Made an interesting trip today to Richard Nickel’s house. With the thaw I felt an itch to search for interesting buildings. Then I remembered that I had yet to see Nickel’s home—though he never actually lived here, having died not so long after buying it. I think it was on the endangered buildings list, but it looked to me like someone was fixing it up. The back gate was open, and I was severely tempted to go round back to see where he stored all that ornamentation he liberated from fallen Sullivans, et al. I chickened out. Anyway, it seemed like a nice way to intiate what I imagine will be a fruitful year of visiting beautiful buildings. I hope to see a lot of midwestern Prairie School architecture, and get a few more Sullivan banks under my belt, hopefully with Nate in tow. He’s been asking to see “beautiful buildings” again, God love him.
