This house museum is accessible.
Tours: Wed-Fri, 1pm & 3pm
Clarke House is a rare example of heavy timber framing and Chicago’s only surviving example of Greek Revival domestic architecture. The house retains much of its original 1830s exterior finishing and early 1850s Italianate belvedere. The temple-front porticoes have been re-created to appear as they did prior to removal in 1872.
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Clarke House Museum
1827 South Indiana Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616, USA312-744-3316
Clarke House Museum is the oldest surviving building in the original Chicago city limits and its only example of Greek Revival domestic architecture. Built in 1836 for hardware merchant Henry Brown Clarke and remodeled for his widow in the early 1850s, Clarke House Museum explores family life in pre-Civil War Chicago.
Interior
Exterior
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ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
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DECORATIVE ARTS
Authentic early- to mid-19th-century decorative arts and quality reproduction finishes fill the restored interior spaces of Clarke House Museum. Replicas of 1850s wallpaper, carpets, floorcloths, and other domestic household goods enhance the collection and create a sense of stepping back in time.
FURNITURE
Clarke House's period rooms contain several early- to mid-19th-century furniture styles. On view are examples of American Empire, Gothic Revival, Elizabethan Revival, Rococo Revival and regional vernacular pieces from the collection of The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Illinois.
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FAMILY
The Clarke family’s personal story parallels the national narrative, from westward expansion through the turbulent years just prior to the American Civil War. The Clarke House Museum explores their journey, which reflects the perseverance of the American spirit and Chicago’s early history.
MORE INFO ON HOUSE MUSEUM WEBSITE...PRESERVATION
Moved twice, first in 1872 by the Chrimes family and again in 1977 by the City of Chicago, Clarke House has successfully eluded the effects of sprawl and urban renewal. Many fascinating people, technologies, and techniques were involved in saving and restoring this national landmark.
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HEARTH
Filled with cozy gathering places, the first floor has two restored family sitting rooms and a gracious double parlor for entertaining guests. Clarke House visitors discover why public and private spaces were separated in an 1850s home, and see the house’s only surviving hearth stone in the Northeast Sitting Room.
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CHILDREN
The Clarkes had nine children. Six of them—Henry James, Robert, Mary, Edward, Caroline, and Cyrus—survived to adulthood, and they grew up alongside a young Chicago. Their lives are perfect examples of what it was like to be a child in pre-Civil War Chicago.
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WOMEN
Tours at Clarke House focus on domestic life, with emphasis placed on the importance of women and 1850s household management. Cookery, education, health, entertaining, fashion, childcare, finances, and other issues were of importance to the early Victorian woman.
ETIQUETTE
Chicago families in the 1850s observed certain universal customs when entertaining, visiting, traveling, shopping, and conducting business. The daily life of the Clarkes and their fellow citizens is a fascinating picture of pre-Civil War Chicago.
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SOCIAL ISSUES
In the 1850s, the national conversation buzzed around the Clarke family. These new and divisive topics—from slavery to abolition, women’s rights, temperance, immigration, and nativism— were marks of a rapidly changing world.
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Interior
image credit: James Caulfield
Exterior
image credit: Michael Beasley