We have seen this Tudor palace before, but there is no reason we should not see it again, with some different details this time.
The entrance lobby. The interior is filled with richly colored tiles, some with decorative figures like this griffin.
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Hampton Hall, Oakland
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Hampton Hall, Oakland
According to a city architectural inventory (PDF), Hampton Hall was built in 1928, and the architect was H. G. Hodgkins, who seems to have been based in Chicago, to judge by listings in Chicago trade magazines that show up in a Google Books search.
The interior includes quite a bit of Nemadji tile, and old Pa Pitt had never heard of Nemadji tile until he found this page on Hampton Hall from a site of Historic U. S. Tile Installations. The exterior is fairy-tale Tudor, designed to make apartment dwellers feel as though they were great lords of Queen Elizabeth’s time.
The entrance is flanked by bears holding shields, as bears are wont to do.
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Old King Edward and His Jesters
There are two apartment buildings called King Edward in Oakland (plus a small “annex” on Melwood Avenue). The more visible one, the King Edward Apartments on Craig Street at Bayard, was built in 1929. The original King Edward, built in 1914, is behind on Melwood Avenue at Bayard Street. It seems much more staid than its larger neighbor, until we look closer and discover that it is festooned with these grotesque faces.
Addendum: The architect was H. G. Hodgkins, who also designed Hampton Hall, another Merrie England fantasy.
