The house at 1040 Chestnut Avenue, built in 1923 for Edward J. and Dorothy Schager, was designed by Philip Maher while he worked with his father’s firm, George W. Maher Sons, Planners and Architects. Although not as well known as his father, Philip was recognized as a significant architect who combined architectural historicism with his father’s more progressive Prairie Style approach.

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century there were two approaches to architectural design: the historic revival, which carried over from the 19th century, and a new progressive approach that sought more modern designs that were considered appropriate to the times. Philip Maher’s designs were eclectic, a combination of both schools of thought.

Philip’s eclectic style was described by William Jordy, a prominent architectural historian. Jordy wrote of Philip Maher, “…he had the freedom to select his style (Renaissance or Gothic); then he had freedom to work eclectically within the chosen style…; freedom to invent of adapt…;

freedom even to create a modernized…variant of a detail.” Although Philip’s formal architectural training was modern, having worked with his father George W. Maher beginning in 1914, Philip chose to design using historical forms and styles. He then abstracted and simplified them. The influence of George is evident in Philip’s stripped-down approach to ornamentation.

The house at 1040 Chestnut Avenue displays several characteristics of a historicist designer’s approach to architecture. The house’s rectangular massing, tile roof and arched openings recall an Italian Renaissance villa. Philip’s use of a triple-arched theme in several door arrangements including the garage, the original front open loggia and the west basement level entry, recall the arched loggias that were a common element of Italian Renaissance design.

The house also expresses a more progressive approach to architecture. This is expressed in its simplified geometric brickwork. It is also evident in Philip’s application of his father’s well-known motif-rhythm theory in the design of the front entrance arch and two side panels that are of carved stone. Each has an abstracted grapevine design. The vine motif is found in the interior in ceiling and door borders. George Maher frequently repeated an indigenous plant form to unify his design elements.

Although Philip Maher designed numerous other homes during his career, he singled out 1040 Chestnut more than fifty years later in an unpublished autobiography, “…I was kept very busy with several large houses, such as the Sprenger, Bichl, and Schager, and the Dubbs houses in Kenilworth and Wilmette, as well as several in Lake Forest.”

The house directly west of 1040, at 1100 Chestnut, was designed for George and Helen Bichl by Philip Maher at the same time as he designed the Schager House. The two homes were built for two sisters, Dorothy Schager and Helen Bichl, by their father. The houses are both entered by a set of gates and have a shared landscape that originally contained a large swimming pool and pergola, a sunken rock pool or grotto and small fountains. The formal landscape design stylistically resembled a 17th Century Italian Renaissance garden.

The Schager House has had no exterior alterations except for removal of the original front entrance’s triple-arched open loggia, which was taken down because of severe deterioration. The current owner’s plans are to restore the loggia based on Maher’s original plans. It will look as if it did when the house was first built.