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Mundelein/Loyola's Piper Hall |
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“Every autoist in Chicago has driven down Sheridan Road as far north as Devon and has wondered at the beauty of this home,” said the Nov. 18, 1916, Chicago Evening Post in an article about the sale of the building now known as Piper Hall. It had been built in 1909 by Albert and Cassie Wheeler. He, the chief engineer of the Chicago Tunnel System, had left the design of her dream house to his wife, an amateur artist and architect, who had been collecting ideas for 40 years and could afford to follow her wishes in every detail. Daniel Burnham is quoted as calling the 17-room mansion of Vermont statuary marble a masterpiece. The Post reporter (no byline but he identifies himself as male) describes entering the house: “Ascending the semi-circular stairs of marble, one reaches the broad porch which runs the entire front and the water side of the house. “Passing through two doors, one enters a large hall, 18 x 50 feet. To the right is the living room or library. Two sets of bay windows face the lake, while five wide windows view Sheridan Road .” A legend says Father Marquette camped on this site in October 1679 and made a treaty with the Illini tribe. Another tradition is that workers digging the foundation found the bow of a ship. Did the lake's ever changing shoreline cover this spot after Marquette's time? New Owners The Wheelers had less than a decade to enjoy their palace. The company went bankrupt and Mr. Wheeler, in bad health, returned to the east coast and sold the house to Albert M. Johnson. Johnson was president of the National Life Insurance Company but also a Biblical scholar. He added bookshelves to the drawing room to the left of the entrance for his large collection. His wife, Bessie Morris Johnson, was an evangelist with speaking engagements throughout the Midwest . They founded the Fundamental Society. The Johnsons built the seawall beyond the breakwater. After Mrs. Johnson's death, he sold the house to Mundelein College in 1934. Old rumors say the fervent Protestant Johnson objected to selling to a Catholic organization, but his correspondence with Sister Mary Justitia Coffey was cordial. Adapted for Collegians Mundelein had decided to use the library on the fifth floor of the Skyscraper for needed classrooms. The Wheeler mansion was to be the library. Students entered the library from under the porte cochere . The curved circulation desk was at the foot of the central staircase so the librarian had a view down Sheridan Road through the glass doors of the front entrance, but she had her back to the magnificent stained glass window at the landing. The stacks were in the third floor ballroom. In the '40s walls between bedrooms on the second floor were taken down to make a big reading room. All the bookshelves Mr. Johnson had added to the west drawing room on the first floor were used and more added in the rooms across the hall. That was the reference area. Serials were in the butler's pantry, cataloguing was done in what had been the servants' dining room, the kitchen was a workroom, and the librarian, BVM Clara Borman, used the little office where Mrs. Wheeler had worked on her social calendar. A 1952 Chicago Sun Times article said it had “the kind of atmosphere that would turn almost anyone into a bookworm” though already the building was proving too small to house a library for the largest women's Catholic college in the United States . Some collections, children's literature for instance, were moved to the basement, but that was too damp and too close to the lake to be safe. The high waters of late 1987 did flood the basement, but the books were gone by then. In 1969, the Learning Resource Center , now renamed the Sullivan Center , opened with ample space and ample wiring for modern library equipment. Since the affiliation, it holds Loyola's science and mathematics collections. Home for Religious Studies Program Meanwhile the mansion became Gannon Hall, a student center conveniently connected to Coffey Hall. Though student organizations and Mundelein staff worked to make it attractive with furniture from the recently closed Edgewater Beach Hotel and paintings from the art department, it proved unsatisfactory. Soon Mundelein 's religious studies department took over. The second floor was divided into classrooms. Albert Johnson's bookshelves in the west drawing room housed circulating religious education materials that had been in the yellow brick house next to the Sullivan Center that now houses Loyola's Alumni office. The east drawing room and dining room were used for meetings and for Saturday evening Mass. Once again periodicals were in the butler's pantry, and the sunny breakfast room was the Hispanic studies office. The fire department discouraged use of the third floor with its single stairway. In this period the name was changed to Piper Hall to honor Kenneth Piper, recently deceased husband of a Mundelein benefactor. When Mundelein affiliated with Loyola in 1991 and the religious studies program was absorbed into the Institute for Pastoral Studies, classes on the second floor and meetings on the first continued, but a committee began to study the best use for this extraordinary building. Restored Beauty, Practicality Though renovation was needed, it had to wait for a decision on how it should be remodeled. Finally the committee approved a plan. The beautiful first floor rooms will continue to be meeting space for the university. The upper floors and lower level have been reconfigured to house the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership offices, research and gathering space, a seminar room, and the archives reading room and storage area—a suitable use for the home of Cassie Wheeler, the artist, and Bessie Johnson, the evangelist.
A Re-dedication to Remember It was the longest Chicago area drought in a century—until Carolyn Farrell, BVM (Lester), Director of the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership, planned an outdoor ceremony. For two years she had overseen the renovation of the old mansion and then the transfer of the Center offices and the Mundelein archives there. On July 20, 2005 the rededication of the building was to combine with a celebration of BVM Ann Ida Gannon's 90th birthday. About 200 benefactors, faculty and administrators (current or former), and honored guests were invited for 5 p.m. The lectern and microphone were on the lakeside porch and chairs on the new oval patio east of it. The storm blew in about 2 p.m. Employees hustled everything inside as rain started to pour and pound. In less than an hour it eased off and the wet pavement dried in the 90°+ heat. They brought the chairs back out but kept the microphone inside till it was surely safe. Some guests drove through flooded streets. The lectern and microphone went out again about 5:30. At 6 p.m. promptly Father Michael Garanzini, SJ, president of Loyola University Chicago, welcomed all. He mentioned his particular joy in celebrating Ann Ida's 90th birthday. They have been friends since 30 years ago when they sat on the same board next to each other alphabetically. She taught him how to read a university budget. He thanked her for that and thanked several others who had helped in the building renovation. Then Ann Ida herself blessed it while BVM Dorothy Dwight led a sung blessing. Raindrops started again about 6:30 as the guests moved in to dinner in McCormick Lounge. About the author: Mary A. Healey, BVM (Michael Edward) is a researcher; she lives at Wright Hall, Chicago. Return
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