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firm active: 1907-1921 minneapolis, minnesota :: chicago, illinois |
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Charles A. Purcell Residence #1
Purcell and Feick
River Forest, Illinois 1909
Text by William Gray Purcell
Parabiographies entry, Volume for 1909
Job Date (in Parabiographies entry): May 25, 1909
C. A. PURCELL, River Forest, Illinois
This was the first of our dwellings with a planned-for garage. Design wholly by W.G.P. I went often to Chicago in '08 and '09--and always saw G.G.E. in friendly contact.
Even now, in 1941, as I visualize it, this house is fairly undated, a livable plan by current standards, a good home. Had a very difficult time developing this design and had no time to get help from G.G.E.; indeed the project had given me so much trouble finding a solution that it became a matter of conscience not to retreat from it and to accomplish the result unaided. My first attempts grew too large and costly. At last, in desperation, the basis of a real idea came to view in a little $4,000 frame house by my Oak Park friend, Charles E. White, in the Ladies' Home Journal. Nothing of White's plan but the general room relation was retained, but it held the project within bounds. The contract price was $12,500 with about $1,000 worth of added orders in the way of slate roof, tile baths, plumbing, etc. The house stood in a $3,000 lot, making a total cost of $15,500. Eighteen years later, in 1927, this house was sold for $30,000--1927 was nearly the top of the pre-depression market.
Collection: William Gray Purcell Papers, Northwest Architectural Archives, University of Minnesota [AR:B4d1.3]
research courtesy mark hammons