoln Park Palace) is a residential building in the Lake View neighborhood of
The building features a pink Jasper granite exterior and employs skeleton-frame construction, which enabled the advent of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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Located at Diversey and Pine Grove (originally Park), it was designed by architect Enock Hill Turnock
Enock Hill Turnock (1857–1926) was an American architect, originally from England.
Family background
Enock was born on February 27, 1857, in London, England to Richard and Elizabeth (Hill) Turnock. His father made several trips to America and ...
for Norwegian-native Bjoerne Edwards, publisher of ''American Contractor'', with construction started in 1893 and completed in 1896. Edwards would die from an eighth-floor fall at the construction site before the project was completed.
The Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
building was designated a Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, archite ...
on October 6, 1982.
Architecture
The building features a pink Jasper granite exterior and employs skeleton-frame construction, which enabled the advent of skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
s at the end of the 19th century. Within the external masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...
walls is an interior featuring open cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
stairways, bridge walkways paved with glass blocks, and a massive skylight
A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes.
History
Open ...
.
In popular culture
The Brewster Apartments has served as a set location for the movies '' Running Scared,'' '' Child’s Play'' and ''Hoodlum
A hoodlum is a thug, usually in a group of misfits who are associated with crime or theft.
Early use
The earliest reference to the word "hoodlum" was in the December 14, 1866, ''San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin'' after the Hoodlum Band was ...
''.
Notable residents
Illinois GovernorJohn Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld (December 30, 1847 – March 12, 1902) was an American politician and the 20th Governor of Illinois, serving from 1893 until 1897. He was the first Democrat to govern that state since the 1850s. A leading figure of the Progr ...
lived in the building in 1897 after leaving the governorship.
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
lived in the building in 1915–16 while employed by Chicago’s Essanay Studios
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an early American motion picture studio. The studio was founded in 1907 in Chicago, and later developed an additional film lot in Niles Canyon, California. Its various stars included Francis X. Bushman, ...
. He would later move to the studio’s Niles, CA
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth most populous city in the Bay Area, behind San Jose, San Fra ...
location. The penthouse owners have sworn by this tale of early film history, though historians say that Chaplin only lived in Chicago for three weeks, and slept on “Broncho Billy” Anderson’s couch instead of getting himself an apartment — at the time, he was known for being far too tight with money to rent a place as pricey as the penthouse would have been.''Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry'' (Wallflower Press, 2013) by Adam Selzer and Michael Glover Smith
See also
*List of Chicago Landmarks
Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor of Chicago, Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, ...
References
Chicago Landmarks Houses completed in 1896 Residential condominiums in Chicago {{Chicago-struct-stub