The Elam House is a Prairie style house at 4726 South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Chicago, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The house was built in 1903 by Henry L. Newhouse, and was later purchased by Melissia Ann Elam. It was designated a Chicago Landmark

Chicago Landmark

Chicago Landmark is a designation of the Mayor of Chicago and the Chicago City Council for historic buildings and other sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artistic, cultural,...

on March 21, 1979.

Background information about Elam House

Elam House was owned by Mrs. Melissia Ann Elam. She was born in Missouri in 1853; her parents were slaves. After Emancipation, she moved to Chicago and worked as a maid until she married realtor Rubin Elam. Seeing the tremendous need for housing and guidance for the many single African American girls and women migrating into the city, Mrs. Elam purchased a home at 4555 South Champlain around 1920 and opened it as the Melissia Anne Elam Home for Working Women and Girls. Mrs. Elam and Isadore Anna Drell purchased the home at 4726 South Parkway in 1926, when demand outgrew space in the Champlain residence. Between the 1930s and the 1950s, Elam Home often housed over 30 women and girls at a time. The home was also the center of many Black, civic, social, and cultural events, including a state convention for African American women.

Mrs. Elam died in 1947. She willed Elam House to Centers for New Horizons, Inc. Centers for New Horizons is a not for profit social service agency that serves the Bronzeville and Riverdale communities on the Southside of Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Elam stipulated to Centers for New Horizons in her will that her home be kept in service to the community. She entrusted the home to a group of African American women, who maintained the home as a boarding home. As times changed, fewer women sought housing in boarding homes like Mrs. Elam’s, and the population of Elam House declined, although several women continued to live there well into the 1970s. In 1979 the home was declared a Chicago Historical Landmark.

About Elam House and its importance

Elam House, built for and formerly called the Simon Marks House, is a 11000 square feet (1,021.9 m²) Chateauesque mansion that was built in 1903 by Henry Newhouse. Chateauesque buildings are characterized by masonry structures, asymmetrical plans, deeply set windows, steeply pitched roofs, and turrets. Elam House had 20 rooms and featured lovely German wood craftsmanship and beautiful stained glass and leaded glass windows. The home suffered a serious fire in 1992 and much of the interior was lost, but there are many excellent pictures of the home available to help restore it to its original beauty. Since the fire, Centers for New Horizons has invested over $1 million in the home’s renovation, from insurance proceeds and its own funds.