27 Apr lost and found: adler & sullivan’s knisely flats and store
when richard nickel located adler and sullivan’s 1883 knisley store and flats along lake street in the west side of chicago– a little-known commission briefly mentioned in hugh morrison’s book, “louis sullivan: prophet of modern architecture”, he spent a great deal of time creating detailed floorplans and photographing the building’s interior and exterior.
knisley’s specialization in fabricated skylights and cornices is reflected in the building’s façade, with ornamental tin wrapping around the cornice, projecting bays, and supporting brackets on the second and third floors. a hand-carved bedford limestone block and lunette with anarched date plaque were flanked by the projecting bays.
the deeply recessed, centrally located double door entrance provided access to the two ground floor storefronts and a stairway leading to the apartments on the second and thirds floors. the segmented plate glass façade windows were flanked by two oversized carved limestone brackets with design elements inspired by sullivan’s mentor, john edelmann.
during the summer of 1958, he returned to document the building’s demolition and salvage ornament, including two massive bedford limestone corbels and a centrally located incised plaque that was broken in half (it was already halfway down the day nickel arrived to salvage) both designed by sullivan. sadly, the date plaque, the heavily ornamented lunette, and much of the ornament from the projecting bays and cornice above had been smashed and scrapped.
nickel hired the kuper monument works to hoist the half-ton brackets onto the company truck for transport to their facility to remove excess stone. the corbels were then delivered to home of nickel’s parents, where they were stored until their purchase in 1965 (along with other sullivan ornament) by the university of southern illinois-edwardsville. the two stones are displayed just outside of lovejoy library and inside, a part of the sullivan ornament exhibit is on display.
