#maher

[archinform]

Pleasant Home, Oak Park IL

Pleasant Home (Farson-Mills House), 1897, 217 Home Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302

Pleasant Home

George W. Maher designed this 30-room mansion for millionaire banker John W. Farson of Oak Park. Farson purchased the lot at the corner of Pleasant St. and Home Ave. in 1892 for $20,000, the largest price ever paid for a residential lot in Oak Park. Over the following years he acquired land to the south and west for a large garden.

Herbert S. Mills, the second owner of Pleasant Home, made his fortune in the amusement business. The Mills family sold the house in 1939 to the Park District of Oak Park, the grounds being designated as Mills Park in their honor.

The home today is operated as a historic house museum, an events venue, and serves as the headquarters for The Pleasant Home Foundation.

The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Illustration of Pleasant Home from The Inland Architect and News Record

Considered one of the earliest examples of prairie school architecture, Pleasant Home is often viewed as the finest surviving example of Maher's residential work. The house was completed three years after Frank Lloyd Wright's Winslow House in River Forest, an early expression of Wright's emerging design principles, later to be known as the prairie style.

The Prairie School developed in sympathy with the ideals and design aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts movement of 19th century England by John Ruskin, William Morris, and others. It is also seen as a successor to the Chicago School of architecture associated with architects William Le Baron Jenney, H.H. Richardson, Daniel H. Burnham, John Wellborn Root, Dankmar Adler, and Louis Sullivan.

The Prairie School attempted to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture, without the design elements and aesthetic vocabulary of earlier styles of European-influenced architecture such as the Queen Anne and Gothic Revival styles. 

The smooth surfaces of Roman brick, the low-pitched, hipped roof and the broad entrance porch of the Parson House are characteristic features of Maher's work that link him to the early modern designs of his Prairie School contemporaries. In the Parson House Maher also introduced his personal design philosophy, which he called motif rhythm theory, to unify the decorative details of the house and its furnishings. The house retains its historic integrity in terms of materials, design and setting. Virtually all of the original decoration specified by George Maher is preserved and the lavish decorative treatment is everywhere apparent on the interior.

Kathleen Cummings, National Historic Landmark Nomination, 1996

Detail of front porch support column

Stained glass entrance and flanking windows

Entrance hall fireplace beneath Pleasant Home panel

Detail of lion head carving, repeated throughout the house, on entrance hall built-in bench

Carved screen in entry hall in front of the music room on the mezzanine

Stained glass entrance window

Reception room

Living room or sitting room

Dining room ceiling fixture

Dining room

Dining room corner, leading to summer dining room

Domed light fixture in the library

Library

Original Maher-designed dining table and chairs, now displayed on the second floor

The stunning original wall colors are seen in the above two photos of second-floor bedrooms

Vintage views of Pleasant Home, from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago:

Left: George W. Maher and John W. Farson in the garden of Pleasant Home

Right: Entrance hall

Left: dining room Right: sitting room

The Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago, house a copy of the 1902 publication "Farson, John, Residence; Farson-Mills Pleasant Home." The publication contains many views of the house, exterior and interior.

Collection Call Number FF Special NA7239.M34 A65 1902.

Access the digitized copy at this link:

[aealzx]

There was a pic on a youtube video that seemed fun to try drawing the pose/expression of while I'm ded and worn out and not enough oomph to work on main projects. So I did a "quick" doodle in like ..... 1-2 hours or something I dunno. =3=b

Maher is one of my ocs. I just pushed his hair around for this for fun =3=

[cavenewstimes]

Rick Caruso Tells Bill Maher He Predicted Palisades Fire: “I’m So Sad That I Was Right”

Live Feed The former L.A. mayoral candidate said on ‘Real Time’ that people should be asking, “Why wasn’t more done” to prevent the Los Angeles wildfires? Rick Caruso David McNew/Getty Images Logo text Rick Caruso isn’t holding back on his thoughts surrounding the devastating Los Angeles wildfires and what he felt leadership did wrong when it came to prevention. The billionaire real estate…

[ayo-edebiri]

ILONA MAHER as LUISA MADRIGAL

Dancing With The Stars (33x06)

[izzy-hands]

#i’m not crying, you’re crying

[hyperfixationsstation]

just fell to my knees omggg 😫😫😫😫

[casmick-consequences]

literally the king of oneliners

[part 2]

[political-us]

“why are you not just spending your days doing good things for the world?” - jesse eisenberg

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[archinform]

George W. Maher, architect - part 2

My previous post focused on Maher-designed houses on Hutchinson St., now a Chicago historic district. For this post, I spent part of a day photographing some of Maher's other residential work in Chicago.

Stevenson-Colvin House

Address: 5940 N. Sheridan Rd.

Year Built: 1909

Architect: George W. Maher

The Stevenson-Colvin House

The Harry M. Stevenson house at 4950 N. Sheridan Road dates to 1909 and is a rare survivor of the large homes that lined the street in the first decades of the 20th century. The house, referred to today as the Colvin house for its second owner, features a distinctive Maher dormer, second floor windows recessed behind columns, and a motif of tulips and triangles. It has been restored in recent years and now functions as an events venue.

Classic Chicago Magazine

I took the following photos of the Colvin House during a past Open House Chicago weekend, sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Center:

Unfortunately, the interior has been remodeled, removing virtually all of Maher's original design. The chandelier, however, and the stair rail, are original. The house is now an events venue.

Residence of Edwin M. Colvin, Esq., Chicago. The Architectural Record, 1916 Feb., v. 39, p. 175. ill, plans.

J.H. Hoekscher House

4506 N. Sheridan Rd., 1902

4506 N. Sheridan shortly after completion in 1902 (Inland Architect)

Interior photos available here

King / Nash House, 1901-1902

3234 W Washington Blvd., Chicago

This house is an amalgamation of the Sullivanesque, Colonial Revival, and Prairie styles. It was originally commissioned by wealthy businessman Patrick J. King, but its most well-known occupant was the influential Irish-Catholic politician Patrick A. Nash, who lived here from 1925 to 1943, when Washington Boulevard was one of the city's most-fashionable addresses.

Chicago Landmarks

Davey Pate / Charles Comiskey House, 1901

5131 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago

Maher designed this house for Chicago lumberman Davey Pate. The house was later owned by Charles Comiskey, long-time owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team.

Magerstadt House, 1906-1908

4930 South Greenwood Avenue, Chicago

Completed the same year that Maher was devising a master plan for the Northwestern University campus, the Magerstadt House sits sideways on its deep, narrow lot, with the front door facing what is now the driveway. Visible from the street is a rectangular side porch whose pillars sport carved poppies.

Chicago Magazine

Elevation and plans above and photos below, HABS survey documents

This house is probably one of the finest works of George W. Maher, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, and one of the Prairie School. It shows a relationship to Wright's work of the time in its cubist massing, ribbons of windows, simple, low-pitched roof, and deep, unbroken eaves. The influence of Art Nouveau is also evident, as is seen in the extensive use of the poppy motif in the ornament and interior finish.

Library of Congress

This photo and other interior views on Redfin

Link: Magerstadt House HABS Report

[aealzx]

I realized I hadn't drawn Maher in a loooong time, so I took him out for a date tonight to see how he'd turn out. X'D Accidental fluff treatment on the hair.

(white hair and purple eyes are an illusion from the earring. The black hair and white eyes are his natural colors)

[ishalltakeyourknees]

Some highlights from my family watching the Olympics in no particular order

"How tall is Simone Biles?" "Not very"

"Is Celine Dion like French royalty or something" "no but she should be"

"No I don't really want to watch men's gymnastics, not my thing" 5 minutes later "SPIN, STEVE!"

"Can... can he see the pommel horse?" "I don't think so"

"Whats Simone Biles husband's name again?" "She's married?"

"Ilona Maher is a national treasure and I'm going to marry her" "I thought you were straight?"

"Stephen Nedoroscik is so hot, and he can solve a rubik's cube in 9 seconds" "...why do you know that?"

"I've decided I can't marry Steve because I am also blind as a bat without my glasses and that would just set our kids up for failure" "I'm sure his girlfriend will be happy to hear that"

"Mom, if I got gay married to an Olympic gold medalist, how mad would you be?" "You can't marry Katie Ledecky she's taller than your father and 8 years older than you" "damn it"

[leupagus]

Tuesday's House Budget Vote and what you may not have heard about

I'm reposting this from a reblog of a really great post about the work that Representatives Mullin and Pettersen did in voting against the GOP budget on February 25th, because I don't want to detract from that message.

Instead, I want to talk about the larger implications of H. Con. Res. 14 itself, and why the Democrats risked so much (in Mullin's and Pettersen's cases, actual harm) in order to show up for this vote.

The vote in question is starting the first of quite a few votes for the upcoming GOP budget; it's not a done deal by any means, this was just the vote to get it started, so to speak. But it was still a very, very, VERY important vote, because not only would failure be catastrophic, but so would a win that just barely squeaked by.

And this one squeaked like a fucking mouse in Murray's Cheese Shop.

Speaker Johnson has been waffling on putting this to a vote because there were several outspoken GOP members who talked a big game about opposing it. Usually this doesn't matter, since most bills get some bipartisanship, but at present the House is in GOP hands with only a three-member margin of error, with two seats vacant (note: those two vacancies are FL 1 and 6, which are holding their special elections on April 1 — lol — and which are EXTREMELY unlikely to flip but hey miracles happen! Donate or phonebank if you'd like!). And Democratic representatives have been voting in a bloc against...well pretty much everything the GOP's been pushing through since Trump took office. Not only that, but this budget is legit unpopular with a number of Republicans, so much so that Johnson pulled the vote at first on Tuesday because he knew it would fail if the GOP members who'd threatened to vote against it actually went through with it. What he needed was to either convince them all to fall in line, or resort to cheating.

So he did both!

He and Trump strongarmed all but one of the GOP holdouts into voting yes (Congressman Massie is in many ways a turd in a toilet, and his reasons for voting no were bad, but he did stick to his guns, I'll give him that). Reports of Trump actually screaming at one of the (female, naturally) GOP holdouts are...well, unsurprising, but that's how panicked they were about getting this bill started. Usually the Whip does this work, but Tom Emmer's been laughably bad at it and so they had to get Trump to actually do some work. Which is itself sort of astonishing. But even then, they weren't sure they could get it done.

Which leads us to part two of Johnson's plan: blatant cheating. During Pelosi's last session as Speaker, she allowed for proxy voting in light of COVID and, you know, the general state of things, but the second the GOP got back the gavel they nixed it right in the bud. This puts the Dems at a disadvantage right now because at least three of them are out for medical reasons — Mullin and Pettersen, as well as Congressman Raúl Grijalva who's fighting cancer at present. (He was the only Democrat who couldn't get to the floor for this vote, fwiw, and anyone who insists he should've can suck my left tit.)

So Johnson adjourned the House for the evening, sending everyone home, but told the GOP members to stay and then tried to rush through the vote before the Dems realized what was happening. His hope was that enough Dems would be caught flat-footed/not see the recall notice/be asleep watching Taskmaster (whoops that was me) by the time they got the message to get back to the floor. That way he could lose the holdouts but still pass the budget onto the next phase.

However! While Nancy Pelosi no longer rules the Democratic caucus with her iron fist and fabulous coats, my man Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries learned quite a lot from her (and is pretty fucking genius himself). Not only did he and the other House leadership expect this kind of chicanery from Johnson, they had planned on it.

Because here's the thing: Mullin and Pettersen didn't get on a plane at the last minute on Tuesday; they'd gotten to DC on Monday, without telling anyone they were in town. They actually hid from the GOP members all day Tuesday in order to lull Johnson into thinking he had more of a margin than he did; if the GOP holdouts really had voted against the budget, then it would've failed. Which would have been a biiiiiiig problem for Johnson and Trump.

As it is, it's still a biiiiiiig problem for Johnson and Trump, because now they know just how razor-thin their margin is. More importantly, they also now know that the Dems will fuck with them just as much (if not more) as they will fuck with Dems. Congress (and the USA in general) has operated for years on the assumption that Democrats operate in good faith, while taking it for granted that of course the GOP ratfuck as much as humanly possible.

This moment is a chilling one for the GOP; they can't assume anymore that Dems will play fair or fight clean. Which seems like a very small thing in the larger picture right now, I know, and I also know that people would love for their Democratic representatives and senators to be more vocal and angry in public ways. I get that!

But this move on Tuesday night? Is actually going to have far bigger consequences than any meme or viral video or clever soundbite from a politician. Democrats are no longer playing by the rules that the GOP's ignored for years (if not decades); they're playing by the GOP's own rules, and they just might win.

[saltpepperbeard]

I ain't stressing today The OFMD S2 Cast and Crew dancing on Leslie Jones' Tiktok

[ayo-edebiri]

ILONA MAHER

Photographed by Ben Watts for Sports Illustrated (Aug 28, 2024)