Cypress Log Cabin | |
Location | 215 Lake Front Dr., Beverly Shores, Indiana |
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Coordinates | 41°41′3″N87°0′6″W / 41.68417°N 87.00167°W |
Built | 1933 |
Architect | Murray D. Hetherington |
Architectural style | Log home |
Part of | Beverly Shores-Century of Progress Architectural District [1] (ID86001472) |
Added to NRHP | June 30, 1986 |
Both the Cypress Log Cabin and the Cypress Guest house are historic buildings in the Century of Progress Architectural District in Beverly Shores, Indiana. The houses were sponsored by Southern Cypress Manufacturer's Association, Jacksonville, Florida. The Cypress Cabin was purchased by the Zimmernam Estate represented by Zimmerman, Saxe and MacBride, Chicago architects. It was planned to move the house to St. Joseph, Michigan, where it was to be a summer home near the Bolton exhibit building of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The move included the Cabin, Guest House and other landscape elements. That move never happened and Robert Bartlett trucked the Cabin and Guest House to Beverly Shores. [2] [3] Bartlett owned the property until 1942, when sold it to Ida J. Osterburg. The house changed owners several times, until it was purchased by the National Park Service in October 1970, becoming part of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. [3]
The Cypress Log Cabin was built for the 1933–34 exhibition house to demonstrate the many uses of cypress. The house was built using traditional materials rather than the experimental materials used elsewhere in the exhibition. [4] During both seasons of the fair, Mr. and Mrs. B.R. Ellis from the Southern Cypress Association lived in the ell of the house. [4]
The Guest House was added to the Home and Industrial Arts Group for the 1934 exposition year. It was used as a display building showing historic uses of cypress, such as a 150-year-old Seminole Indian canoe, 200-year-old Spanish prison stock and a 120-year-old French water main from New Orleans . [4] The Guest House was one of several changes in the Home and Industrial Arts Group landscape for the 1934 season.
In the winter and spring of 1934, sixteen buildings barged and trucked to Robert Bartlett's subdivision at Beverly Shores, Indiana. In an attempt to capitalize on the fairs success, Bartlett reestablished a small exhibition of model houses along Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores. Depression-era America had responded the Chicago Century of Progress exhibition and Bartlett hoped to transfer that positive interest to his development. [4] The Cypress Log Cabin was moved to Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores along with four other houses from the Home and Industrial Arts Group. The exhibition site had been landscaped by the James W. Owen Nurseries. Robert Bartlett planned "to reconstruct and landscape them for sale exactly as they were on the Fair grounds." Bartlett neither replicated the fair landscape nor did adapted individual themes for each house. The by grouping the house along Lake Front Drive, Bartlett managed to recreate a sense of an "exhibition group". [4] Three of the exhibition homes were lined up on the south side of Lake Front atop a dune. A retaining wall was created to run the length of Lake Front from the Armco-Ferro House, past the House of Tomorrow to the Cypress Log Cabin. A flight of twenty-seven stairs in front of each house leads to the yard in front of each house with a walkway connecting all three. [3]
The house is an intentionally rustic mountain cabin set in a picturesque, asymmetrical landscape. In contrast to many of the model houses that featured modern building materials, the Cypress House was intended to exhibit the diverse possibilities for building with a traditional material. The house was meant to be a display space rather than a model home arranged to look as if someone lived there. Ironically, the Cypress House was the only building in the Home and Industrial Arts group that actually served as a home; the ell was occupied for both seasons by the house's sponsor and his wife. [4] The Cypress House had a complex landscape scheme formed from an assemblage of fences, arbors, bridges and decorated cypress knees used to create a mountain lodge atmosphere. For the 1933 season of the fair, the only major outbuilding was a greenhouse built by Lord & Burnham. For the 1934 season, the Southern Cypress Association applied for additional land in the former Dahlia Garden to construct a second greenhouse by Lord & Burnham's main competitor, the American Moninger Company. This request was denied and most of the Dahlia Garden land was given to the Kohler company. The Lord & Burnham greenhouse was removed for the 1934 season and a new building was built that extended slightly into the Dahlia Garden. This may have been the Guest House, then functioning as a cypress workshop. [3]
An outbuilding of the Cypress Log Cabin, the Guest House was originally a part of the Home and Industrial Arts Group at the 1933–34 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. The structure was moved to Beverly Shores, Indiana by Robert Bartlett, a real-estate developer who purchased the houses after the close of the fair
Characterized as a rustic style mountain lodge, the house is 87 by 18 feet (26.5 by 5.5 m) on concrete footings. The walls are made of pecky cypress log siding. The building is of frame construction with log and ship-lap siding. Porches were added when the buildings were moved to Beverly Shores. [3]
The house is a long narrow, single room width rectangle. The living spaces are arranged in a symmetrical pattern around of a central living space. Entering the central living space from the north, the kitchen is to the right or west with a bedroom beyond it. To the left or east are two bedrooms and a bathroom. At the far west end of the structure is a utility room accessible only from the outside [3]
Restoration efforts on the Cyprus Log Cabin were started in 1997. The home is now fully restored and occupied by long-term renters who obtained a 30-year lease from the park service in exchange for restoration and maintenance of the home.
Daniel Hudson Burnham was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the Beaux-Arts movement, he may have been "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ever produced."
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A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), celebrated the city's centennial. Designed largely in Art Deco style, the theme of the fair was technological innovation, and its motto was "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms", trumpeting the message that science and American life were wedded. Its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one side of the fair to the other.
A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a period of time, typically between three and six months.
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Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about 36 miles (58 km) east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census.
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Burnham and Root was one of Chicago's most famous architectural companies of the nineteenth century. It was established by Daniel Hudson Burnham and John Wellborn Root.
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The Century of Progress Architectural District is a historic district in Beverly Shores, Indiana. The district is on Lake Shore Drive within the Indiana Dunes National Park. The district comprises five buildings, all from the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition of the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair which took place in Chicago. Intended to display the future of housing, the Century of Progress Homes reflect a variety of designs, experimental materials and new technologies. On June 30, 1986, the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Beverly Shores–Century of Progress Architectural District.
The Armco-Ferro House, in the Century of Progress Architectural District in Beverly Shores, Indiana, was originally constructed for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. "The ... Exposition opened in May of 1933 directed by the theme of science and its role in industrial advancement. Within the Home and Industrial Arts Group were model houses, which featured modern materials, building methods and innovative home appliances, including the Armco-Ferro-Mayflower, Wieboldt-Rostone and Florida Tropical houses, and the House of Tomorrow. All utilized new techniques of design, construction and prefabrication in an attempt to bring the out-of-date housing industry in line with more efficient manufacturing practices such as those used by the auto industry." The Home and Industrial Arts Group was the most successful venue of the Exposition. The Armco-Ferro House was designed by Robert Smith, Jr., of Cleveland, Ohio. It is the only remaining example from the exposition that met the Fair Committee's design criteria; a house that could be mass-produced and was affordable for an American family of modest means..
From research completed by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS): The Ferro Enamel Corporation, one of the two major sponsors for the ... house, was formed in 1930 by a merger between the Ferro Enameling Company and the Ferro Enamel and Supply Co. The idea of using porcelain enamel for residential construction was introduced by Bob Weaver, president of the newly formed company. Shortly after the merger, Charles Bacon Rowley, architect, designed a four-person house with Ferro-Enamel shingles that the company erected in Cleveland, Ohio, in July 1932.31 Despite the innovative use of ferroenamel as a cladding material, the house was built using conventional wood construction. The first porcelain-enameled frameless steel house was completed ... in South Euclid, Ohio ... Like the Armco-Ferro house, this house was designed by Robert Smith, Jr., and was built by Insulated Steel Corporation; ... In 1932, the American Rolling Mill Company (Armco) ... built a second porcelainenameled frameless steel house ... using Robert Smith, Jr. as architect. The Ferro Enamel Corporation and the Insulated Steel Construction Company collaborated with Armco, thus setting the stage for the partnership that made the Century of Progress home possible.
The Wieboldt-Rostone House is a historic building in the Century of Progress Architectural District in Beverly Shores, Indiana. The home was built in 1933, framed in steel, and clad with an artificial stone called Rostone. Billed as never needing repairs, it only lasted without renovations until the 1950s.
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