Want to learn more about Richardsonian Romanesque architecture? Henry Hobson Richardson is celebrating a birthday this Saturday—September 29, 1838. In the late 1800s at the height of Chicago's building boom, H.H. Richardson built a house for John Jacob Glessner, a wealthy farm machinery industrialist. The Glessner House exemplifies Richardson's style, with its stone walls, Roman arches, and massive doorways. And this year, on Richardson's birthday, you can visit the Glessner House for free.
Saturday is Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day, when hundreds of venues across the United States offer free admission. Explore the architecture of mansions from the Gilded Age, Antebellum plantations, and exhibitions that trace the history of architecture. All you have to do is print out your free ticket from the Smithsonian Museum Day Web site. Happy birthday to us!
Here's a sampling of other historic buildings you can visit for FREE:
- Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, Louisiana
- Gropius House, Lincoln, Massachusetts
- Roseland Cottage, Woodstock, Connecticut
- Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts
- 1820 Post Office at the Lexington County Museum, Lexington, South Carolina
- Belle Grove Plantation, Middletown, Virginia
- The Morgan Library & Museum, New York City, built in 1906 by Charles Follen McKim and renovated in 2006 by Renzo Piano
- Greater Los Angeles
- New York City
- Cleveland
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Orlando, Florida
- Oklahoma City
- Indianapolis
Photo of Glessner House entrance © ChicagoGeek, CC BY-SA 2.0, flickr.com
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