William Pretyman, Designer of the Parlor Wall Covering
by John H. Waters
Parlor wall covering at the Glessner House
The dedication of the newly restored parlor on October 14, 2011 gives us a chance to look at the life and work of William Pretyman, the artist who designed the room’s wall covering. Active in Chicago from the mid-1880s to the mid-1890s, Pretyman is now little remembered here. In fact, he designed a number of significant interiors, several of them in buildings by his good friend architect John Wellborn Root of the firm Burnham and Root.
Pretyman was born in Aylesbury, England in 1849 and traveled widely in his youth, serving two years as an administrator in the British protectorate of North Borneo. By 1882 he had settled in Albany and the next year he married Jenny Remington (of the Remington arms family). In 1885 the couple moved to Chicago, where Pretyman quickly gained access to the upper echelons of Chicago society. He would go on to design interiors for a number of Chicago houses and churches, among them the Glessner House, the MacVeagh House (also designed by H. H. Richardson), the 1888 interior of Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue, and The Church of the Atonement in Edgewater.
Second Presbyterian Church
Pretyman’s designs for spaces in several Burnham and Root buildings were his most elaborate. They included the banking room for the Society for Savings in Cleveland (1890), Charles Gossage & Co. a dry goods store in the first floor and basement of the Reliance Building (1891), and Willard Hall, the assembly room for the Women’s Temple at the corner of Monroe and State (1892). Of these interiors only the Society for Savings remains. (See further information below).
In 1891 Pretyman was appointed Director of Color for the World’s Columbian Exposition, but resigned a year later. His vision was for a colorful fair, and he did not remain after it was decided to create a “White City.” Pretyman and his family left the U.S. for his native England in the mid-1890s, though he continued to exhibit his art work in this country until at least the early 1910s. He died in England in 1920.
Burnham and Roots Society for Saving Building Ceiling
Society for Savings
SOCIETY FOR SAVINGS BUILDING
The banking room interior William Pretyman designed for Burnham and Root’s Society for Savings Building in Cleveland is his only interior, other than the Glessner House parlor, known to survive. The banking room fills most of the first floor of the building and, like the Glessner parlor, its walls are covered with stenciled decoration. Pretyman also designed the elaborate leaded glass skylight for the space.
When the building first opened in 1890, the Chicago Tribune commented, “Mr. Pretyman has used much yellow in its color scheme, and the great room is like a golden burst of sunlight . . . (T)he effect of the whole is beautifully joyous and serene.”
Today, thanks to the excellent preservation of the space, that effect can still be felt.
Through the Years with the Glessners
Journals courtesy of the Chicago History Museum
The Glessners Dedicate Their Home
125 Years Ago (1887)
December 1: Yesterday we continued our moving, bringing down quite a number of things. We found a car load of our furniture had come from Davenport, and had it brought here unloaded and most of it unpacked. It is very beautiful. Today we moved by the wagon load – and slept here the first night. No one knew that we had been moving, every thing was taken in the alley way and unpacked in the court yard.
December 4: Today we took a carriage and went to the old home. It looked very forlorn. We kindled a fire in the library and I lighted a lantern which I had carried over and brought the light home – then from that I lighted a fire here in the library. Prof. Swing came. After we had a lovely chat, we went all over the house, then the Prof. read a few verses from the 5th chapter of Matthew and made a beautiful prayer. Now I feel that the house is dedicated, and so ends a very happy day and prosperous beginning.
Glessner House Museum 