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3080 W. Palmer Square
Year of construction .................................. 1909
Original cost to build ............................. $8,500
Architect ............................ Charles F. Sorensen
Owner ............................... Christian M. Madson
Occupation ... Wooden Moldings ManufacturerThis picturesque, two-story, single-family home with a side driveway leading to a coach house is prominently situated mid-block on a 50-foot by 124-foot parcel where the Albany Avenue crosswalk meets the north side of Palmer Square. Built in 1909 at a cost of $8,500, the home was designed by Charles F. Sorensen for Christian M. Madson, president of Madson & Ibsen Manufacturing Co.
Sorensen’s design demonstrates a great balance between strength and lightness, vertical and horizontal movement, and ornamentation and simplicity. The home is executed in a Queen Anne Victorian style with some Prairie School overtones, and it stands as a fine example of the eclecticism on display throughout the Logan Square Boulevards Landmark District.
On the primary façade, classically rusticated limestone blocks with meticulously tooled borders graduate to face brick with limestone accents on the first and second floors. The elegant entryway is defined by a pair of narrow stained-glass windows that sit on a single stone sill next to the front entrance. The front entrance is further defined by a face brick detail that extends over the top of the doors and double window, then alongside and between them in a pilaster detail, before coming to rest on three decorative stone corbels (1).
Detail of tripartite columns. (KSJ Photo)
The carved, leafy details of the entryway’s stone corbels are a Victorian touch that is repeated on the face of the stone railing on either side of the front steps (1), and on the capitals of the six stone front porch columns.Key architectural features:
1. Carved stone front entrance details
2. Tripartite column grouping and capital detail
3. Oculus ovule
4. Octagonal bay and turretThe six ornate stone columns reveal Sorensen’s creativity. Rather than overpowering the front of the home, the columns stand in groupings of three at each side of the front porch (2). The tripartite groupings define the porch corners and strike a careful balance between strength and grace, powerfully defining the front entrance and porch while also drawing the eye upward to the ornate balustrade and openness of the balcony above the porch.
The Prairie School style is reflected near the top of the building, where a curved window with a central door and side windows open to the balcony and a flat, horizontal window sits in a small dormer under a hipped roof.
Of particular note is the corner octagonal bay, which creates a turret with its beautiful detailing in brick and stone (3). The roofline is strongly accented with elongated eaves executed in copper with a double bracket that makes the turret seem to float up to its copper finial. These vertical lines are complemented by horizontal stone banding at the base, windows, floor lines, and roof.
The delicate “oculus ovule” (oval eye) windows facing the first-floor porch and second floor balcony suggest a unifying Victorian influence, as does the stone trim above the balcony door and windows (3).
It’s not known how Christian Madson came to select Charles Sorensen to design his home, but it appears they had many things in common, having emigrated from Denmark in their teens, and both enjoying professional success in construction-related businesses. Perhaps most significant, however, is that Madson and Sorensen had both lived on the 1300 block of Maplewood Avenue north of Potomac Avenue.
- K.S.J.
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