Walking down Logan Boulevard, one passes many stately greystone homes, but none has as prominent a parcel than the corner lot at 2735 West Logan. Michael Ryan, a former Chicago alderman, built the 3,356-square-foot residence in 1894 on an approximately 8,100-square-foot lot of he bought in November 1890. The original address of the home was 1712/1714 Humboldt Boulevard prior to the street’s name change to Logan in late 1909.
As with many dwellings of the well-to-do at the time, it was designed in the prevailing Romanesque style made popular by noted American architect H.H Richardson. Typical features of Richardsonian Romanesque houses are a mixture of masonry and rough-faced, squared (ashlar) stonework and an asymmetrical façade. In this case, the home is made of a combination of greystone and red brick. Wide Romanesque arches are also a key identifying feature of the style. Having been built in 1894, it is one of the oldest greystones (if not the oldest) on a boulevard in Logan Square.
In 2735, you can’t miss the simple arch surround of the porch resting on squat columns (1), seen here with cushioned capitals supporting a flat pediment. If you look closely, you can see the elaborate, wood-paneled exterior door with a large, round inset glass window. To the left of the porch entry is a unique, rounded two-story corner bay. All of the windows in the home are recessed into the stone wall. With the notable exception of the first-floor bay windows, which feature small panes of cut glass, most of the home’s windows have only a single pane of glass per sash.
Key Architectural Features
- Porch arch on columns
- Steep parapet
- Decorative plaque
- Iron cutaway bay window
- Spindle work
As your gaze travels up, you are immediately drawn to the steep parapet (2) that rises above the flat roof. A smooth stone cornice follows the rounded roof line with a frieze that has a simple arch design. You will also notice a decorative plaque (3) with an interlacing floral design typical of the period. A small dentil wraps around the home from the front greystone to the simpler brick masonry side of the residence.
The most noticeable feature of the side of the home is the cutaway iron bay (4), a feature more commonly found in traditional Victorian Queen Anne-style homes. The bay window also has simple spindle work along the top (5). The Queen Anne style is known to use wall surfaces as decorative elements, varying materials or textures wherever there are large expanses of plain wall. You can see evidence of this behind the English ivy.
There always was a timber structure along the alley at the back of the yard. The original was a two-story barn. Later, a large garage was built for automobiles. Today, there’s just a small, simple single-story garage.
First Owner – Ryan Family
The home’s earliest owners were prominent businessmen in Chicago, although in very different fields of work — the first, in plumbing, and the second, in the leather business.
Michael Ryan was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1846. He came to America in 1860 and eventually settled in Chicago in 1867 with the intent of starting a plumbing business on the Northwest side. He originally lived at the intersection of North and Milwaukee Avenues, where he started a family with wife, Annie, and joined Chicago city politics, winning his first aldermanic election in 1874. He proceeded to build a reputation in politics and plumbing as aggressive and driven, always putting the interests of his ward and his journeymen plumbers first.
He was nicknamed “Little Mike” to contrast him with another Alderman Mike Ryan in Chicago. Little Mike served six terms as the Alderman of the 14th Ward, then the largest in the city. His obituary in the Chicago Daily News noted that although “diminutive physically, [Alderman Ryan] forced his way until he became a leader in municipal legislation.”
The March 21, 1886 Chicago Tribune, noted how Ryan’s political and plumbing interests went hand in hand in marking his retirement from politics: “He has been most industrious in securing viaducts, bridges, and sewers for his ward and has made a hobby of swelling the appropriation bills in that way.”
Ryan then focused on the extensive plumbing business he ran with his brother, Thomas. As cities entered the industrial age, plumbing was an important skilled trade, and Mike Ryan was known to be an authority on gas lines and sewers. His untimely death from pneumonia in 1905 led Annie to sell the home at No. 2735 for $13,000 in 1907.
Annie and her six children did not move far, working with prominent architect John Ahlschlager to build a $15,000, three-story castle-like flat building less than two blocks down the boulevard at 2819 West Logan.
Second Owner – Ehlers Family
Clara Ehler
Albert J. Ehler
Arthur Ehler
