Krause Music Store: façade

During the last period of his activities, Sullivan was beset by financial difficulties; he became destitute and dependent on the charity of friends. His only executed design after the Merchants’ Union Bank in Columbus was the front of the Krause Music Store in Chicago.

The building was commissioned in 1921 by William P. Krause to serve the dual purpose of a residence and a music shop. Sullivan designed a beautiful green terracotta fa�ade with ornamentation richly detailed in geometric forms of nature. With its curvilinear plant forms and intricate framing of the picture window, the fa�ade is an outgrowth of Sullivan’s belief in organic architecture.

The building was completed in 1922, and the store opened to sell pianos and sheet music. After the Great Depression, Krause’s widow sold the building to a funeral parlour. During the next 60 years, the building functioned as a funeral home. By the turn of the new century, a gift shop called The Museum of Decorative Arts occupied the space. In 2005, the historic Sullivan fa�ade was painstakingly restored.