For many years, McCormick House was a jewel hidden in plain sight, incorporated almost invisibly into the Elmhurst Art Museum, connected to the main building by a 15 ft corridor constructed in 1997. The museum's latest exhibition, ‘McCormick House – Past, Present, Future', stages the entire house as a private single-family home with mid-century modern furnishings.
The exhibition, curated by interior architect Robert Kleinschmidt, expands on an installation from 2018, when Kleinschmidt staged the house’s Children’s Wing with period décor. It also represents a continuation of an ongoing project launched in 2017 to restore the house to something approaching the original design by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, including removing the corridor.
‘Rob’s exhibition will help our guests understand its domestic scale through period furniture and illustrate its history as a residence,' says John McKinnon, the museum's executive director.
Installation view of 'McCormick House: 1952 – 1959', curated by Robert Kleinschmidt and Ryan Monteleagre
McCormick House is comprised of two modular units measuring 2000 sq ft, and was constructed as a prototype for mass-produced modular homes to be located in the western suburbs of Chicago. However, the innovative structures proposed by co-developers Robert Hall McCormick III and Herbert S. Greenwald failed to attract a sufficient number of buyers, and construction never began.
McCormick and his wife, poet Isabella Gardner, lived in the home from 1952 to 1959. In 1961, Arthur and Marilyn Sladek moved in with their family and remained there until 1963, when Ray and Mary Ann Fick moved in till 1991. The house was left empty until 1994, when it was moved to its present location adjacent to the museum, which had purchased the house and used it as its administrative offices from 1997 to 2015.
Highlights from the exhibition include weekly tours on Sunday afternoons from 15 September – one of the guides is a former resident of the house. A lecture, ‘Preserving the Modern Home' by architectural historian Susan Benjamin, is scheduled for 5 October and a panel discussion, ‘Preserving Chicago’s Glass Houses', is scheduled on 26 October; both offer context and celebrate Chicago's lasting architectural legacy.
The living room of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's McCormick House in the 1950s. HB17555A, Chicago Historical Society
Hall and kitchen archive shot of the house in the 1950s. HB17555A, Chicago Historical Society
At the McCormick House, looking towards the kitchen. HB17555A, Chicago Historical Society
INFORMATION
elmhurstartmuseum.org
-
NAMM 2025 round-up: ten take-aways from the world's most important music showCalifornia's annual NAMM show brings musical instrument manufacturers big and small to show off their latest wares and audio innovations. Here are ten of the best from 2025
-
Santa Monica hotspot The Georgian Room is a rare, well-done steakhouse speakeasyHidden inside The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, a restored speakeasy that lovingly nods to its storied past
-
In St Barths, Cheval Blanc is an oceanside oasis soaking in turquoise viewsFollowing its 10th anniversary, Cheval Blanc St-Barth continues to shine as a pearl of the Caribbean
-
A West Austin house invites you to commune with natureWestview Residence by Alterstudio, a West Austin house among trees, makes the most of large windows and open-air decks in a verdant setting
-
Apple’s new Miami store employs the principles of biophilic designApple’s first mass-timber store connects shoppers to nature while echoing the Art Deco architecture of Miami
-
The World Monuments Fund has announced its 2025 Watch – here are some of the endangered sites on the listEvery two years, the World Monuments Fund creates a list of 25 monuments of global significance deemed most in need of restoration. From a modernist icon in Angola to the cultural wreckage of Gaza, these are the heritage sites highlighted
-
We zoom in on Ontario Place, Toronto’s lake-defying 1971 modernist showpieceWe look back at Ontario Place, Toronto’s striking 1971 showpiece and modernist marvel with an uncertain future
-
Reflections from Los Angeles: a local writer's personal account of the LA firesArchitecture writer and local resident Michael Webb reflects on the devastating 2025 Los Angeles fires and offers his personal account of the events of the last two weeks in California
-
Tour 21 lesser-known modernist houses in EuropeTake a tour of some of Europe's lesser-known modernist houses; architectural writer and curator Adam Štěch leads the way, discussing the 20th-century movement's diversity under a single vision
-
LA Mayor Karen Bass outlines her plan for rebuilding the cityFollowing the devastating LA wildfires, which have destroyed more than 12,000 structures, the city’s mayor has outlined her plan for reconstruction
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Weisblat House, a Usonian modernist Michigan gem, could be yoursFrank Lloyd Wright’s Weisblat House in Michigan is on the market – a chance to peek inside the heritage modernist home in the countryside
