“The Driehaus Museum, at Wabash and Erie, is proud to announce that its John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium has received City of Chicago landmark designation. The Driehaus Museum is now comprised of two landmarked buildings – the 1926 Murphy Auditorium and the 1883 Nickerson Mansion. Following the Museum’s restoration of the historic building, it will officially reopen the Murphy Auditorium as part of its campus on June 21.
“According to Driehaus Executive Director Lisa Key, ‘It is thrilling for us to complete this important renovation creating a new Museum campus, offering visitors not only an incredible museum of art, architecture, and design, but now a newly rejuvenated auditorium that will add a vital and dynamic public space to the cultural campus in Chicago that will continue to increase the historical profile of this great city of architecture.’
“Key added, ‘It was museum founder, Richard H. Driehaus, who had the vision to combine these historic buildings into one museum campus. We are so happy this vision has come to fruition and now this expansion allows us to extend our work outward in the larger community.’
“’It was a huge relief to learn about the Driehaus Museum expanding its campus into the adjacent Murphy Memorial. There are not many options for finding an appropriate re-use that would respect the historic character of such a monumentally scaled historic building while at same time providing a positive impact on the surrounding neighborhood,” said Tim Samuelson, the Cultural Historian Emeritus of the City of Chicago. ‘The Driehaus Museum has been a thoughtful community partner and valuable neighborhood asset for the past twenty years, and its expansion into the Murphy makes something great even greater!’(Driehaus Museum press release, 5/23/24)
“The Murphy Auditorium on Erie Street, built in 1926 as an opulent copy of a church in Paris, reopened today after an $8 million renovation by the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, the next-door neighbor that purchased it in 2022.
“With an exterior of tall stone pillars and carved bronze doors beneath a Greek temple’s roof and an interior whose walls and domed ceiling are richly ornamented with plaster and stained glass, the John B. Murphy Auditorium exemplifies the late philanthropist Richard Driehaus’ fondness for architecture, said Zachary Lazar, president of the museum’s board.
“‘Good architecture brings pleasure,’ Lazar said, directly quoting a years-ago speech by Driehaus, the investment manager and architecture preservationist who died shortly before his namesake museum bought the Murphy. ‘It makes people feel comfortable in their greater home, this great city, Chicago.’
“The addition of the Murphy Auditorium doubles the size of the Driehaus Museum, said Lisa Key, the museum’s executive director. The museum, which focuses on the decorative arts of the 19th century, opened in 2008 in the former Nickerson Mansion, built in 1884. Key said the Murphy adds space for events and a film series, in its grand auditorium, and added studio and program space on the floors above it.”
“Among the rich details preserved in the auditorium are a row of throne-like carved wood chairs where eminent surgeons and officers of the American College of Surgeons would have sat in positions of honor when the ACS operated the auditorium. There’s also a stained glass panel in the rear wall above the stage, plaster garlands and medallions by the score, and a pair of bronze front doors by Tiffany.
“The building was designed by Benjamin Marshall and Charles Fox, who copied the exterior of the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Consolation in Paris.
“The monumental Murphy Auditorium building is named for John B. Murphy, a pioneering Chicago physician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Murphy’s primary work was in abdominal surgery, relatively new at the time, and along with developing materials and techniques that became widely used, he operated on Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 after the former president was shot on his way to make a speech in Milwaukee.
“Murphy died in 1916 and his widow, Jeanette Plamondon Murphy, led the effort to get a memorial to him built. A decade later, the building opened as a teaching and assembly center of the American College of Surgeons.
“In 2003, Driehaus restored both buildings in a deal that ended with him taking ownership of the Nickerson mansion. Then in 2019, the surgeons group put the Murphy building on the market, resulting in the sale to the Driehaus organization in 2022.
“The two buildings and a third, the stately stone Ransom Cable mansion kitty-corner from them at Wabash and Erie, where Driehaus Capital Management is housed, make up a campus of finely restored historical remnants that speak of the late benefactor’s stewardship of Chicago’s historical architecture, Lazar said. (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 6/21/24)
“About The Driehaus Museum
“The Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age, and the Murphy Auditorium, built in 1926. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus. For more information, visit driehausmuseum.org and connect with the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.” (Driehaus Museum press release, 5/23/24)
‘Each of these magnificent structures remind us of Chicago’s incredible architectural legacy and the city’s world-renowned built environment.’ said Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago. ‘These buildings also give us insight into the past, offering a sense of human scale and attention to detail, while displaying incredible craftsmanship. They are a visual reflection of the community’s historical development over time. The preservation of these buildings is a priceless legacy to Chicago.” (Driehaus Museum press release, 6/30/21)
Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business
- Driehaus Museum unveils $8 million renovation of ornate Murphy Auditorium, Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 6/21/24
- Driehaus Museum Reopens John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium, A new City of Chicago Landmark, Driehaus Museum press release, 6/30/21
- More is more, The Driehaus Museum adds a building, Deanna Isaacs, Chicago Readers, 6/26/24
- Driehaus Museum celebrates major milestone in expansion with beam installation, Anthony Ponce, FOX 32 Chicago, 11/1/23
- Richard H. Driehaus Museum Acquires Chicago’s Historic Murphy Memorial Auditorium, Driehaus Museum press release, 6/31/21