James Charnley House

About

The James Charnley House (later known as the Charnley–Persky House) is a learned society headquarters and historic house museum at 1365 North Astor Street, along the Gold Coast, in the Near North Side of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright of Adler & Sullivan, it was completed in 1892 for the lumber magnate James Charnley. The house is one of Sullivan's few residential works and one of the only buildings where both Sullivan and Wright were significantly involved in the design. It is owned by the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), which operates the Charnley–Persky House Museum and uses the building as a headquarters. The Charnley–Persky House is designated as a Chicago landmark and a National Historic Landmark.

Charnley bought the site in 1890 and hired Sullivan, a family friend, to design the house. Construction began in July 1891, and the Charnley family moved into the house in May 1892, living there for ten years. Several families bought it in succession during the 20th century. The house was expanded in the mid-1920s and remained a residence until 1986, when the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) restored the house's original appearance and converted it into the headquarters of the SOM Foundation. The philanthropist Seymour Persky purchased the house in 1995 and donated it to the SAH, which renamed it Charnley–Persky House in his honor.