turn of the century wrigleyville apartment complex salvaged shortly before demolition last week

a three-story early 20th century yellow brick apartment complex, located in the wrigleyville neighborhood of chicago was demolished late last week. thankfully we had a few weeks to prepare and thoroughly salvage architectural elements from the building's interior.

the majority of the passage and closet doors were comprised of darkly varnished birch with two recessed panels. a combination of pressed ornamented glass and wrought brass doorknobs with matching escutcheons were left largely intact. nearly all of the light fixtures were replaced in the 1950's.

the mostly unornamented "mission" style staircase with squared-shaped spindles, box-shaped newel posts and solid handrails was very well-maintained, with the original finish darkened over time, but intact and mostly uniform nonetheless.

the lavatories and kitchens had been remodeled time and again, and the "faux" brick mantles with wood shelves had been painted over with rather unfavorable colors in all of the units. the vestibule, with french doors, a unique utility door with "florentine" pattern glass, and the multi-pane entrance door with sidelights were carefully removed with hardware intact.

as demolition got underway, we managed to secure the richly ornate and deeply carved neoclassical style plaque mounted above the main entrance. the rectangular carved stone contains a centrally located anthemion flanked by volutes or scrolls and leafage. the nicely aged patina caused by years of prolonged exposure to the elements greatly accentuates the carved detailing. once the stone was carefully extracted from the facade, we noticed a hand-painted black "code" that likely corresponded with a product catalog, thus indicating the stone was likely a readily available "stock" piece possibly fabricated by the the bedford steam stone works, bedford, ind.