Harley Clarke Mansion

An aerial view of the Harley Clarke mansion's north-facing elevation

The Harley Clarke Mansions' front, west-facing elevation

The Harley Clarke Mansion consists of an English Tudor Revival-/French Eclectic-style house and coach house located at 2603 Sheridan Road in Evanston, IL, adjacent to the historic Grosse Pointe Light and Lighthouse Beach on Lake Michigan. The mansion was designated as a national historic landmark, in 1998, as part of the Northeast Evanston Historic District Evanston established with the National Park Service. In 2016, Landmarks Illinois added the Harley Clarke Mansion to its list of most endangered historic places in Illinois.

History and Current Condition

Construction of the Harley Clarke Mansion, designed by Boston architect Richard Powers, was completed in 1927 for Clarke, his wife, Hildur Freeman, and their two children, son John and daughter Hermena. The three-story, 16-room, limestone mansion was then situated on nearly five acres of lakefront property developed by Jens Jensen, a Prairie School landscape architect, in collaboration with Alfred Caldwell. "While the landscape has been altered over time, the hemlock-shaded grotto, the council ring, and many terraces and pathways survive today, as do portions of the original plantings." The 37,700-square-foot estate includes seven bedrooms, a spacious glass conservatory, ballroom, basement rumpus room and coach house -- as well as six towering chimneys, a red Ludovici tile roof and a curving stair hall. The house and coach house were listed as contributing structures in the city of Evanston's application to the National Park Service to designate the area surrounding the Harley Clarke Mansion as a historic district.

The Clarke family owned the house until 1949, when the Clarkes had to sell the house because of significant financial losses during the Great Depression. Clarke, whose fortune has been estimated at upward of $60 million, was the president of Utilities Power and Light Corp. and the president of Fox Studios, after buying out founder William Fox. He also owned the General Theatre chain.

Sigma Chi purchased the mansion and used it as the fraternity's national headquarters from 1951 to 1965, when the city of Evanston purchased it. A year later, Evanston Art Center leased the property until 2015, when the mansion began to require "more maintenance than either the city or the art center was able to fund." The Harley Clarke Mansion has been vacant ever since.

"A report commissioned by the city concluded in August 2016 that the mansion was mostly in 'serviceable condition,' but still needs substantial spending on repairs."

Architectural and Local Significance

The Harley Clarke Mansion has been described as "...a striking architectural presence." In their 2004 book, “North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940,” Evanston-based architect Stuart Cohen and historic preservation consultant Susan Benjamin write: "It was the last house of its size to be built in Evanston before the 1929 stock market crash."

The mansion won a design award from the Evanston Art Commission.

According to Bonnie McDonald, president and CEO of Landmarks Illinois, “...(S)ome might call (Jensen) the equivalent of Frank Lloyd Wright in returning to an indigenous landscape and a reference to the prairie. So think of him as one of the most revolutionary landscape architects of his time. We find it counterintuitive that there may be discussion of demolition by the city of its own landmark."

In a 2017 article on the Bob Villa website, "15 100-Year-Old Houses That Haven't Aged a Day," the Harley Clarke Mansion is ranked No. 14: "While Harley Clarke Mansion has at various times in its history served as a private residence, a fraternity headquarters, and a venue for local arts, it has never lost its original elegance or intrigue. The ninety-year-old ... lakefront property ... has had such an enchanting effect on Evanstonians that the city recently decided to open its historic doors to the public again."

Public Use Efforts

In late 2013, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources began discussions with city council to purchase the Harley Clarke Mansion as "an office space and public coastal education center." The deal fell through in early 2015, following the election of a new governor in November 2014 and Evanston's preference for a lease versus the sale the state agency wanted. A state budget crisis also may have contributed.

Preservation Efforts

In June 2017, the city of Evanston issued a request for proposals from nonprofit organizations to lease the property and assume ongoing management and maintenance. One of the proposals received was from Evanston Lakehouse & Gardens (ELHG), a local nonprofit group focused on renovating the property into a "... fully renovated, multi-purpose venue for environmental education, community events and cultural programming." That November, city council voted 8-1 to approve the proposal from ELGH and instructed the city manager to negotiate a 40-year lease with the group.

However, on April 9, 2018, after approximately six months of negotiations between the city and ELHG, city council members said they were concerned by the group's 10-year timeline to secure funding and by the city's potential liability -- and voted the plan down. In June 2018, city council approved a resolution for the city manager to meet with Evanston Lighthouse Dunes, a privately funded group that offered to finance a project to raze the Harley Clarke Mansion and "...restore the natural dunes, beach and parkland as part of a new public space...." A nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Evanston Lighthouse Dunes was approved fewer than 40 days later by city council, in a 5-3 vote on July 23, 2018.

The June 2018 vote by city council prompted an editorial from Blair Kamin, architecture critic for The Chicago Tribune: "What in the name of progressive politics is going on here? How can a left-leaning town that has shot down skyscraper proposals on the grounds that they would wipe out historic buildings be contemplating the destruction of an official city landmark? ... The mansion, just north of Northwestern University’s campus, is a precious, irreplaceable architectural and cultural resource. Instead of exploring how to get rid of it, the city should be redoubling its efforts to save it."

On July 25, 2018, a volunteer group, Save Harley Clarke, filed petitions with the Evanston city clerk to place a nonbinding resolution on the November 2018 ballot. The resolution, if approved to appear on the ballot, calls this yes-or-no question: "Shall the City of Evanston protect from demolition and preserve the landmark Harley Clarke buildings and gardens next to Lighthouse Beach, for use and access as public property, consistent with the Evanston Lakefront Master Plan, at minimal or no cost to Evanston taxpayers?"

As of July 23, 2018, the question of whether to demolish the Harley Clarke Mansion goes next to the Evanston Preservation Commission. "The commission will vote to decide whether the building, declared an Evanston (l)andmark in 1982, ought to be demolished. If they vote no, the council can vote to overrule them and push demolition regardless."