Gold Coast Chicago Part 1 (Nov 2023)
- condiscoacademy
- Nov 19, 2023
- 14 min read
Updated: Aug 21, 2024
In an earlier series, I explored Chicago's Old Town neighborhood where I have a second home (I live in India now). In this series, I explore the glamorous Gold Coast neighborhood, which is adjacent to Old Town.
Below are the boundaries of Gold Coast as per Google Maps (though there is no official arbiter of neighborhood boundaries in the city):
Clark Street on the West and Lakeshore Drive on the East
North Avenue on the North and Oak Street on the South
Source: adapted from Google Maps
As with the earlier Old Town posts, this three-part Gold Coast series is structured around streets, covering the North South (N-S) ones in the first two posts and concluding with the East-West (E-W) streets in the third post.
N-S Street 1: Lakeshore Drive
I began walking on Lakeshore Drive from the Oak Street side towards the North Avenue end (refer map above). Chicago is flanked on the east by its crown jewel, Lake Michigan, and alongside it, Lakeshore Drive, an iconic street that extends nearly 16 miles across the city. The Gold Coast stretch of Lakeshore Drive is only about a mile and hence, easily walkable.
At the intersection of Lakeshore Drive and Oak Street, one can see two landmarks of the city-the Drake Hotel and behind it, the John Hancock Tower (the second tallest building of the city):
During my years in Chicago, catching sight of The Drake on the skyline while driving down Lakeshore Drive always gave me a thrill.
Lakeshore Drive is an eight-lane expressway flanked by the lake on one side and tall buildings on the other. The view of the skyscrapers along this curvy road from the lake is stunning:
While today most buildings on Lakeshore Drive are either tall condominium towers or non-residential buildings (example, the Polish consulate), incredibly, there are five private residential mansions (1250, 1254, 1258, 1260 and 1516 N. Lakeshore). Each one of these is spectacular:
These mansions were built towards the end of the 19th century, when Lakeshore Drive was known for its stately homes. Over time, these mansions were demolished and humanity was densely packed into tall residential towers. These surviving mansions had descended into disrepair and were restored by wealthy buyers to their former glory in the late 20th century.
Walking just a little further from these mansions, one comes across a tall apartment building:
While the apartment tower itself does not have any historical importance, its address (1350 North Lakeshore Drive) is significant. This site hosted the Palmer Castle, a luxurious 42-room mansion built by the wealthy Chicago real estate developer Potter Palmer in 1882 (the home was eventually demolished in 1950).
Earlier, in this career, Potter Palmer constructed the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago in 1871 as a gift for his much younger (23 years) wife Bertha. But the hotel was destroyed in the great fire just 13 days later. When the hotel was rebuilt, the couple moved into a suite in the hotel (at the time this blog is written, the hotel is run by the Hilton group). Eventually, the couple moved to this newly constructed home in Gold Coast. At that time, this area north of downtown was considered to be a backwater. By building a luxury home here, Potter Palmer made the Gold Coast neighborhood an aspirational destination.
Bertha Palmer became an avid art collector and the paintings were displayed in an art gallery within the Palmer Castle. The Impressionist paintings from her collection (Monet, Degas, Renoir), are housed today at the Chicago Art Institute. Potter Palmer bequeathed his entire wealth to his wife. This was unusual for the time as people worried that if the widow remarried, the wealth may accrue to the new spouse. This must have been a particularly salient issue for Potter as Bertha was much younger than him. Potter's lawyers need not have worried since Bertha never remarried! The Palmer story is reminiscent of George Elliot's Middlemarch, in which Dorothea Casaubon's husband incorporates a provision in his will that she will be disinherited if she married his cousin Will Ladislaw (a wicked insinuation of adultery made by the husband from beyond the grave). Mercifully, Potter Palmer had no such caveats attached to the inheritance!
The significance of the 1350 Lakeshore Drive address for the city lies in the fact that Potter Palmer convinced the city to build Lakeshore Drive connecting downtown to his mansion. Lakeshore Drive was built as an unpaved road and was used by the city's wealthy for walks and buggy rides. If Potter Palmer came back from the dead today, he would be surprised to see the transformation of the road to a heavily motorized expressway. He would also be disheartened to see that his mansion has been razed down and now houses the hoi polloi!
Shelley's traveler from the antique land found a statue of a great king in the desert:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
You can substitute the first line above with:
My name is Potter Palmer (or Donald Trump?), King of Real Estate
Thankfully, Shelley's modern day traveller on Lakeshore Drive would find something less depressing (an apartment tower), though not as grand as the Palmer Castle! Some great information about the Palmer mansion can be found here.
I wondered about the life stories of the people who lived in these flats and mansions. Growing up in 1980s India, flying was unaffordable, so we mostly traveled by train. As our train passed towns and villages, I could glimpse into homes right by the tracks. As a child, I was fascinated by the thought that while I was on a journey, their day would unfold in ordinary routines—work, school, and gossip with neighbors. Looking back, I can now relate my childhood love for classic English Literature to this curiosity about the interior and exterior lives of strangers (as well as British colonialism of course!).
Whenever you engage in conversation beyond small talk with a stranger or casual acquaintance, you often walk away with a life lesson. We all have a fundamental need to be understood, yet modern etiquette compels us to wear a mask. If someone outside our inner circle shares something personal, we might sneer at them for oversharing. This isn't just a Western phenomenon; in India, people often hide pregnancies until it's too obvious to conceal. Indian films may idealize the joint family, but if these families were truly perfect, why are there so many property disputes in Indian courts? In the past, people maintained a stoic silence about their private lives; now, many engage in active deception on social media. Despite the social stigma, there's a deep-seated need to reveal our vulnerabilities, and people will do so if they trust they won't be judged.
I was awakened from my reverie by the sight of some beautiful flowers in front of a condominium tower:
Walking further along on Lakeshore Drive one comes across the International Museum of Surgical Science:
It is a testament to the greatness of Chicago that such lesser known museums are strewn all over the city. The most prominent exhibit on the ground floor of the museum is the replica of an early American apothecary:
Apothecaries were equivalent to today's chemists. In Jane Austen's Emma, Mr. Wodehouse is constantly consulting Mr. Perry, who is an apothecary rather than a doctor. Funnily, in India, even today, people bypass doctors for minor ailments and get their medications from the chemists! Mr. Perry would do a roaring business in India!
For the vast majority of human history, medicine caused more harm to patients than good. One shelf of this apothecary is filled with tinctures consisting of medicinal substances dissolved in alcohol ( given the state of medicine at that time, people would have been better served by the alcohol without the adulteration):
The subject of this museum is a poignant one and we are reminded of it through the painting of a medieval hospital:
The poignancy of primitive medicine lies in the great human suffering of losing your loved ones. The covid pandemic was considered a big event in modern times. But read the classics and death is everywhere. In Wuthering Heights, Catherine Earnshaw has a fever and her suitor, Edgar Linton's parents die within days of catching the disease from her. Just like that! And it is not even a significant plot point in the book! The author just moves on with barely a mention about these deaths. In Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, village women suffering from nervous breakdown are simply referred to as shriekers. In a moving scene from the classic Russian novel, a woman seeks solace from her priest after losing her fourth and final surviving child. So much grief and suffering! If only these people had been born two centuries later!
Today, even though we have a higher life expectancy, we consider death to be inevitable. Yet, science may one day solve the problem of mortality. While people would still die from accidents, they will not die of aging and disease. A couple of hundred years from now, our near immortal progeny may feel the same way about us as we feel about the fragility of our ancestors' lives. In Buddhism, death gives life meaning. The crypto billionaire entrepreneur Vitalik Buterin refers to our relationship with death as Stockholm Syndrome, in which the victims of kidnapping develop trust and affection for their captors. Vitalik's point was that just like the hostage sees virtue in the captor as a coping mechanism born out of necessity, we see virtue in death because we think it is inevitable. How would Buddhist teachings evolve in a post death world? If people do not die, how can they escape the cycle of birth and death!
The museum has a library consisting of medical books across centuries:
One of the titles the library houses was published in 1708:
The Nature of Uncleanness Consider'd: Wherein Is Discoursed of the Causes and Consequences of This Sin, and the Duties of Such As Are Under the Guilt
While it's easy to laugh at the book's title and what it might suggest, it represents the timeless human quest for a happier and healthier life, though its solutions were limited by the knowledge of its era. During my visit to the museum, I learned that one significant constraint on medical knowledge was ancient laws, dating back to Greece and Rome, that prohibited the dissection of human cadavers. Although these laws were somewhat relaxed during the Renaissance (1300-1500 AD), the legal supply of bodies remained insufficient, making grave robbing a profitable trade. It's fascinating how recent debates on stem cell research echo these ancient controversies.
For me, the best exhibit in the museum was a collection of skulls dating back to 2000 BC and donated from an excavation site by the Peruvian government to the museum:
These skulls were used in a process called trephining that is considered to be the oldest known form of surgery, in which a hole was bored into the skull. Below is a verbatim replication of the inscription that accompanies this exhibit:
While it is been used to treat an array of neurological disorders throughout human history. It is not known if the procedure held a ritualistic, magical, or therapeutic function among prehistoric peoples. In the 1950's, the Peruvian surgeon Francisco Graña endeavored to put the argument to rest by performing a modern medical procedure, cleaning a pool of blood, or a subdural hematoma off the patient's injured brain using ancient instruments . The successful surgery made global news and demonstrated that the practice may indeed have been a medical merit to ancient peoples.
Nothing makes ones problems feel transient than a bunch of 2000 year old human skeletons! With this cheerful thought, I resumed my insouciant perambulations. Walking just a few steps ahead, I found myself in front of the Polish consulate:
I've noticed that writing helps me be more precise. In the past, I often referred to this building as the Polish Embassy, but technically, embassies are located in a host country's capital. So, the Polish Embassy is in D.C., while the establishment in Chicago is a consulate. The consulate building was originally a private residence known as Eckhart Mansion, which opened in 1916 and was later purchased and remodeled by the Polish consulate in the 1970s.
It's no surprise that Poland maintains a significant consulate here, as Chicago is a major hub for Polish immigrants. According to the internet, Chicago has the second-largest Polish population after Warsaw. When I first arrived in the United States, my initial friends at work were two Polish colleagues who warmly welcomed me and even invited me to their weddings.
The stretch of Lakeshore Drive I was walking on is referred to as the Seven Houses on Lake Shore Drive District and was designated as a Chicago Landmark by the city in 1989. The seven houses are:
the 5 private residences referred to earlier (1250, 1254, 1258, 1260 and 1516 N Lakeshore)
the surgical science museum at 1524 N Lakeshore
the Polish consulate at 1530 N Lakeshore
N-S Street 2: Astor Street
Running parallel right next to Lakeshore Drive is the luxurious Astor Street:
Astor Street became popular with wealthy Chicagoans after Potter Palmer (mentioned earlier) built his mansion on Lakeshore Drive. The street derives its name from John Jacob Astor, one of the richest American citizens of all times. One of Mr. Astor's descendants famously became the wealthiest man to die on the Titanic.
Many of the homes on Astor Street were constructed between 1880 and 1940:
There is no shortage of beautiful homes on Astor but the one below is my favorite:
One of the homes of significance is the relatively plain looking exterior of James Charlney Residence at 1365 North Astor built in 1892 for a wealthy lumberman:
The building was designed by the famous architect Louis Sullivan, with a young Frank Lloyd Wright apprenticing for him. This building is very different visually from the other homes featured in this series that were built around the same time. The other homes look like miniature European castles that extend to the sky vertically. But the Charnley Persky House emphasizes the horizontal and is symmetric around its entry door at the center. This is now a museum with tours open to the public. This post ends with a section devoted to this house.
Being October, many of the homes displayed Halloween decorations, which added to the old and eerie vibe of Astor Street:
While the homes on Astor Street have a low rise vintage feel, the 25 story Astor Tower stands out as a modern high-rise:
I have always assumed it to be just another condo building. Now while researching the neighborhood, I am discovering that even the modern buildings of Gold Coast have a story. The Astor Tower opened as an all-suite luxury hotel in 1963 before it was converted to condominiums in 1979. It was frequented by Hollywood celebrities and its basement hosted a restaurant modelled after the legendary Maxim's of Paris. Some great information about this building can be found here.
An interesting piece of trivia about Astor Tower is that John Lennon once held a press conference in a suite here, where he apologized for his controversial remark, "We’re more popular than Jesus," made during an interview with a London magazine. It's wild to imagine that if this building were still a luxury hotel, I might have spotted celebrities during my countless walks by. But in that scenario, I likely couldn't have afforded to live in Chicago's version of Rodeo Drive. The arrival of people like me was possibly heralded as the neighborhood going to the dogs by the jet-setters who had lived here.
The Charnley Persky House on Astor Street
There are two ways to enter the house. The main door leads to a small staircase and a beautiful fireplace:
There is an alternate basement entrance that was used by the servants:
The basement housed the kitchen, laundry and the boiler heating system. You can see the heavy duty concrete kitchen sink below that is the original fitting of the house:
The home is perfectly symmetric. Each of the three main floors have a room on the left and right. The ground floor has two rooms- a dining room and a living room (note the furniture is not original)
Dining Room
A neat little feature of the dining room is the peephole on the door of the butler pantry from where the servants could determine if the family needed something:
Living Room
It gave me goosebumps to imagine the family living inside. What did they eat and drink? How did they entertain themselves?
Apart from the two rooms at the ground level, there are two alcoves (one on each side to keep the symmetry):
What did the family use the alcoves for ? No one knows! The Charnley family was very private and not like the Hollywood stars who show their home's interiors on the pages of the Architecture Digest! Hence, the builders who were restoring the building did not have much insight into the interior design but could restore the outdoor through the published papers of Adler and Sullivan. Incidentally, gossip columnists believe that a spread in the Architectural Digest magazine is a sign of an impending divorce, indicating that the celebrity couple in question, is raising the profile of their property as a prelude to a sale!
A great feature of this home is a sunroof:
I had never seen a sunroof in a residential building. The strangest architectural thing I saw once was a sunroof built right above the bed in a hotel room. My friend, who was jetlagged, could not sleep because of it.
The most striking thing about the house is the wooden screen behind which the stairs to the upper floors (bedrooms) are visible:
The extremely knowledgeable docent shared the following facts about the home:
James Charnley was a wealthy man who made his fortune in lumber. He moved to Chicago from Philadelphia, as the Illinois Central Railroad was at the epicenter of moving freight around the country. He, in fact, married the daughter of John Madison Douglas, the President of Illinois Central. Their first house in Chicago was not this house. In that first house, their two daughters died of diphtheria. Understandably, they wanted to move out of that house and hence, commissioned the famous firm of Adler and Sullivan to design a home for them. By this time, Potter Palmer had made this neighborhood aspirational and hence, wealthy folks like the Charnleys were open to moving to this area.
The building was designed by the famous architect Louis Sullivan. However, the plaque placed by city credits the design to both Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright claimed in his autobiography that he solely designed the house but most architecture historians believe that Mr. Wright was exaggerating his contributions as an employee of the firm. Since Louis Sullivan had died by the time Frank Lloyd Wright published his autobiography, there was no one to contradict his claims.
The Charnleys lived in this house only for about a decade and subsequently, the home was sold several times. In 1995, the philanthropist Seymour Persky bought the house and donated it to the Society of Architectural Historians.
While the house is big with a basement and three overground floors, the Charnleys were a small family of three (the couple and their surviving son) who lived in it along with servants.
Unlike the ornate interiors of contemporary homes of that era, Louis Sullivan designed something spartan for them. How would the rich man have reacted to the simplicity that was inconsistent with the prevailing styles?
The house had both gas and electricity. This is common in the US today. For instance, my washer-dryer, HVAC system and cooking stove works with gas while the lighting is electric. However, at the time this home was built, electricity was new. Hence, rich people incorporated electricity in their homes as a marker of wealth.
At the time this home was built, only 1 percent had indoor bathrooms. In contrast, all four bedrooms at the Charnley House had attached bathrooms!
The Gold Coast is lined with opulent homes that I could only admire from the outside, as they are private residences. However, thanks to the generosity of a philanthropist, I had the chance to tour one home from the inside—the Charnley-Persky House. The experience offered two insights that apply to all homes:
First, there's truth in the often-misquoted saying attributed to Hemingway: "The rich are different from you and me; they have more money." No matter how luxurious these Gold Coast homes are, the core purpose of any home remains the same, whether for the affluent or the everyday person: to support the rhythm of life for its occupants. This includes basic activities like bathing, eating, and sleeping, as well as leisure pursuits like conversation and reading. In the post-COVID era, working from home has become crucial But as far back as the late 19th century men (at that time it was mostly men) would bring home files and write professional correspondence.
Second, homes are living entities. Even without structural changes, the way a space is used evolves with its occupants. Each home adapts to meet the needs of those living in it at a particular stage of their lives. People's lives are constantly in flux. The Charnley Home, for example, was built with great care and fanfare, serving as a physical and emotional refuge for a family that had experienced great tragedy. But after a decade, the family moved on, and so did the purpose of the home.
I had walked quite a bit and it was time to call it a day. Click here for the next installment of these Gold Coast chronicles. I am signing off with a picture of the Hope and Help statue outside the Museum of Surgical Sciences, which depicts a surgeon helping a patient:
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