Old Chicago House

The Old Chicago House was situated adjacent to the Memorial Temple of Amenhotep III. Built in 1924, the house was constructed in a similar architectural style to the other contemporary dig houses on the West Bank. It may have been inspired partly by the architectural designs of Somers Clarke, whose other dig houses in Egypt included Islamic and Coptic architectural elements.

The first building phase of Old Chicago House, wood-framed and built of mudbrick, had two domes with octagonal bases on one side of the house. The larger, eastern dome, 7 meters in diameter, surmounted the sitting room and had a slightly conical shape, as opposed to the fully rounded domes seen in other dig houses nearby. The second, western dome, 3.5 meters in diameter, covered what had been the dark room before its conversion into a storeroom. The north end of the house included a veranda with a series of tall arches, and the rectilinear windows with wood shutters were decorated with half-moon recesses at the top in order to suggest an arched window. Like the Metropolitan House, the primary roof of Chicago House was made of wood and overlaid with a secondary roof that provided shade and ventilation.

Between 1926 and 1927, the house was considerably expanded. The eastern building, the living quarters, were extended to the south, and a second building, the western building, was added in the house’s last construction phase, in 1927. To the eastern building were added other rooms were also added, including six bedrooms, two baths, two photographic studios, a study, and a sitting room. The second building included the library, drawing room, three baths, three offices, five bedrooms, a storeroom, and the workmen’s quarters. The large new library built of fired brick was added to the house and named after the Chicago House’s benefactor, Julius Rosenwald. Its interior had high arched doorways, with high plastered walls and a tiled floor. On one side, a series of arched windows were set within an apse-shaped niche, which was fitted with a seating area.

There were structural integrity problems with the early phase of the library, particularly with regard to the dome over the center of the library. The necessary building materials to support this heavy structure were too expensive, but the aesthetics nevertheless took precedence over practical requirements, weakening the dome and putting the collection in danger. Ultimately, the dome was replaced by a flat roof, with the interior resembling that of a basilica, a format that had been proposed by Uvo Hölscher, the architect of the Architectural Survey. The pillars supporting the roof were shortened, and tall pointed arches were added, yielding a more stable structure.

The original house and its extensions faced threats of structural damage caused by the inundation of the Nile, which, as one of the photographs shows, practically extended to Chicago House’s front door. Moreover, there were concerns about infestations of white ants, which thrive on organic materials, a problem faced by many of the surrounding dig houses. Silverfish also proved a problem, as they would eat the surface of photographic prints. To combat these threats, tar paper was used in the walls as a form of sealant.

TMP would like to thank members of ISAC for their tireless assistance and support with this project, namely Sue Lezon, Brett McClain, Susan Allison, and Emmanuelle Arnaudiès.