Homes built by noted architects aren’t a rare sight in Oak Park, but there aren’t many designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw, whose work is more common in suburbs north of the city. One of Shaw’s designs just hit the market at 406 Linden Ave. and the home is a calling card for his work.
Born in Chicago in 1869, Shaw graduated from Yale in 1890 and studied architecture at MIT, finishing his two-year degree in one year. He then returned to Chicago and worked for the firm Jenney & Mundie, where William Le Baron Jenne was designing early skyscrapers for the city and where noted architects Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan trained.
Shaw left the firm to travel Europe and study the architecture there for two months. After returning, he joined the firm again before starting his own practice in 1894. His first commercial design was the Lakeside Press Building at 731 S. Plymouth Court, and he designed notable buildings in Hyde Park and throughout the North Shore. His summer retreat, Ragdale, in Lake Forest was one of his first forays into the Arts & Crafts movement.
During his early career, Shaw regularly communed with other architects interested in the Arts & Crafts movement. The lunch group, called “The Eighteen” included Frank Lloyd Wright and met regularly at the Steinway Hall. As the group moved towards the Prairie School of architecture, Shaw set himself apart by embracing a European style of architecture.
Greer Haseman of @Properties Christie’s International Real Estate, who is listing 406 Linden for $1.4 million with her teammate Chris Curran, says of Shaw, “He went off to Europe and became enamored with the grand country homes. He also really loved a courtyard and this house, of course, has a beautiful courtyard.”
The gracious stone courtyard of 406 Linden faces south, and Haseman has heard rumors that the home’s lot originally included two neighboring lots, one of which housed tennis courts.
The home spans almost 6,000 square feet and is built of brick and limestone. Inside, the entry foyer is at the center of the house, flanked by a wood-paneled library, a formal dining room and a formal living room, all with original fireplace mantles.
A sunroom on the west side of the house is walled with windows. The breakfast room still sports its original wooden ceiling and stencil patterns.
While the seller gut rehabbed the kitchen Haseman notes of the butler’s pantry, “She told the designer, ‘Don’t touch this.’ It has its original sink and cabinets.”
On the second floor, the primary suite includes a sunroom, large private bathroom and a room that could be used as an office or nursery. Two wings off the main hall bring the total number of bedrooms up to six and bathroom count to five and one half.
The upper two floors showcase many vestiges of the past. The home was so large when it was built, that fire hoses, now-defunct, were installed on the second and third floors. Call boxes for servants are found in two places, and some of the bedrooms have private sinks tucked into their built-in closets.
Haseman notes, “All of these massive homes have ballrooms.” 406 Linden is no exception. The third floor includes a house-spanning room ready for recreation. Another room on this floor is wrapped in built-in storage cabinets. A holdover from the time when the homeowners would swap out their clothing storage by the season.
The seller not only maintained an in-ground pool to the backyard, she also fully rehabbed the basement, moving the pipes up to create higher headroom. There’s plenty of space for recreation and what Haseman calls a “laundry room extraordinaire.”
After living in the house since 1991, the seller is moving on to a new adventure, and Haseman notes, “The sellers before her lived here a long time. It’s a house that beckons you to stay.”
Editor’s note: The photos accompanying this story were virtually staged by the Realtor.