Similar to Frank Lloyd Wright, William L. Steele designed houses. Quite a few of the homes he designed are located in Sioux City. One of the most well known is the H. H. Everist House located on the western edge of Grandview park at 37 McDonald Dr.
It has been said
"To tour the H. H. Everist House is to feel the spirit of architect William L. Steele."
While that is no doubt true I have not had the pleasure of touring the inside of the house myself. However I have felt that when touring some of his other buildings.
Revealed in the design of the Everist House are dozens of features that are unique to Steele's genius of Prairie School style.
THe most prominent is the outside brick. The brick came from Sioux City Brick and Tile Company and was made with Loess Hills clay. The Loess Hills in the United States are only unique to western Iowa and extend from Akron to Hamburg. The only way to get the color of the brick is from the Loess Hills clay. There are other buildings built with the same kind of color brick, a beautiful rich tan Roman color. Steele used the brick to achieve the signature horizontal, seemingly endless line. The horizontal lines is a unique feature only used in Prairie School architecture. The mortar is the same color and flush with the brick. The horizontal mortar is raked, the only style found in Prairie style.
Prairie style architecture is about being part of the natural surroundings and being organic. The Everist House looks like it is part of the hillside. The materials including the tan color of the tile roof repeats the hues of nature.
For 80 years the house only had one owner, the Everists. Now it is owned by another owner. Steele designed the house for Hubert H. Everist Sr., founder of L. G. Everist Inc. and Western Corporation. It was built in 1917. The Everists saw the Robie House in Chicago and wanted to repeat it here in Sioux City. The Robie House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is regarded as one of his most outstanding examples of Wright's style of Prairie School architecture.
Both Wright and Steele worked adn studied under famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan early in their careers. Both were influenced by Sullivan who was the father of Prairie School architecture.
Prairie School style was viewed as a radical, even objectionable departure from the Victorian influence that had dominated Sioux City architecture for many years. In fact in 1915 Steele's design of the Woodbury County Courthouse drew public protests as being too radical.
The biggest difference is Victorian style houses used a prominent vertical form, Prarie Stle used horizontal lines that harmonized with the with the rolling midwestern landscape. Another difference in the 2 architetural styles is Victorian favored seperate formal rooms, Prairie Style pushed interior spaces to the outdoors with terraces, porches and peroglas. Rooms were conceived as spaces that flowed into each other.
Among the remarkable elements of the Everist House is the 100 foot unobstructed space that stretches from one end of the ground floor to the other. This is according to Richard Guy Wilson, co-author of The Prairie School in Iowa. This open approach had a profound influence on American architecture.
At ground level of the 5,000 square foot home the open space comprises front and rear entry foyers, a living room, dining room, morning room, sun room and library. The kitchen and family room with full bath have been remodeled by newer owners to accomidate contemporary lifestyles. The remainder of the ground floor has been restored to it's original oak luster.
In every direction one looks in the house horizontal windows invite natural lights. Steele's cleverly designed overhangs welcome sun in the winter and provide shapde in the summer. The large overhangs are a style uniqe only to Prairie School architecture and Steele was well known for using them in a lot of his designs.
The house has 2 fire places and has a grand staircase. Off the staircase is a large rear foyer with massive doors that opens to a circular driveway. The driveway is protected by a porte cochere. Visitors, at the time the house was built, could pull in their horse drawn buggies and be pretected from the weather. Today it is the same for people who visit driving motor vehicles.
The Everist House has no Victorian excess. There are no newel posts or round spindles. Everything is square and angular with out curves.
Upstairs reveals a master suite, dressin rooms, sitting rooms and a fireplace. There is also a guest room, roomy servents quarters a backstairs, sleeping porch, laundry and 3 bathrooms. The restoration used Frank Lloyd Wright design wallpaper through out the second floor.
The house was originally to have an elevator. The door constructed for the elevator now conceals storage space. The original plans also called for a swimming pool, but one was never constructed, the tennis courts remain however.
The Everist House has a lot of built in storage tucked into the walls of the airy upstairs hallway.
The built-ins are most striking in most people's favorite part of the home, the Ship Bedroom. So called because the room is designed to look like the interior of a ship. The Everist Family raised quite a few children and the Ship Bedroom is where many of the youngsters slept. The room boasts tongue in groove that covers the walls and ceilings, 4 built-in bunkbeds, each with its own reading light, portal mirrors and built-in dressers that are all original to the house. At the center of the Ship Room is an oak table with built-in bookshelves. The most compelling feature of the Ship Room is the band of leaded windows bearing medallions of nautically themed glass. One medallion depicts a sunset at sea. The medallions were designed with children in mind.
The Everists and the owners in 1998 were praised for their diligence in preserving all of the unique features of the house which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The owners as of 1998 has had to do extensive restoration work based on the careful research of the home.
At the time there were 2 things that had to be restored the fountain and the goldfish pond in the front of the house.
Here is an article from the June 7, 1998 edition of the Sioux City Journal about the Everist House;
Info. on the National Register of Historic Places listing;
Everist, H. H., House (added 1983 - Building - #83000413)
37 McDonald Dr., Sioux City
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Steele,William LaBarthe
Architectural Style: Prairie School
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1900-1924
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Domestic
Historic Sub-function: Single Dwelling
Current Function: Domestic
Current Sub-function: Single Dwelling
A newspaper article on the Everist House and photo's of what the house looks like today;
Information about the H. H. Everist House was obtained through research at the Pearl St. Research Center and the Sioux City Public Library. The newspaper articles are scans from microfilm using the digital film viewer at the public library. The current photo's of the house were taken by me with a digital camera.
The H. H. Everist House is a privatley owned home. Respect tresspassing laws and only view the home from the public roadway. Do not enter the property with out permission. To obtain permission it is probably ok to enter via the driveway, not the grass and knock on the door or ring the doorbell. Photographs are allowed, but only from the public roadway. If the anyone is outside the home when photo's are being taken do not include people in the photo. This is an invasion of privacy.
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