Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw and Family Papers
Howard Van Doren Shaw, Architect
AIA Gold Medalist Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) designed several campus buildings: Calvin Durand Hall (1908; formerly Calvin Durand Commons), Glen Rowan House (1909; formerly home of the Rev. Clifford W. Barnes, Alice Reid Barnes, and their daughter Lilace Reid Barnes), Hixon Hall (1912; formerly Finley Barrell estate garage and staff lodge to 1940; dining hall, Lake Forest Academy, 1940-48; now houses Alan Carr Theater and Theater Department), and the original four westernmost houses of Campus Circle (1916). The Archives hold Shaw firm plans for Durand Hall and for Glen Rowan. In 1984 Susan Dart (McCutcheon) donated to Special Collections personal and family papers relating to her research on Ragdale, Shaw’s 1898 country place in Lake Forest (Evelyn Shaw McCutcheon and Ragdale, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society, 1980) and on Market Square (Market Square, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society, 1984). In the quarter century since then other donations relating to Shaw and his work has come to Special Collections also:
(1) books from Shaw’s personal library mostly donated by the late Edwin N. Asmann ’27,
(2) the papers (minutes, correspondence, notes, and plans) of the Lake Forest Improvement Trust (LFIT, 1912-1930) that developed Market Square were donated in 1999 by Griffith Grant & Lackie, Realtors, Inc., successor firm to John Griffith, the original local developer. Griffith’s firm, the only surviving tenant in Market Square in 2009, was the rental agent from 1916 to 1968.
(3) the LFIT board minutes (1930-84) donated by former treasurer, Francis Farwell II,
(4) the Ragdale Scrapbook donated by Alice Ryerson Hayes, approximately two-hundred and fifty itemes (photos, plans, articles, bookplates, etc.) assembled and organized after completion of her coauthored (with daughter Susan Moon) Ragdale: a History and Guide, Open Books and the Ragdale Foundation, 1990,
(5) the papers, plans, and correspondence relating to Shaw’s 1925-26 design for Trail Tree, the Glencoe Mr. and Mrs. Joel Spitz estate on Longwood Drive, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Nebenzahl,
(6) materials relating to Shaw’s planned town for Clayton Mark's steel company, Marktown (1917-18), East Chicago, IN, donated by Paul Myers, Historic Marktown,
and
(6) plans of several other Shaw domestic and institutional projects from Paul Bergmann.
In addition, the Special Collections arranged for Shaw’s papers at the Art Institute of Chicago to be microfilmed (positive copies are available) and subsequently subscribed to a limited edition photocopy printing in eight hardbound volumes of this film project by Paul Myers, Historic Marktown. Other research material on Shaw and his projects has come from research on Shaw by Virginia A. Greene, author of The Architecture of Howard Van Doren Shaw, Chicago Review Press, 1998. Further plans have been added to the collection by architect and architectural historian Stuart Cohen.
Shaw Projects (chronological order)
Howard Shaw’s professional architectural drawings for his many commissions are known not to have survived past the early 1930s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s historian and preservationist Susan Dart (McCutcheon) organized an effort to have many Shaw plans in blueprint form contributed to the Burnham Library, Art Institute of Chicago. Since then many Shaw plans have come to Special Collections, in addition to the archival plans for Durand Hall and Glen Rowan.
Ragdale (1898; 1230 North Green Bay Road, Lake Forest; Shaw’s summer place).
Photocopies of the house plans are in the Scrapbook assembled and organized by Alice Ryerson Hayes and donated to Special Collections. In addition, there are original early photographs of the house, the gardens, and the Barnhouse. The Dart collection also has photos and also fabric samples.
Havenwood I (1906; ca. 990 North Sheridan Road; Lake Forest; Edward L. Ryerson’s first Lake Forest Havenwood estate, later home to George Thorne and Reuben H. Donnelley).
Blueprints of the service buildings, with what perhaps are pencil details by Shaw. Donated by Paul Bergmann, son of William Bergmann who was architect Stanley D. Anderson’s last partner and successor. The Anderson firm held the plans from doing subsequent work on the property.
George R. Thorne revised plan for service building, n.d., but after ca. 1912-14. Civil War veteran co-founder of Montgomery Ward mail order business was subsequent owner of Ryerson's original Lake Forest Havenwood. Gift of Paul Bergmann, 2005.
McClernan residence, Highland Park, IL (1908). Gift of Paul Bergmann, 2005.
Calvin Durand Hall, Middle Campus, Lake Forest College (1908; previously Calvin Durand Commons).
Blueprint floor plans for the building, undertaken during the board presidency of Alfred L. Baker, a Shaw client (1898). Historic photographs in Archives photo file.
Glen Rowan (1909; 500 North Sheridan Road, opposite Middle Campus, Lake Forest College; Rev. Clifford W. and Alice Reid Barnes; sold to Lake Forest College 1968 by the Barnes’ daughter, Lilace).
Blueprints acquired from Facilities Management. Historic photographs in Archives photo file.
Louis F. Swift estate, alterations (new wing) to estate house, 255 East Foster Place, Lake Forest (1916; 1899 main house demolished, 1950s).
Market Square (1912-16; Western Avenue, Lake Forest; Lake Forest Improvement Trust, John Griffith, agent; sold to Broadacre Management, 1984).
Town Market blueprints dated December 1912; Market Square blueprints, 1914; both donated by Griffith Grant & Lackie, Realtors, Inc. Market Square (final) plans, 1915, photocopies donated by Susan Dart, 1984; prepared from rental agent blueprints, early 1980s (Gilbert Rayner), whereabouts now unknown. (These photocopies only surviving set? Reproduced in 1984 Market Square book by Dart.) South building plans digitized by Fred Berghorn. Historic photographs and art in Dart Collection; also many in Archives photo file.
J. O. Hinckley estate (1925; Wisconsin Avenue, Lake Forest)
Joel Spitz residence, Longwood Drive, Glencoe, Illinois (1925-26; designed by Shaw and completed by Howard Shaw Associates).