A house museum is a former residence converted into a publicly accessible structure, which preserves an identity of its original domestic... Show moreA house museum is a former residence converted into a publicly accessible structure, which preserves an identity of its original domestic history. These houses shelter a wide variety of institutions with a diverse range of imperatives and services. With a focus on Chicago house museums, this dissertation seeks an overarching pattern underlying this conversion and reuse of residential buildings. This dissertation focuses on six house museums in Chicago: the Palmer Castle, the Harding Castle, the Clarke House, the Glessner House, the Madlener House and the Robie House. The Palmer and Harding Castles ceased to exist as house museums and are no longer standing.Conventional archival research conducted during the initial phases yielded historiographies that corroborate as well as contradict popular stories about the process by which the houses were preserved, salvaged and converted. Key primary-source research includes interviews with persons involved in—and observant of—motivations and forces in play upon these six case studies. Texts of the interviews are included in appendices. The dissertation reveals how select individuals (acting variously as architects, historians, concerned citizens, and leaders of institutions) influenced the creation of the six house museums. This dissertation contains a chronicle and an evaluation of the values which informed and influenced the house museum condition in Chicago in an environment which largely pre-dated the historic building preservation movement in America. The case studies show that the persons and parties involved in saving various houses for reuse did not generally execute definitive plans, in full, with a clear ultimate goal. Instead, in all cases, individuals and small groups of people fought an array of idiosyncratic battles, often yielding short-term victories. Economic pressures, political conditions, and societal values evolve, ushering in new opportunities and new dangers for nascent institutions inhabiting former residences. As each generation of directors, curators and governing boards mature and matriculate, the goals and objectives which influenced the reuse of their house museums changed. The very notion of attaining some sort of permanent statis has been found, through this research, to be elusive. Dynamism in both the people and the institution reusing these house museums can yield positive outcomes ensuring preservation of the institution of the house museum. Show less
