By Arthur H. Miller, Archivist, Lake Forest College Library; amiller@lakeforest.edu
Title: Harrie T. Lindeberg, Architect, collections, 1910-1930s
Predominant Dates:1916-32
Creator: Lindeberg, H. T. (Harrie Thomas) (b. 1879; 1879-1959)
Extent: 0.3 Linear Feet
New York-based architect Harrie T. Lindeberg designed a number of Lake Forest structures between ca. 1910 and the early 1930s. with the notable exception of the 1928 Onwentsia clubhouse, these were residences or country houses for estates centered on the Onwentsia club, a suburban social hub for economically and especially socially elite Chicagoans.
Lindeberg's career generally is well-documented. He is cited by architectural historian Thomas Tallmadge in his 1927 first history of architecture in the U.S. as representative of the picturesque designers of the 1920s.
His career had begun as an associate in the offices of McKim, Mead & White, leading New York architects. That distinguished firm though suffered a severe blow with the scandalous death in 1906 of design partner Stanford White. That year Lindeberg left the firm to form a new one with another former associate, Albro & Lindeberg. by 1910 the firm had a Lake forest commission for Orville Babcock, a country house near Onwentsia on N. Green Bay Road, Two Gables (later the Laurance Armour estate). By 1916, too, Lindeberg had a spectacular lake view estate commission for Clyde Carr, president of Ryerson Steel. this Wyldwood commission, landscaped by Warren Manning, was a large French country estate house and staff lodge (both extant, separate properties). A key feature is the stunning Ira Bach metalwork at the entry and elsewhere.
A decade later, when the Onwentsia membership sought to replace their wood frame, adaptively reused 1893 H.I. Cobb farm club house, according to Alfred Granger ("Chicago Welcomes You," 1933) they chose not to select one of their local architect members, but to call in the the Long Island club design expert Lindeberg.
While he was engaged in that substantial project, still standing little changed, he also undertook a number of residences: Chapin/Beidler, Reynolds (1930), and Dexter Cummings (1930) among them.
The end of the Country Place Era by the mid 1930s resulted in an end to Lindeberg local commissions.
Biographical/Historical Note: By the later 1920s the Griffith Grant & Lackie, Realtors, Inc. archives have shown that the club no longer could obtain fire insurance on its clubhouse, originally architect Henry Ives Cobb's farm/country place, 1890-93m adaptively reused in 1896 as the club's headquarters and original lodgings above. Soon this was being expanded with a west side veranda by architect C. S. Frost (before 1904). The new structure was to be fireproof and to a new standard of style, as exemplified by the best eastcoast, Long Island clubs. Lindeberg was well known there, and through periodicals. Thus, he was given the position.
Following construction and the end of most estate building within a decade, the club turned to architect member Stanley D. Anderson (1896-1960) to maintain the clubhouse, etc. The drawings were stored with the firm's files, and after Anderson's death they were transferred to his last partner, William Bergmann.
