Location: 2110 S. Prairie (Moved to 2017 S. Prairie in 2014)
Occupants: Harriet F. Rees, Edson Keith Jr., Rolla W. and Katherine McClure, Patrick Cosgrove, The Prairie House Café, Peter Fung, Martorina family
Life Span: 1888-Present
Architect: Henry Ives Cobb and Charles Sumner Frost
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Keith Edson pres Keith Bros & Co 239 Jacks boul h 2110 Prairie av
Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1880
OBITUARY.
James H. Rees. At 4 o’clock yesterday morning, James H. Rees, one of the old settlers of Chicago, died at his house at 1914 Wabash avenue.
Mr. Rees was born in Stroudsburg, Northampton—now Monroe County, Pa.. April 24, 1813. Hia father being a surveyor, the son, who received his education in the schools and academy of Stroudsburg, early began to learn and practice surveying, and before he had attained his 18th year found himself out. in the woods In charge of a surveying party. Having adopted this business he engaged in it in his own State until August, 1834, when he arrived in Chicago, where be continued in the same line. In 1837, the town having just been incorporated as a city, with William H. Ogden as Mayor, Isaac N. Arnold as City Clerk, and John D. Caton as one of the Aldermen,—names now famous in the annals of the State,—Mr. Rees was appointed City Surveyor, the first one Chicago ever had. About this time the great panic occurred, and for a few years but little business was done in the new city. In he found his calling, and took his initiation in the real-estate business as a clerk in the office of W. B. Ogden, now the oldest house of its kind in the city, where he remained for eight years, traveling much through the State in connection with the duties of his position. He then opened a real-estate business for himself in connection with Edward R. Rucker, and began to get up abstracts of titles. They were, so far as is known, the originators of this plan, which proved so invaluable to the public and profitable to the owners of the same after the great fire of 1871. A few years later he bought out his partner’s interest in the business, and took into partnership in the abstract business S. B. Chase, selling out this branch of the business entirely in 1862 to Chase Brothers. From 1852 to 1856 he had in partnership with him in real-estate business S. H. Kerfoot, then D. P. Slocum, and on the death of the latter his heirs, until 1867, when he took as partner L. H. Pierce, the firm continuing in business to the time of Mr. Rees’ demise as Rees, Pierce & Co.
Mr. Rees handled an immense amount of property during this long period, acquired a large fortune, and stood very high in the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens of Chicago, amongst whom he has lived for forty-six years. He was the oldest real-estate dealer in Chicago, and one of its oldest settlers. He has been connected somewhat with municipal affairs as Alderman, Assessor, etc., and was last year Collector for South Chicago. June 4, 1844, be was married to Harriet Frances, daughter of Zalmon Hanford, Esq., of this city, whom, with one daughter, wife of Mr. L. H. Pierce, his death has bereaved.
Mr. Hees was a man of strong will, inflexible purpose, untirtnir zeal, and remarkable judgment. His integrity was luminous. As a friend, he was loyal and self-sacrificing; as a man, unflinching in the hour of trial and noble in action; as citizen, public-spirited and enterprising: as a Christian, fulll of good works and worthy example,
For several years he has been a sufferer from diabetes, in the usual course of which tubercular consumption supervened. Lately it was evident that he was fast sinking, but his wonderful buoyancy of spirits and inflexible will sustained him so that be went about as usual up to the night of his death.
Yesterday morning at 4 o’clock he arose to get a glass of water and fell, glass in hand, and instantly expired.
Chicago Tribune, June 19 1888
H. F. Rees, three-story dwelling, 20×80, No. 2110 Prairie avenue, to cost $20,000.
- Rees House (arrow), about 1895.
Chicago Tribune, December 13, 1892
Harriet F. Rees, widow of James H. Rees, will be held at her late residence. No. 2110 Prairie avenue. at 1 o’clock p.m., Tuesday. Dec. 13. Burial private. Friends wil pease bomit flowers.
Chicago Tribune, November 9, 2014
By Dahleen Glanton Tribune reporter
On Tuesday, a piece of Chicago history will be moved out of the way to make room for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s vision for the future. The historic Harriet F. Rees House, a fixture at 2110 S. Prairie Ave. for 126 years, has been loaded onto dollies and is waiting to be moved to its new perch a block away and across the street The move is part of Emanuel’s plan to build the McCormick Place entertainment district, which will include a basketball arena for DePaul University, a 1,200-room Marriott hotel and retail development.
The house, built in 1888 by Rees, widow of real estate pioneer and land surveyor James H. Rees, is the last structure standing on the 2100 block of South Prairie. The house was granted landmark status in 2012 by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Moving the 762-ton house will be a monumental job, involving 29 remote-controlled hydraulic dollies with a total of 232 wheels. The total weight, including equipment, is 1,050 tons.
The house will move to the corner and then make a turn to the new site at 2017 S. Prairie. “The biggest thing is preplanning,” said Peter Kuhn, senior project manager of Bulley & Andrews, the firm hired by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to oversee the relocation. “The first thing we did was a subsurface utility investigation, making sure we identified all the utilities underground.” The authority is spending more than $6 million to move the home and the adjacent coach house. The new plot of land cost an additional $1.9 million.
The home won’t change owners, but the authority will also compensate the private owners with $450,000. For the entire length of the 600-foot move along South Prairie, the company laid a series of 9-inch-thick stone on top of the asphalt paving and installed half-inch steel plates over that, Kuhn said. To prepare the house for the move, workers dug around its perimeter and installed 6-by-6-foot beams underneath the first-floor rafters so they could lift the house 8 feet To keep it from slipping off the dollies during the move, they installed vertical and horizontal steel beams around the house, effectively creating a skeleton to hold it in place. On Thursday, workers rotated the house so the front door is facing north, Kuhn said. That way, they won’t have to rotate the house again once it’s in place.
Last month, workers did a practice run, moving the much smaller coach house to its new location. It weighed a mere 185 tons.
Though the relocation will be among one of the heaviest in U.S. history, it won’t set any records. Guinness World Records lists the Fu Gang Building in China’s Guangxi province as the heaviest building moved intact. The 16,689-ton building was moved in 2004.
- Empty Lot at 2110 S. Prairie Ave.
Robinson Fire Insurance Map
1886
Leave a Reply