The Beard House
Route 3, Stop 1
Description by Conor Libit
Name: Henry K. and Maude Beard house
Address: 49 Hawthorne Road, Barrington Hills
2 Bedrooms, 2.5 Bathrooms
Architect: Edward Dart
Built: 1955
After serving in World War II, Pennsylvania native Henry K. Beard moved to Chicago to represent organ manufacturer Moller Corporation. There he met south Texas soprano Maude Nosler, then pursuing her Masters in voice at Northwestern. Performing together and solo, including national broadcasts on CBS radio, the musical pair married in 1951. During this time Henry also acquired a distinguished reputation by designing many pipe organs.
When Ed Dart was drawing plans in 1952 for St. Michael's Episcopal Church of Barrington, the first of his twenty-six houses of worship, he sought Beard’s advice on accommodating a pipe organ. After the Beards became familiar with Dart and his gift for architecture, they chose him to design a unique glass, steel and Chicago common brick home of their own. In the tradition of country homes of the gentry, they named it Beardsley. Built for best acoustics, the living room housed two Steinway grand pianos and an alcove containing a sizeable pipe organ. Situated between Stephanie Lake and Keene Lake and facing ten degrees southeast for passive solar advantage, the house features a flat roof projecting over extensive fenestration to maximize views. In 1960 the house received an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects.
Sadly, the pipe organ no longer exists. Subsequent to Henry’s 1989 death, Maude needed cash for living expenses. She sold the pipe organ in 1994 to Barrington United Methodist Church on Hough Street, where it went up in smoke in 1998 with the rest of that structure.
Can't Miss:
80% glass exterior
Bucolic views of ancient oaks and two lakes
Ed Dart Bio
By Barbara L. Benson
Since the early twentieth century, noted architects have designed residences, churches and the occasional public building in our area.
This tour focuses on that time when a number of these architects both lived and practiced in Barrington.
EDWARD D. DART was born in 1922 in New Orleans, Louisiana to parents of French descent. After school in New Orleans and at the Woodbury Forest School in Virginia, he entered the University of Virginia. Leaving after two years he enlisted in the Marines, and flew bombers in the Pacific in World War 11.
On January 19, 1946 he married Wilhelmina Plansoen, a Duke University Alumna.
After military service he enrolled in the Yale School of Architecture studying under Richard M Bennett. Graduating in 1949,he had also studied under Pietro Belluschi, Marcel Breuer, Richard Neutra, Louis Kahn, Eero Saarinen, Harold Spitznagel, and Paul Shweiker for whom he later worked in Roselle, Illinois, thus bringing him to this area.
In a prolific and distinguished career Dart became a Fellow of the AIA at 44, and garnered 18 AIA Awards. At Yale developed his personal design style of using natural materials, incorporating a building into its site with free flowing spaces.
Throughout his career, between 1949 and 1968, he designed 52 custom homes, 26 custom churches, and many commercial structures. His last and most challenging assignment was the design of Water Tower Place in Chicago. He died in July 1975 in his home in Barrington Hills. He, and later his wife Wilma are interred in St. Michael’s Church Columbarium, a church he designed and they attended.