The Kenilworth Assembly Hall is a historic clubhouse located at 410 Kenilworth Avenue in

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Warwick (district), Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The clubhouse was built in 1907 as a social club for the wealthy

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

suburb. Resident and noted

Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in ...

architect

George W. Maher George Washington Maher (December 25, 1864 – September 12, 1926) was an American architect during the first quarter of the 20th century. He is considered part of the Prairie School-style and was known for blending traditional architecture wit ...

designed the building. His design represents a transitional stage in his work; it was his last building to feature a significant horizontal emphasis, and it includes several early hints at style elements he later became known for. The windows are arranged in groups of three, which was typical of Maher's later works, and a stem-and-square motif used in several external elements evokes the signature

thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. ...

patterns he introduced the next year. The horizontal elements, which include the broad

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

and wall paneling, exhibit Maher's difficulties with the horizontal form of the Prairie School and were called "unsatisfactory" by architectural historian

Carl W. Condit Carl Wilbur Condit (Cincinnati, Ohio, September 29, 1914 – January 4, 1997) was an American historian of urban and architectural history, a writer, professor, and teacher."Condit, Carl W(ilbur) (1914–1997)," ''The Hutchinson Unabridged Ency ...

. The clubhouse was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on March 21, 1979.
The Kenilworth Club
donated the Kenilworth Assembly Hall to the Kenilworth Park District on August 1, 2016.

References

Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Prairie School architecture in Illinois Buildings and structures completed in 1907 Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Cook County, Illinois Kenilworth, Illinois {{CookCountyIL-NRHP-stub