West Burton Place Historic District

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.