James Charnley was a close friend of Louis Sullivan. The Charnleys probably first became acquainted with Sullivan through their connections with the Illinois Central Railroad. Mrs. Charnley's father and Sullivan's brother both held executive positions at the railroad, and it seems likely they would have met through these connections. In 1890, Sullivan and/or Wright designed adjoining winter cottages for the Charnleys and Sullivan in Ocean Springs, Mississippi which were severely damaged or destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina (
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While working for Sullivan, Wright designed a number of domestic residences between 1888 and 1892, some authorized and others not while “moonlighting” on his own. The house was completed shortly before his departure from the firm. In the Charnley House, Sullivan and Wright rejected the historical details common to Victorian architecture in favor of abstract forms that later became the hallmarks of modern architecture. The exterior of Charnley House is a virtually unadorned brick and limestone structure that commands its corner location. The street entrance vaguely foreshadows the entrance to the Winslow house while the third-story balcony exudes classic Sullivanesque filigree. The dramatic interior of the house is dominated by an atrium that soars from the oak-paneled and mosaic-tiled entry to a skylight two floors above. The house is symmetrical in plan, with one room located on either side of the central atrium on each floor (
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The Charnley family lived in their Astor Street residence for just ten years before retiring to Camden, South Carolina, where James Charnley died in 1905. His wife and son spent the remainder of their lives living in Europe where both appeared to have died in 1927 and there were no descendants.
The Charnley House has had a number of owners over the years. The Charnleys rented out the house for several years, and eventually sold to the final tenant, Redmond Stephens, in 1911. He in turn sold to James Waller in 1918. Two generations of the Waller family would occupy the home for the next fifty-one years. It appears likely that the Wallers at some point had the intention of razing the house and constructing a large high-rise on a series of adjoining properties including the Charnley property. However, with the start of the Great Depression and World War II, these plans were abandoned.
In the late 1970s, the house found a sympathetic owner in Lowell Wohlfiel, who began a restoration of the building. He in turn, sold to the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who undertook a major restoration completed in 1988. This returned the house by-and-large to its original 1892 appearance.
Chicago developer and architectural historian Seymour Perskey subsequently purchased it and gifted it to the Society of Architectural Historians. The house is currently used as their headquarters and a house museum.
Public tours of the Charnley House are available by admission on a regular basis on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with appointments available any day of the week for groups of ten or more. Photography is allowed.