Alice and J. Marion

Reed and I have put our hands on every piece of paper and every book in the house, as well as every hanger, sweater, jacket, hat and old magazine that was left here. We've sifted through so much material. As we do so we clear the house from this

To something more like this:

We've kept a lot of their older furniture, a piano, some jewelry, and lots of books. Depending on what the local historical societies and libraries decide, we may also be deciding what to do with J.Marion's copious drawings and documentation of his projects on the North Shore.

Here's some of what we know so far about them. He was a Polish Holocaust survivor, and there are many papers in his materials about the efforts to return stolen artworks to Jews after World War 2. He studied in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and had an architecture studio in France with his brother Henry. They did a number of interesting projects in France, including working on a house for Jacques Lipschitz in LeCorbusier's studio. He also designed a house and studio for the painter Robert Helman in Paris. After the war it appears that he worked in Poland doing reconstruction, and then came to the US in 1945 as a Displaced Person. He worked in New York with his brother Henry, then was offered a job at the University of Illinois at Chicago as their first architecture faculty. He taught at the Navy Pier. A number of prominent local architects came out of the program while he was there. He left the UIC in the mid 50s and must have at that point moved out to the suburbs to practice. In the early 50s he did a wide range of projects: many single family houses on the North Shore and in Chicago, a motel, highrises on Lakeshore Drive, Marine Drive and Sheridan Road in Chicago, and a series of commercial designs for a builder called NAMCO in Evanston. His work seems to have evolved from avant garde to 'builder vernacular' (as the architectural historian who came to look at the work gently put it) as he practiced through til the 90s. Alice, his wife, was a French teacher at New Trier High School and led abroad programs to France. Vive Alice! I have a number of her pieces of jewelry that were left in the house, mostly modern mexican silber. They were serious art collectors: J. Marion's family in Europe had quite a collection and he bought and sold many pieces. They seem to have really enjoyed going to auctions and there are many many catalogs from auction houses, all carefully marked up with sale prices. More on their collecting and their house in a future post: cooking dinner calls.