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Nichols Album of Artistic Dwellings

From Bloomingpedia

Nichols' Album of Artistic Dwellings was an architect's plan book published by John Nichols in 1902 and dedicated to his father, Hiram J. Nichols. The album consisted of photos and floor plans of houses that Nichols designed, sketches of houses in various styles, a few interior views of his own house and some advertising.

Houses That Are Still Standing

Many of the homes pictured in the album are still standing, including:

  • The Hicks 625 N. Walnut Street

  • Shoemaker House 418 N. Washington Street

  • The Henley 322 W. Second Street

  • The Miers 624 E. Second Street

  • The Walls southeast corner of 14th and 'O' Streets in Bedford, Ind.

Houses That Are No Longer Standing

Other houses pictured in the album are no longer standing but their former locations are known, including:

  • Harrison T. Swindler Cottages, 122 and 120 E. Third Street

  • The Cravens 422 N. Washington Street

  • Booth Cottage 505 E. Kirkwood Avenue

  • The Bryan 419 E. Sixth Street

  • The Fee Northeast corner Fee Lane and 10th Street

  • The Goodbody 822 E. Atwater Avenue

  • The Hershey 706 N. College Avenue

  • The Indianapolis Corner of 21st and Pennsylvania in Indianapolis (h/t Danita Davis)

  • The Ritter Northwest corner of Kirkwood and Indiana

  • Smith Cottage E. Third Street

The Goodbody, The Ritter, Smith Cottage and The Fee were demolished by Indiana University to make way for the Optometry Building, a parking lot, the Optometry Clinic and the Business Building (now Hodge Hall), respectively. The Cravens was destroyed by fire on December 22, 1922. That same day a sorority house occupied by Delta Zeta was destroyed by fire on Forest Place. The Bloomington Fire Department fought both fires simultaneously.

Old House Mysteries

Several photos of houses in the album have yet to be identified, including:

  • The Oklahoma

  • The Colona

  • Plan 12

  • Plan 142

Plagiarism

Interspersed in the album are several well executed sketches by other architects that John Nichols apparently appropriated from trade publications. None of the sketches in the album can be identified as completed buildings associated with Nichols. None of the buildings in the album known to have been built have sketches. Nichols is known to have plagiarized a sketch of the Allen County (Ind.) Courthouse by B. S. Tolan and labeled it as his own. The only known surviving sketch of a Nichols project is a workmanlike drawing of the Harris Grand Theater. The Harris Grand opened September 18, 1907. A year and day before that the Bloomington Evening World of September 17, 1906 ran an article that in it's entirety read "J. C. Bracherwick, of Chicago, has taken a position with Nichols & Son as perspective designer and architectural draftsman". The Harris Grand drawing may be Bracherwick's work.

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