early 20th century multi-story brick residential building with ornamented bay window salvaged shortly before demolition

my team and i just completed salvaging a multi-story early 20th century chicago residential masonry building with protruding ornamented tin bay window integrated with a cornice topped with opposed pier caps and voluted roofline ornament.

the majority of the building's interior underwent several tasteless renovations during its lifespan, so at first glance, we didn't hold much hope in securing anything worthwhile in terms of original details that reflected the craftsmanship when constructed around 1910.

the uppermost floor was mostly unaltered, with the original quartered oak half-mantel, five panel passage doors, "loriane" pattern hardware (fabricated by the p. & f. corbin hardware company) and solid oak wood molding (e.g., window headers, door casing, etc.).

i was pleasantly surprised to discover the original unornamented majolica tile surround along with the copper-plated stamped steel gas insert (manufactured by the chicago-based dawson brothers) replete with fanciful ornament and the original summer cover.

the original staircase was amazingly intact, but since the structure was being demolished the next day and with only a few hours remaining to remove what we could, it sadly become a pile of splinters when the backhoe reached it.

while my salvage team finished taking apart and removing the original elements from the structure's interior, i went extracted a section of wall stud and lathe to add to my historic building materials database. granted, the age of the materials were well outside of my study period, but with the john kent russell house in mind (1855), i wanted to compare and contrast the differences between the materials, with the former dating to the mid-19th century and latter used nearly 60 years later.

the other task i wanted to complete before concluding our salvage at this location (3752 north damen), was to simply remove the voluted tine roofline ornament topped with a deep relief anthemion or palmette. the weathered and worn painted tin exterior architectural artifact had succumb to the elements to some degree - thus making it somewhat fragile, but after carefully cutting away the surrounding tar and an unusual wood framing system anchoring it to the roof, the ornamented tin piece came down intact.

the doors, fireplace, and several other architectural artifacts - both interior and exterior - we then taken back to the shop we i then photographed them in the studio. most of the items can be found in their respective categories on the urban remains website.