05 Apr suburban lawn once served as an architecture graveyard for adler and sullivan’s demolished buildings

a suburban lawn becomes an architecture graveyard. richard nickel’s collection of architectural ornament from demolished adler and sullivan commercial and residential buildings grew rapidly, beginning around 1958-1959. the neighbors were not pleased.

richard nickel’s copy of purchase order (dated jan, 3, 1966) issued by southern illinois university edwardville for his collection of sullivan ornament – now displayed in part at lovejoy library. the university paid 12,000 dollars for the collection, which consisted of a few hundred artifacts.

nickel continued purchasing ornament from demolished a & s buildings on their behalf until 1972, when he was killed in the chicago stock exchange.

scanned and edited images courtesy of the richard nickel archive, ryerson and burnham library, art institute of chicago. additional images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and john vinci.