62-566: The Henry Gerber House is located on North Crilly Court in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois , United States. It is a single-family brick row house built in 1885 in the Queen Anne style , mostly intact from that time. In the 1920s it housed the apartment occupied by German-born Henry Gerber , founder of the short-lived Society for Human Rights , which was incorporated in Illinois as
124-590: A Bavarian -built church and one of seven to survive within the boundaries of the Great Chicago Fire . Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern . Old Town has one Brown-Purple Line 'El' station, at 1536–40 North Sedgwick Street . It is one of the oldest standing stations on
186-399: A block and a half west of Lincoln Park itself and a block north of West North Avenue ( Illinois Route 64 ). The surrounding neighborhood is urban and densely developed, primarily with attached residential two-story houses built in the late 19th century in the architectural styles of that era, on streets lined with shade trees. Reflecting the proximity of Lake Michigan , the neighborhood
248-512: A jig . During the 1960s, the neighborhood was the center of the yippie and hippie counter culture in the midwestern United States. This was mostly because by the 1950s and 1960s, many of the original families that had settled in the neighborhood had moved to the suburbs during white flight , leaving older Victorian buildings with storefronts available to rent inexpensively. A community of Puerto Ricans formed along Wieland, North Park, Sedgwick and west on North Avenue . The Young Lords , then
310-401: A keystone ; a similarly rusticated course continues along the facade to the neighboring houses. On its north is a recessed tripartite single-paned window with sidelights and transom topped by a lintel of splayed rusticated blocks. Another stringcourse separates the first and second floors. It also serves as the sill for the arched north window, with smaller rectangular panes filling the edge of
372-516: A 'neighborhood defense unit' by Chicago's Civil Defense Agency. In the years immediately after the war, the population of "North Town" (as it had come to be known by the 1940s) sponsored annual art fairs called the "Old Town Holiday". The art fairs were popular attractions for the neighborhood, and the name "Old Town" was used in the title of the Old Town Triangle Association when it was formed in 1948, by residents who wanted to improve
434-437: A decorative pattern in the apex. On its north, separating a similar gable on the neighboring house, is a molded finial -topped square pillar rising from a corbel below the frieze. The roof itself is flat, with some modern membrane and mechanical equipment. At the west (rear) the house narrows to 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. Attached to it is a wooden deck , 16 by 9 feet (4.9 by 2.7 m), that does not appear to be original to
496-423: A finial can be a floral or foliated element called a bouquet. Smaller finials in materials such as metal or wood are used as a decorative ornament on the tops or ends of poles or rods such as tent-poles or curtain rods or any object such as a piece of furniture. These are frequently seen on top of bed posts or clocks. Decorative finials are also commonly used to fasten lampshades , and as an ornamental element at
558-658: A house on Burton Place, near Wells Street , into the Carl Street Studios . During the 1930s, an art colony emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the Towertown neighborhood near Washington Square Park . In 1955, upon the first election of Mayor Daley , 43rd ward alderman Paddy Bauler , who kept a saloon in Old Town at North and Sedgwick Avenues called De Luxe Gardens, famously declared "Chicago ain't ready for reform yet" many times over in his bar while dancing
620-499: A resident's sexual activities as long as he or she kept them discreet. The situation for gays and lesbians in 1920s America was not what Gerber had experienced in Germany. The few urban American gay communities (almost exclusively male) that had emerged in the early 20th century were under constant police surveillance and frequently harassed. Gerber found the Chicago gay community, centered on
682-547: A scene on La Salle Avenue in Old Town, which describes the Zeitgeist of the era. Old Town was home to many gays and lesbians from the 1960s through the 1980s. There were numerous gay bars lining Wells Street (all of them closed as of 2013). This was the first "gay ghetto" in Chicago, predating the current Lake View neighborhood (which is the current epicenter of gay life); As the area gentrified, gay residents moved further north to Lincoln Park and then Lake View neighborhoods. During
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#1732869725890744-527: A single point, or bindu. There are two guldastas, or finials, per facade at Humayun's Tomb . Finials are decorative elements in a variety of American domestic architectural styles , including French colonial , Georgian , Victorian , and Romanesque Revival . Roof finials can be made from a variety of materials including clay , metal , or wood . A folklore tradition in the eastern United States portrays finials as discouraging witches on broomsticks from landing locally. A "ball-style" finial
806-422: A staircase. To its west, towards the rear of the house, is the kitchen, with modern sliding glass doors leading out to the deck. Staircases, both original, lead from the rear to the upper floor and basement level. In the basement, drywall covers the original exposed brick walls, laid in running bond , and has also been used to enclose an added bathroom as part of a general modern renovation. Two original doors on
868-404: A street gang with Jose Cha-Cha Jimenez had a branch of their group at Wieland and North Avenues. This dense storefront-laden area (Wells and North Avenues) became also the nexus of hippie culture, (as well as the newly emerging out-homosexual culture) and gave rise to the boutiques ( Crate & Barrel , for example) in the neighborhood today. Seed was a literary staple of the neighborhood at
930-673: A tense racial division during the 1970s and 1980s which left a segregation between Old Town north of North Ave. and Old Town south of North Ave. In the early 2000s, this trend had begun to shift towards a gentrification of the area south of North Ave. on Sedgwick, Blackhawk, Hudson and Mohawk streets, near the Marshall Field Garden Apartments . The area to the west of these streets, near the North and Clybourn Red Line stop had been dubbed "SoNo" by real estate developers. SoNo's boundaries are North Avenue, Halsted Street, Division Street and
992-448: Is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome , spire , tower , roof, or gable or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. A finial is typically carved in stone. Where there are several such elements they may be called pinnacles . The very top of
1054-519: Is as wide as the range of designs with brass, stainless steel, various woods, and aluminum being employed with a variety of finishes such as 'satin steel' and 'antique brass'. The durability, strength, and machinability of modern alloys have lent themselves to increasingly intricate and dazzling designs. During the various dynasties in China, a finial was worn on the tops of the hats civil or military officials wore during formal court ceremonies. The finial
1116-413: Is flat. The building itself is similar to its attached neighbors. A small garden, surrounded by a wrought iron fence, buffers the house from the sidewalk. It is a brick structure, faced in masonry , built on an exposed high brick foundation rising two stories to a flat roof with a small gable on the south. The 63-foot-wide (19 m) east (front) facade has two asymmetrically placed bays . From
1178-533: Is often mounted to the top of a stationary flagpole . The United States Army , Navy , Marine Corps , and Coast Guard employ a variety of different finials depending on the flag in question, the Marines and Coast Guard deferring to the Navy's protocols. Public garden (park) railings often end in finials, and wooden posts tend to have turned wood finials. Turned wood finials are used on various pieces of furniture. While
1240-659: Is shown in a 1927 Hirschfeld photograph alongside similar German and French magazines. Another French magazine, L'Amitié , reviewed the April 1925 issue. The society's brief existence ended in July 1925, when the police raided the house in the early hours of a Sunday morning, accompanied by a reporter from the Chicago American afternoon tabloid newspaper. The investigating officers had found copies of Friendship and Freedom , which led them to North Crilly Court. There they seized copies of
1302-423: Is where you make it. This neighborhood is supposed to be as much a sound as a place, and it's from the bells of St. Michael's Church. The story goes you only really live in Old Town if you can hear them. ... it was said that all who lived within hearing distance of the church's bells were Old Towners . The land known as Old Town originally served as a home and trade center to many Native American nations, including
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#17328697258901364-412: The imperial palace . In Java and Bali , a rooftop finial is known as mustaka or kemuncak . In Thailand finials feature on domestic and religious buildings . Hti is a kind of finial found on Burmese Buddhist temples and pagodas . On Buddhist stupas , the layered umbrella (Skt. chhatra ; Pali: chhatta ) tiers have cosmological significance as representing the realms of heavens or
1426-456: The Great Chicago Fire . In the 19th century, German and Luxembourgish immigrants moved to the meadows north of North Avenue and began farming what had previously been swampland, planting celery, potatoes, and cabbages. This led the area to be nicknamed "The Cabbage Patch", a name which stuck until the early 1900s. During World War II , the triangle formed by North Avenue , Clark Street , and Ogden Avenue (since removed) were designated
1488-765: The Old Town Ale House , Bijou Video , the Old Town School of Folk Music (which moved after the 1968 riots ), the Fudge Pot, the Up Down Tobacco Shop (which used to be located just south of its current location), and the Old Town Aquarium (which moved in 2019 to Irving Park, while keeping its name). After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the subsequent riots , the neighborhood experienced
1550-506: The Potawatomi , Miami , and Illinois . Following the 1833 Treaty of Chicago , most of the indigenous people were forcibly removed, and the land was then settled in the 1850s by German- Catholic immigrants. Clark Street is a leftover of the culture, being an old road which followed a slight ridge along Lake Michigan . Old Town is the site of many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings, as well as St. Michael's Church , originally
1612-533: The 1950s, then a hippie neighborhood the next decade. In 1963 the Crilly family sold the house. In 1977 Old Town was designated a Chicago Landmark District . By the 1980s yuppies had taken over, and gentrification began. In 1984 Old Town was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district ; 1710 North Crilly was included as a contributing property . The current owners of 1710 bought
1674-561: The 1960s and 1970s, Old Town became the center of Chicago folk music , which was experiencing a revival at the time. In 1957, the Old Town School of Folk Music opened at 333 West North Avenue and stayed at that address until 1968, when the school moved to 909 West Armitage Avenue. It has retained the name, although it is no longer located within Old Town. Singer-songwriters such as Bob Gibson , Steve Goodman , Bonnie Koloc , and John Prine played at several clubs on Wells Street, such as The Earl of Old Town. The Old Town School of Folk Music
1736-528: The 20th century, these finials have been replaced by "bulbous domes". Other terms for roof finials include: Tunjuk Langit and Buah Buton ( East Coast ) as well as Buah Gutung ( Kelantan and Terengganu ). The Makhota Atap Masjid finials are made of mixed concrete, and the Buah Buton are made of wood. In Japanese architecture , chigi are finials that were used atop Shinto shrines in Ise and Izumo and
1798-648: The El, built in 1900. In 1924, the first gay rights organization in American history, the Society for Human Rights , was established by Henry Gerber at his home, the Henry Gerber House , on North Crilly Court. The Henry Gerber House was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 6, 2001. In June 2015, it was named a National Historic Landmark . In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilitated
1860-566: The North Branch of the Chicago River. Currently, Old Town south of North Avenue is a mixture of wealth and poverty, though the area is steadily gentrifying. The demolition of the Cabrini–Green high rise housing projects to the south has led to significant demographic changes in the neighborhood. The original Francis X. Cabrini Row Houses still are standing. The Parkside of Old Town development
1922-457: The abused." Late in 1924 he filed incorporation papers with the state of Illinois for a nonprofit he called the Society for Human Rights , giving as its address his own, 1710 North Crilly Court. The society's name was a direct translation of Bund für Menschenrecht , one of the German homophile organizations of the era. Gerber gave little direct hint of its purpose in the charter included in
Henry Gerber House - Misplaced Pages Continue
1984-481: The age of 21, he started going by the name Henry Gerber . When the United States entered World War I against his native Germany, he applied for and received conscientious objector status. As a result, he spent the war years in an internment camp. In 1917 he may have been briefly committed to a mental hospital for treatment of his homosexuality , which may have helped him see it as a component of his identity. After
2046-693: The annual Old Town Art Fair. Noble Horse Theater stood from 1871 until a 2015 arson forced a sale in 2017, and the land was bought and built into condominiums. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) operates public schools for the area. Manierre K–8 School is in "Sedville", a gang territory area in Old Town. As of 2013 , it was considered a low-performing school. In the 2010s, CPS considered merging Jenner K–8 in Cabrini-Green and Manierre together, but concerns involving students crossing gang territorial lines meant that both schools remained open. Finial A finial (from Latin : finis , end) or hip-knob
2108-448: The arch. It has the same rusticated arch treatment as the main entrance. On its south is a two-pane horizontal casement window with a plain stone sill. Above both second-story windows is a molded frieze . The roofline treatment is different. Topping the frieze on the south side is a dentilled cornice below a paneled metal parapet . To its north, above the arched window, is a gable decorated with peaked paneling in its lower portion and
2170-433: The basement level, a casement window with projecting lintel looks out on the garden. A projecting string course separates the basement from the first floor. On the south, stone stairs on the south side of the front garden rise to a small porch in front of the main entrance. Above the door is a round-arched transom window with :1710" in gold lettering, itself surrounded by a round stone arch of rusticated voussoirs with
2232-749: The common late 20th-century trend of gutting the interior of historic houses to create more open space within. This preservation of the original building's integrity helped it gain its Chicago Landmark designation in 2002. It was also cited in the application for National Historic Landmark status, which the National Park Service granted in 2015. Old Town, Chicago Old Town is a neighborhood and historic district in Near North Side and Lincoln Park , Chicago, Illinois , home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings, including St. Michael's Church , one of seven buildings to survive
2294-439: The condition of buildings that were suffering from physical deterioration. In the 1950s, much of Old Town was an enclave for many of the first Puerto Ricans to come to Chicago . They referred to the area as part of "La Clark". No legal entity is known as "Old Town", but claims have been made as to the nature of its legally-unspecified borders: It is important to stress that there is no such legal entity as Old Town. Old Town
2356-495: The culture of the city as a whole was relatively tolerant. On those trips, he may have visited the Institute for Sexual Research , the world's first sexology research center. Founder Magnus Hirschfeld 's advocacy for sexual minorities had inspired German gays of the time to organize for the repeal of German law against sodomy . Gerber would later cite his years in Germany after the war as formative in his later activism. In 1923
2418-471: The east and west lead to the outside. At the top of the stairway to the upper floor is a modern skylight . It is between the two original bedrooms, one of which is now used as an office. In the master bedroom, on the east side, is a small bathroom. On its north is another fireplace. While the house's historical significance comes from its association with Gerber in the mid-1920s, it has a history before and after that period. The area today known as Old Town
2480-436: The end of the handles of souvenir spoons . The charm at the end of a pull chain (such as for a ceiling fan or a lamp ) is also known as a finial. Decorative roof-finials are a common feature of Malaysian religious and residential architecture. In Malacca , Malaysia , there are 38 mosques with traditional roof finials, with layered and crown-shaped designs, which are known as Makhota Atap Masjid . On mosques built after
2542-566: The first American organization working for gay rights . Inspired by nascent gay-rights organizations he had seen in Germany, Gerber held meetings here and published newsletters, the first known gay civil rights periodicals in the country, for a year until the Chicago police raided the house in 1925. The Gerber House was recognized as a contributing property to the Old Town Triangle Chicago Landmark District when that
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2604-493: The house the following year. At some point prior to that year the deck had been added to the rear, like every other house in the neighborhood. The new owners could not move into the house as it is; some restoration was necessary. They had to replace all the flooring on the first floor as it had deteriorated to the point of being unsafe; new handrails were added to the stairs as well. The front steps and vestibule floor tiles also date to this era. Some changes were also made to
2666-401: The house. However, it too is consistent with the other houses in the area. The main entrance is a wooden paneled door with a brass knocker . The arched vestibule it opens into has the original floor tiles. Another transomed doorway opens into the living room, with a fireplace on the north wall. An arched entryway leads into the dining room, with an alcove cut into the south wall beneath
2728-425: The house. Upstairs, the bathroom entrance from the hall was closed, making it more exclusive to the master bedroom it abuts. A skylight was cut in the ceiling over the top of the upper stairs. The small sitting room was expanded, using space originally part of the kitchen to create a larger dining room. In the basement, drywall was installed over the brick and another bathroom was installed. The owners resisted
2790-482: The incorporation application, saying the society's purpose was "to promote and to protect the interests of people who by reasons of mental and physical abnormalities are abused and hindered in the legal pursuit of happiness which is guaranteed them by the Declaration of Independence , and to combat the public prejudices against them by dissemination of facts according to modern science among intellectuals of mature age." It
2852-480: The mail. The legal struggle cost him considerable amounts of money as well as his job with the Post Office, and afterwards he left Chicago for New York. In the 1930s, Old Town experienced a renaissance as the artists and writers who had flocked to Tower Town the preceding decade began moving east. This reputation continued over the ensuing decades as it became known as Old Town. It became a beatnik neighborhood in
2914-417: The nearby neighborhood of Tower Town , flamboyant but less sophisticated than their German counterparts, with no political consciousness. Seeing the United States as being "in a state of chaos and misunderstanding concerning its sex laws," which made sodomy a felony eligible for the death penalty in some states (although that sentence was rarely imposed), he decided to "unravel the tangle and bring relief to
2976-507: The newsletter, the society's records and Gerber's diaries and personal documents. Charges against Gerber were at first heavily prosecuted, but ultimately dismissed at a third trial since the police had not gotten a search warrant before entering the house and seizing evidence. He would never recover the documents seized by postal inspectors looking for evidence of violations of the Comstock laws which forbid sending obscene materials through
3038-551: The occupation ended and Gerber returned to Chicago. He took a job with the Post Office and found room and board nearby at 1710 North Crilly Court. It is likely given his low income that he would have rented the smaller of the two upstairs bedrooms. The house at that time was slightly different in plan, with the first-floor dining room a smaller sitting room off a much larger kitchen, and no rear deck. By then Old Town, known as North Town, had become more ethnically diverse, though it
3100-482: The original houses. Residents mostly decided to rebuild in the same area, making the neighborhood more urban in the process. Developer Daniel Francis Crilly built the houses on the street named after him, including 1710, in 1885 in the emerging Queen Anne Style . He and his family rented it out rather than selling it. Josef Heinrich Dittmar was born in the Bavarian town of Passau in 1892. After emigrating to Chicago at
3162-524: The purpose of finials on bed posts is mostly decorative, they serve a purpose on curtain rods, providing a way to keep a curtain from slipping off the end of a straight rod. Curtain rod finials can be seen to act much like a barometer of public taste. Many designs hark back to the Gothic and Neogothic of architectural finials, while other contemporary finials reflect minimalist , Art Nouveau , and other traditional styles of decor. The use of different materials
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#17328697258903224-556: The time. There is a little piece of Chicago Real Estate, west of Lincoln Park, that is the pride of urban conservationists and the despair of bulldozers. It is a community widely known as Old Town ... Old Town is full of conflict, full of life; a sometimes maddening but always exciting place to live. The violent events that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention transpired primarily in Grant Park , Old Town, and Lincoln Park , adjacent to Old Town. I pointed out that it
3286-456: The trunk of a cosmic tree. Even the stupa itself (comparatively smaller) can be a finial to a Stupa or other Buddhist religious structure . The kalasha is a finial on Hindu temples . In the Dravidian style of temple architecture , the kalasha is placed on top of a dome with an inverted lotus flower shape in between. There may also be lotus petals at the top, before the kalasha narrows to
3348-539: The war ended the following year and he was no longer treated with suspicion as a German, he re-enlisted and was assigned to the occupying forces . Gerber was stationed in Coblenz , where he wrote for and edited an Army newspaper. He came in contact with the thriving German gay culture that had emerged there since the 1890s. Magazines for gays and lesbians circulated freely, and Gerber subscribed to several. He made trips to Berlin , where many gays and lesbians lived openly and
3410-529: Was built replacing the Cabrini-Green high rises just south of Old Town. By 1976, Wells Street in Old Town had many sex-industry businesses operating, so many that Wells street was specifically named in Time Magazine's 1976 article "The Porno Plague". It was thought that some of the businesses had mob connections. Current cultural amenities in the neighborhood include Old Town Triangle Art Center, and
3472-467: Was closely associated with these artists and clubs. One large and successful folk club was Mother Blues, which featured nationally known artists and groups such as Jose Feliciano , Odetta , Oscar Brown Jr. , Josh White , and Chad Mitchell . It also presented comedian George Carlin , Sergio Mendez , Brazil '66 , and The Jefferson Airplane . A few of the institutions from the 1960s era still exist today, such as Crate & Barrel , The Second City ,
3534-495: Was established by the city in 1977, and then when it was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2001. In June 2015 it was named a National Historic Landmark . The house is located amidst a row of similar houses on North Crilly Court, a side street in Old Town , in the Lincoln Park community area , just north of West Eugenie Street
3596-681: Was in the best interests of the City to have us in Lincoln Park ten miles away from the Convention hall. I said we had no intention of marching on the Convention hall, that I didn't particularly think that politics in America could be changed by marches and rallies, that what we were presenting was an alternative life style, and we hoped that people of Chicago would come up, and mingle in Lincoln Park and see what we were about. The film The Weather Underground has
3658-493: Was inside. The group held monthly meetings, at which they decided to work for the repeal of Illinois's sodomy law. As the organization's secretary, Gerber handled all its official correspondence and edited its newsletter, Friendship and Freedom . It is considered the first gay periodical in U.S. history. Only two issues were known to have been published; no copies are extant. Gerber shared it with similar organizations in Europe, and it
3720-431: Was still predominantly German, which Gerber would have found beneficial. Old Town then had a bohemian reputation, tolerant of those on society's political, social or cultural margins. It also had a slightly run-down character, with many of the original single-family homes subdivided into multiple-unit dwellings. There were brothels at either end of North Crilly, making it less likely that the police would care much about
3782-403: Was thus the first formal gay rights organization in American history. Gerber was able to attract about six other men as regular members, most of whom were workingmen like himself. It is likely that they met in the house's basement, as its front and rear entrances made it easy to enter and leave undetected, while the single window could easily be curtained off to prevent onlookers from seeing who
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#17328697258903844-457: Was unsettled marshland ceded to the city by local Ojibwa Native Americans in the 1833 Treaty of Chicago . It remained uninhabited until German refugees began arriving due to unrest there during the 1840s and filled in the wetlands to establish cabbage farms. By the time of the Civil War in the 1860s houses had been built alongside the farms. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed most of
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