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Jack Simmerling collection
Descriptive Summary
In process. 6 bankers boxes of material by Jack Simmerling consisting of notes, photographs, sketches, floor plans, clippings, printed ephemera, and a typescript for Simmerling’s book Chicago’s Old Houses.
Biographical Historical Note
John Joseph (Jack) Simmerling, Jr. was an artist who devoted his career to painting and drawing houses, especially the late-19th-century domestic architecture of what is now called Chicago’s Prairie Avenue District. In the 1950s, when many of the neighborhood’s houses were being demolished, Simmerling worked for a demolition crew to gain access to the buildings and salvage fragments from their ornate interiors. Simmerling operated a gallery in Blue Island, Illinois, where he displayed his images of the lost houses alongside these artifacts.