{"nrhp_refnum":"07001239","name":"West Burton Place Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"143-161 W Burton Pl","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.90933373850004,"lon":-87.63387924571859,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-12-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Art"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-block residential historic district at 143-161 W. Burton Place in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, made up of twelve principal buildings and five coach houses built mostly between 1877 and 1896 and in many cases remodeled between 1924 and 1940.","why_significant":"The district is significant architecturally and artistically because artists and craftspeople in the Depression era turned deteriorating nineteenth-century rooming houses into distinctive studio dwellings. Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller led this work, beginning with the Carl Street Studios. The street became a center of artistic innovation and a forerunner of Chicago's back-to-the-city rehabilitation movement.","narrative":"West Burton Place is a single short block in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, with twelve principal buildings and five residential coach houses. Most were built between 1877 and 1896 as dwellings and three-flat buildings in Italianate, Queen Anne or Classical Revival forms. Five of these still look much as they did in the nineteenth century. Seven were remodeled between 1924 and 1940 into artists' studios, with Art Deco, Art Moderne or International Style features. The best-known project is the Carl Street Studios at 155 W. Burton Place, led by artist Sol Kogen and designer Edgar Miller. It uses stone, ceramic tile, carved wood and salvaged materials throughout. Craftsmen such as Jesus Torres contributed carved doors, staircases and copper trim. The block is significant as a Depression-era effort to rework aging urban housing through handcrafted design. That effort influenced Old Town's reputation for the arts and early rehabilitation of city dwellings. Both the nineteenth-century and 1930s buildings retain good integrity.","period_of_significance":"1880-1940","architect_builder":"Edgar Miller","architectural_style":"Moderne","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"All twelve principal buildings and five coach houses remain in residential use, as condominiums, apartments, a cooperative and a single-family house.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.717275-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/0/8922/28892200/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/07001239.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07001239/c829aaf4f9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07001239/c829aaf4f9-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burton_Place.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burton_Place.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892200","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Burton_Place_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q48815475"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/west-burton-place-historic-district-07001239/"}