Building Name(s): Standard Club House, Standard Hall
Life Span: 1869-1887
Address: SW corner 13th street and Michigan avenue
Block and Subdivision: 5. Laflin Tract
Architect: J. C. Cochrane & A. H. Piquenard
- Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Standard Club House, Michigan av. sw. cor. 13th
Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1873
Standard Hall, Anton Bruhn, propr. ws. Michigan av. bet. 13th and 14th
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1874
Standard Hall.—Michigan ave. cor. Thirteenth
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1877
Standard Hall.—Michigan av. cor. Thirteenth.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Standard Hall.—Michigan av. cor. Thirteenth.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1887
Standard Hall.—Michigan av. sw. cor. Thirteenth.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1891
Standard Hall.—Michigan av. sw. cor. Thirteenth.
Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1869
THE STANDARD CLUB.
Their Proposed House on Michigan Avenue.
The Standard Club is the tile of an organization of gentlemen who banded together for pleasure and amusement, Mr. Cahn, of the firm of Cahn, Wampold & Co., and Messrs. Rosenberg and Rosenthal are at the head of the movement, and over a hundred gentlemen of wealth and position pre interested in it. At a meeting recently held it was decided to build a club house as a home for the club. Accordingly Messrs. Cochrane & Piquenard, the architects, were instructed to prepare plans for the new budding. The plans were submitted and gave entire satisfaction.
The club house will be located at the corner of Michigan and Thirteenth street. It will be in the French style. The frontage on Michigan avenue will be 50 feet and the depth on Thirteenth street will be 100 feet, There will be two stories and a basement, making a height of 54 feet.
The Michigan avenue front will be of Lemont cut-stone. The first story will have four windows, two on each side of the grand entrance. These windows will be five feet wide and 12½ feet high, with semi-circular tops. The entrance, with heavy stone-steps, in the centre of the building, will be surrounded by a massive stone frontispiece, elaborately carved and fluted, and projecting one foot from the face of the wall. The folding-doors will be heavy, and contain cut-glass lights, with a transom light above.
The second story on this front will contain five windows, 5z11½ each, constructed in the same way as the lower ones. Over the windows will be a frieze of cut stone, and over that five elliptical windows, with what is technically known as a medallion cornice above them. The corners will he decorated by paneled pilasters, and the division of the courses will be designated for by heavily moulded bell courses. This front will be Elaborately ornamented with engravings in stone. The whole will be surmounted by a steep hip roof, with deck on top.
The Thirteenth street front—for there will be really two fronts to the building—be of pressed brick, trimmed with cut stone. It will have seven windows in each story, and an entrance by two side flights of stone steps. Such will be the exterior of one of the handsomest buildings in the city.
Now for the interior: The hallway, that will he reached through the grand entrance, will be thirteen feet wide, On one side, at the corner of the building he the library, a room a little over twenty feet square. At the rear of the library will be two rooms of about the same size, to be used as playing rooms for cards, whist, backgammon, chess, &c.
On the other vide of the hall, opposite tho library, and of the same dimensions, will be the front parlor. Back of the parlor, and adjoining it, will be the ladies’ dressing room, 10×16½ having all the conveniences attached. To the rear of this and connected with the hall, will be an apartment 12×9½, to be used as the gentlemen’s chat room, and convenient to this will be a dressing room for gentlemen.
The Thirteenth street hallway will be 5 feet wide. Right behind it will be the large dining hall, measuring 30×45½. An alcove on one side of the dining hall, 7×15, will accommodate a dumb-waiter, connecting with the kitchen and carrying room in the lower regions.
Descending to the basement, will be found in front and in the corner a splendidly-appointed billiard-room, 56 feet long by 21 wide. To the rear of the billiard-room, add connected with be a bar-room, 20×21; and to the rear of that a wine-room; and to the rear of that a coal-room, 9×25.
In the middle of the basement, running under the main hallway above, and extending out under the sidewalk, will be a bowling alley, eighty-four feet long and ten wide. On the opposite side of the bowling alley will be the janitor’s apartments in front, and the kitchen and carving room in the rear. There will be a spacious entrance to the basement at the back of the building.
The upper floor will he used for private theatricals. The rooms will have the same dimensions as the building. At one end will be a handsome stage, and. on either side of it, dressing rooms for the lady ALL gentlemen performers. The ticket once will be on the first floor at the foot of the staircase.
The following are the heights of the stories, inclusive: Basement twelve feet, first story fourteen and a half feet, second story twenty-three feet.
The various apartments will be fitted up with taste, and with every provision that can conduce to comfort. Special care is taken to secure the best heating and ventilation apparatus. The cost will be somewhere between $35,000 and $40,000. The work will be commenced as soon as the architects have awarded all the contracts.
Chicago Tribune, March 26, 1870
THE STANDARD CLUB CONCERT.
The first public performance in the new ball of the Standard Club, corner of Michigan avenue and Thirteenth street, took place last evening in the form of a concert, given by Miss Carry Goldsticker, assisted by Mrs. Louise Brunswick, and Messrs. Grosscurth, Bischoff, and Foltz, The hall, which has a seating capacity of about eight hundred, was well filled, being almost entirely Hebraic in complexion, and presenting an array of beauty, and elegance in toilets, not often seen in Christian audiences.
Miss Carry Goldsticker, the debutante of the evening, is a young lady of very pleasing presence, with a face cast in very decidedly Jewish mould, and a very easy, unassuming manner. Her voice is a mezzo-soprano, of good range, with a decided tendency to contralto quality. It has all the freshness of youth, but excels rather in strength and resonance than in sweetness. Her voice is very uneven, the lower register having much feeling, sympathy, and delicacy of expression, while the upper is metallic and brilliant. In the lower voice also, she sings in excellent legato style, while in the upper she is explosive and, at times, hard. Her executive abilities are very slight and crude, showing great necessity tor study. While she has very decided faults, none of them are incurable. She is full of promise, and as she contemplates a speedy trip to Europe, for study, we see no reason why, with proper care and diligence, she should not take a commanding position on the lyric stage. Her numbers in the programme were an aria from Bellini’s “Borneo and Juliet,” and Eckert’s “Styrian Song.” In response to an encore to the first number, she sang Perring’s well-known ballad “Beware,” but not with decided success, as her style and voice are not so well adapted to ballad singing as to more florid and brilliant music. Her singing of this class of music lacks expression, and is characterized by a monotonous adhesion in the exact tempo, which, of course, is fatal to any dramatic feeling whatever.
Mrs. Louise Brunswick, an amateur contralto, sang the Stride le Vampa, from “Trovatore,” very pleasantly. There waa a painfol lack of execution and want of spirit, however, which stripped this very dramatic aria of its proper effect. Her voice, however, especially the lower, is very sweet, which compensates for weakness in the upper. The same fault was manifest in her singing of her encore, “Comin’ thro’ the Rye,” of which we have spoken is the case of Goldstickcr, viz., lack of expression. It was too much like the singing of a musical pupil. Mr. Foltz sang tho “Catalogue Song,” from “Don Giovanni,” in superb style, although the absence of dramatic accessories, which are so necessary to this greatest of buffo arias, was ungrateful at least. For his encore he sang “The Serenade,” from the same opera. His singing of Mozart’s music is an excellent omen of what he will do in “The Magic Flute.” Mr. Bischoff and that brief bit of melody, Schumann’s “Dedication,” with the spirit and elan, and answered his encore with an exquisitely sweet ballad ot Kuecken’s Du Kleine Sterlein. Mr. Grosscurth, the leader of the Concordia Maeunerchor, who furnished the accompaniments, played two solos, a caprica called “Marche des Amazones,” and a galop, both of his own composition. His solo playing is characterized by clearness, brilliancy, and ease of execution, but we prefer him as an accompagnateur to a soloist. The concerted pieces were Kuecken’s “Barcarole,”a duo by Miss Goldsticker and Miss Brunswick, and the inevitable concert piece for amateurs, the trio from “Attila.” As a whole, the concert was a very pleasant musical success, and a genuine feeling of sociality ran through the audience, which is wanting among our usual concert audiences.
The hall is located in the upper story of the club-house, extending the entire depth and width of the building, so that it is lighted up by windows on all sides. It is very plain but very neat in its ornamentation, so that the whole hall, without being gaudy, is pleasant to the eye. The stage, which is flanked by dressing-rooms, is at the west end of the hall, is very pretty in its arrangements, and provided with foot-lights, which need covering, however, as they are very painful to the eyes. In acoustic qualities it is fully up to the average of music halls.
Chicago Evening Mail, September 12, 1872
Standard Club Reception.
The old Standard Hall, which was used by the Relief Aid Society has been completely remodeled and refitted, and was opened last evening with a reception of the Standard Club, which was a most pleasant affair. The officers of the club for the year are as follows: H. L. Frank, President; George Hibbin, Vice President; R. Rosenthal, Treasurer; B. M. Schaffner, Secretary. The Executive Committee is composed of the following gentlemen: B. Cohn, J. Spiegel, H. Goodman.
The original Standard Club (1870-1889). In October, 1871, the organization gave up the club-house to the relief work of the city. The building continued to be, for about a year, the headquarters of the Central Relief Committee, during which period the club suspended its activity.
In the fall of 1872 the club re-occupied its quarters, and a considerable sum was spent in repairing and refurnishing the club-house.
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