04 Nov revisting richard nickel’s architectural ornament housed in “the shed” at southern illinois university edwardsville

it’s been nearly six years since john vinci, timothy j. samuelson, and i visited richard nickel’s collection of architectural ornament housed in the university’s “shed.”

not much has changed since that time other than having a far deeper understanding of the material, the stories surround it, and the circumstances that led to calling edwardsville, il. home. 

while there, i took hundreds of photographs of the ornament that nickel sold in 1966 (if jack randall weren’t there at the time, the sale would’ve never materialized), in addition to ornament he continued to rescue until his death in 1972. there is other material that landed there after nickel’s death, including a large section the john wellborn root-designed cast iron staircase extracted from the adams street entrance of the 1888 rookery building during renovations, remuddlings, and a decent restoration.

on a postive note, the collection is easily accessible to researchers from all fields thanks to erin vigneau-dimick, who runs the show there and with her assistants, is cataloging every bit of it – both 2d and 3d – as i write this. some of the highlights of nickel’s sullivan collection is on display nearby at the lovejoy library, with plenty of descriptional or informational panels to guide you through both the trajectory of adler and sullivan work along with richard nickel’s effort to document and save it. 

additional images (below) were taken with my iphone. 

i’ve also included images of lovejoy libray that richard nickel took as the exhibit was taking shape. he never liked it and went to his grave having doubts and mixed feelings about his ornament landing in southern illinois. but, it remained intact as a collection… the critcial mass of early sullivan ornament from the 1880s – both residential and commerical – is there. that was his primary concern given the fact that every chicago-based institution wanted to simply “cherry pick” it, which he fiercly objected to, no matter the cost. 

images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bld. 51 archive. all rights reserved. 2025.