Race House facts for kids
The Race House is a special home in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It's built in a style called Italianate. This house was finished in 1874 for Stephen A. Race. It became a Chicago Landmark on September 22, 1988, which means it's an important building protected by the city.
History of the Race House
This house is very important to the history of Chicago and the Irving Park area. It's the only home left from the original families who founded Irving Park – the Race family. The Stephen A. Race House is a rare example of a red brick Italianate building in Chicago that still looks mostly like it did when it was first built.
The house was first located on Irving Park Boulevard. This road used to be an old Indian trail! The house's style shows the kind of big, fancy homes that were built along Irving Park Boulevard in the mid-to-late 1800s. Back then, Irving Park was like a quiet country getaway.
When it was built, the house cost $12,000. That was a lot of money in 1873! The Italianate style was very popular between 1850 and 1880. Stephen Race and his brother Charles likely used the same architect because their homes looked very similar.
What the House Looks Like
The Stephen A. Race House is a classic Victorian Italianate home. It was built from 1873 to 1874 for Stephen A. Race, who helped start Irving Park. His brother, Charles T. Race, was the main founder and developer of the area.
The house is four stories tall. It's made of red brick with white limestone and painted wood. Its style comes from the villas (fancy houses) found in Tuscany in Northern Italy. These Italian villas often have a balanced, boxy shape with a flat roof.
Look closely at the roofline! You'll see large, decorative pieces called eave brackets. On the Race House, these are extra big, fancy, and arranged in pairs. This was very common for Italianate homes of that time.
The windows on the second floor are also very interesting. They are tall and thin. Each window has a semi-circular arch above it, with a noticeable limestone keystone (the wedge-shaped stone at the top of the arch).
Changes Over Time
The first floor of the house has been changed. This probably happened when the house was moved in the early 1900s. A large bay window (a window that sticks out from the main wall of the house) was added. This bay window replaced two tall windows that used to be there. You can still see where the original windows were by looking at the Indiana Limestone blocks on the first floor. The front doors were also likely changed around this time.
The front porch you see today is not the original one. It was built in 2001 and looks like the porch that was there before. The original house had a cast-iron staircase leading to the front doors.
It's believed that the windows, porch, and doors were all updated when the house was moved. This was done to match the popular styles of the late Victorian era.
To really understand this house, it's good to remember that it was moved from its first spot on Irving Park Boulevard. It used to be on a much larger, landscaped lot. The house is still on part of its original land, but it was turned 90 degrees. So, instead of facing north, it now faces west. It was moved because Irving Park Boulevard became more of a business area. The house and its land used to take up half of a city block. Where the house is now was probably where the stables and other small buildings used to be.
During this time, the Charles T. Race home, which was next to Stephen's house, was torn down because of the new businesses. Even though the Stephen A. Race House has changed a bit in nearly 140 years, these changes haven't hurt its overall architectural look. Later owners, like Mark Gregory Jones and Bradley Maury (who bought it in 2002), did a lot of work to restore and update the house. They even turned the unfinished attic into a master bedroom!
The beautiful stained glass in the front living room window was put in in 2002. It's a copy of the original stained glass, but with different colors. The owners found an old black and white photo that helped them recreate it.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the house was empty and falling apart, some things were stolen. These included four white Carrara marble fireplace mantels and the newel post (the main post at the bottom of a staircase) in the front hall. Luckily, all the fireplaces have been replaced with similar ones from that time, and a new newel post was added. The wood details throughout the house are painted and have a strong, fancy style, which is typical for Italianate homes of this period.
