Arts & Entertainment
Meet the ‘Great Gatsby of Chicago,’ an Architect Who Designed Classical Comforts in the Early 20th Century
A postcard of the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Apartments, designed by Benjamin Marshall.
Everyone in Chicago knows the work of architect Benjamin Marshall, even if his name doesn’t carry the weight of Louis Sullivan or Frank Lloyd Wright.
It’s hard to imagine the city without Marshall’s enduring contributions — the South Shore Cultural Center, the Blackstone Hotel, the Drake Hotel and many historic buildings near the Drake on East Lake Shore Drive. He also designed the Edgewater Beach Hotel and Apartments, the Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills and the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook.
Marshall’s career thrived even though one of his early commissions ended in tragedy — the Marshall-designed Iroquois Theater was destroyed by fire one month after it opened in 1903, killing more than 600 people.
He built his reputation by making places of luxury and ambience from a vocabulary of classic styles, including Tudor, Italianate and French Revival. He designed most buildings while working at Marshall and Fox, the architectural firm he ran with Charles Fox from 1905 to 1926.
A postcard of the Drake Hotel, designed by Benjamin Marshall.
Marshall’s own home was a pink stucco mansion in Wilmette with exotic rooms and international motifs. The eccentric house was a hotspot for celebrities of the era, including Harry Houdini, Charlie Chaplin and Ethel Barrymore. It overlooked the lake near the current site of the Baháʼí House of Worship and was razed in 1950.
This year marks 150 years since Marshall’s birth — and 80 years since his death. WTTW News spoke with Jane Lepauw, a realtor and president of the Benjamin Marshall Society, about the man and his legacy.
WTTW News: Architecture fans know Benjamin Marshall. The general public know his buildings but not who built them. Tell us about him.
Jane Lepauw: He was the most famous, celebrated architect of the 1920s to the point where the Prince of Wales, the future king of England, visited him in his home in Wilmette. President Hoover, Fred Astaire and Rudolph Valentino also visited him there — Hollywood celebrities and the social and political elite, not only of Chicago but of the entire United States. That’s how famous he was, and it’s incredible that he’s just fallen under the rug somewhere. It turns out, in my opinion, that most classical architects were forgotten after Chicago started building skyscrapers and became a city known for skyscrapers.
Architect Benjamin Marshall. (Courtesy of the Benjamin Marshall Society)
From Edgewater to South Shore, he really helped to shape the face of Chicago.
Lepauw: Yes, for instance, in 1910 the Blackstone Hotel opened, and it was the tallest building in Chicago at 21 stories. Then in 1911 he started developing East Lake Shore Drive. He was the pioneering architect of East Lake Shore Drive, building most of the buildings, including the Drake Hotel. That was the Chicago that Chicagoans knew, and it was defined by Marshall for many years.
He also designed luxury apartments and homes, many of which are still standing.
Lepauw: I believe he was the first to build what people started calling “mansions in the sky,” where he would put entire homes on one floor, including the servant’s quarters. They were from 7,000 to 9,000 square feet. He was a master of space and volume and scale like no one else.
When I look at some of his buildings — and I’m thinking of 1550 North State Parkway — it looks like it could be in Paris.
Lepauw: You are on target. He was very influenced by French classical architecture. He went to Europe, and he came home with tons of art objects and influences from European countries, but he also visited China, Japan and Greece. 1550 North State Parkway, by the way, is the most French building in all of Chicago. And he’s labeled all of the rooms in French, so it’s the ‘salle a manger’ for the dining room, ‘la chambre’ for the bedroom.
A postcard of the South Shore Country Club, now known as the South Shore Cultural Center, designed by Benjamin Marshall.
He was born in Chicago in 1874 and died in 1944. What else do we know about him?
Lepauw: He was quite a dandy. He was a society architect, no question. He designed his own clothes, would run around in a yellow or white Packard automobile, and he threw the most extraordinary parties in the world. He was known as the Great Gatsby of Chicago.
You started your group to raise awareness about Marshall and his work. What’s next for the Benjamin Marshall Society?
Lepauw: We are going to celebrate with an event at the Drake Hotel at the end of the year, and the City Council just proclaimed an annual Benjamin Marshall Day on his birthday, May 5, so there will be another celebration for that. Marshall is a part of every Chicagoan, and they should know it.
