Winnetka Local History Digital Collections

Winnetka Weekly Talk, 11 Feb 1928, p. 42

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i The Homestead More than a place to live--a way of living Opening Week 1625 HINMAN AVENUE, a few paces north of DAVIS STREET February 11-18, 1928 Homestead Will Open Doors to Public Next Week NEW HOTEL EMBODIES COLONIAL TRADITION Ultra-Modern Comforts Given Setting of Early American Beauty and Dignity Proudly Colonial from facade to last furniture detail, the Homestead, Evanston's newest apartment hotel, is to hold its formal opening all next week and will be prepared to welcome the public. All floors will be ready for inspection by that time and everyone is invited to come and see .just how well the Colonial tradition has been reconciled with exigencies of modern construction and adapted to the de- mands of modern life. The Homestead, located on the east side of Hinman avenue just north of Davis street and opposite the original site of historic Old College, the first building of Northwestern university, which was moved years ago to its present location on the university campus, is an eight-story red brick structure with white trim, designed in the southern Colonial style. The in- terior woodwork is antiqued ivory except in the entrance hallway where pure white is used. Like Washington's Home The porch of the building, flagged with rough stone, has slender, square, white posts, reminiscent of Washing- ton's home, Mt. Vernon, supporting a flat roof almost a story above the flagging. A distinctive wooden rail- ing surrounds the porch roof and two bay windows in front on the second, third and fourth floors add much to the excellence of the facade. On all floors the center two windows are equipped with truly old time solid, white painted shutters, such as our great great grandmother used to close of a night, and sometimes dur- ing the daytime, in order to keep marauders out of her house. To pass through the white front door of the Homestead is to pass into a different age. All through the house the Colonial idea has been carried out with as much faithfulness as is possi- ble under the conditions imposed by the proper functioning of the place as a modern hotel. The Average Apartment Two hundred rooms divided into 91 apartments are contained in the struc- ture and the average apartment con- tains a living room with twin roll- away beds, a dinette, kitchenette and bath. Larger apartments include, al- so, a bedroom, papered with gay, old- time wall papers, containing standing twin beds. In these apartments, if the tenant wishes, the roll-away beds may be replaced by a built-in book case. Twenty-one single room apartments can be thrown into one or the other of the suites on either side. In few buildings in the country are the dinette and kitchenette so nicely arranged. In the Homestead the din- ette is completely cut off from the kitchen part by a full-length swinging door, flanked by full-length cupboards with drawer and cabinet. By this means cooking odors are confined to the kitchen and carried away prompt- ly by the efficient ventilating system provided. The furniture, described in detail Entrance Hall, Lounge Typically Colonial parlor." An entrance hall without a clerk's desk! is by way of the window at the left center of the picture above. lead up to the elevator lobby beyond. paper, and floor, rugs and incidental furnishings in the typical Early American manner make this a most pleasing and interesting room. Like the homesteads of Colonial days, Evanston's Homestead has a "front- Communication with his office Two steps White paneled woodwork, scenic wall- Duncan Phyfe's influence is reflected in many of the pieces in this room (below), which is entered at the left of the hall shown in the top picture. elsewhere in this section, is all Col- onial in style, and the best of the Col- onial pieces have been selected for in- corporation into the ensemble of the apartments. Even the carpet is spe- cially made to simulate the hand woven or braided carpet of Colonial days. Every item of interior decora- tion--furniture, draperies, lighting fix- tures--is in complete harmony with every other bit and with the interior and exterior architecture of the build- ing. The lover of open fireplaces and hearthstones will find these features in the east apartments on each floor, in the tea room and in the cozy lounge. The tea room, which occupies the southwest corner of the first floor, contains a 12-foot red brick fireplace with oven and oven fire recess and the lounge, just across the hallway, is provided with a blue granite fireplace, a large replica of the individual fire- places in the east apartments. The lounge floor is of 10-inch waxed planks, joined with butterfly joints and pegged in place with wooden pegs. Pinkham hooked rugs on the floor here are in harmony with the two large oval hooked rugs which adorn the floor of the entrance hallway. Sound-proof walls, deadened floors, controlled ventilation, central control mechanical refrigeration, steam heat generated by an oil burning system, noiseless elevators, fireproof construc- tion, full hotel service, connections for a private telephone in each apartment, scenic and pictorial wall paper unique in this section of the country and dis- tinctive Colonial style lighting fixtures throughout the building are among the many special features. Mandel brothers furnished the Homestead, and each piece was bought under the personal supervision of Mrs. P. A. Danielson, the architect's wife HOTELS DOORS ADMIT TO COLONIAL WORLD Tea Room, Lounge, Hallways All Maintain Early American Atmosphere Coming through the white double swinging doors of leaded glass at the Homestead; past William, the efficient doorman, and his red tiled entrance vestibule, furnished with two long woven raffia, maple settees, we enter another world than that of Hinman avenue or Davis street. We enter a Colonial hallway with tall white door- ways to our right and left. Under the broken capital at our right we see into the tea room and to our left the doorway leads, down two steps, into the comfortable lounge. Just a few steps ahead, at the other end of the hallway, three steps, flanked by dark stained newel posts and white rails, lead up to the elevator lobby. Original Hooked Rugs As we walk forward our feet tread on two big oval Pinkham hooked rugs, originals restored, which adorn the composition flooring, designed to give the effect of a plank floor. On the north wall, just east of the door to the lounge, is the clerk's window, masked by a hand-carved, mahogany mirror frame and matched, on the opposite wall, by a real mirror in an identical frame. The second door on the left of the hallway, a smaller door this time, leads to the clerk's office, switchboard room and the regular stairway. The opposite doorway feads into the tea room again. Use Scenic Wallpaper One of the principal features of this hallway is the wallpaper, another of the unique wallpapers used in the Homestead. It is a mellow corn colored scenic paper with a repeat design representing the "Spirit of 76," Washington's headquarters at Newburg, the Minute Men, Inde- pendence hall, Philadelphia; Valley Forge, Washington crossing the Dela- ware, Paul Revere and the Boston Tea party. The furniture in this hallway in- cludes a pair of handsome Duncan Phyfe settees, matching the Duncan Phyfe furniture in the lounge, a Wil- liam and Mary wing chair with gay slip cover and a distinctive floor lamp. Two lovely old prism glass chandeliers flood the hallway with soft light after the sun goes down. Homestead Architect Is Designer of Subdivisions Philip A. Danielson, architect of the Homestead, is also architect of the new Kildeer Golf club near Wheeling, Ill, and several homes in the recently opened Deere Park subdivision near Ravinia and also in the Indian Hill subdivision,

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