BLACK BEAR LODGE: AN ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE

Featuring: Alfred Willis, Architectural Historian

At the margin of a clearing in Homewood Izaak Walton Preserve stands a treasure of America's Modern architecture of the 1950s: Black Bear Lodge. Homewood's leading architect of the time, John V. McPherson, designed the single-room lodge as a meeting place for local Boy Scout troops. McPherson's talent for Modern design earned him the admiration of colleagues and clients throughout greater Chicago in the postwar decades. His lodge design took the form of a small 'solar house', an experimental building type widely acclaimed in the 1940s. The design was especially familiar to Homewood's population in the 1950s because the leading proponent of that type, architect George Fred Keck, designed and built one of the most successful early examples just over the village line in Flossmoor.

The Scouts looked forward to enjoying the lodge. Scouting officials hired a contractor to complete the limestone end walls and chimneys. But still, scouts and parents played active roles in its construction. And chimneys. In the long expanse between those limestone walls was a contrasting expanse of plate glass. This window-wall faces south so that, during the winter season the entire interior is appreciably warmed by the sun's rays. During the summer, however, the wide overhand of the roof on the south side shades the window-wall and thereby prevents overheating of the interior when coolness is instead desired. Black Bear Lodge was completed in 1953, and has both delighted and educated youngsters ever since. Its educational role has been assured not only by its performance of remarkable feats of thermal comfort but also by its constituent parts, which include salvaged utility poles. The poles are used for roof supports and roof beams, as well as to create the palisade-like north wall of what hence qualifies as a 'solar log cabin'. The re-use of discarded materials in a structure based on and clearly demonstrative of scientific principles makes the cabin itself an object lesson in environmental stewardship, respect for nature, thrift, and the value of resourcefulness.

We have been in the process of remodeling and repairing Black Bear Lodge for the past 10 months or so. The unused kitchen has been removed, the old fluorescent lights have been replaced with LED lighting, a support beam in the ceiling was replaced, water damage around the limestone walls was repaired and in early September a beautiful epoxy floor finish will be applied to the 72 year old concrete floor .Several years ago, a gas furnace was installed. Credit for managing this effort goes to Board members Shawn Straney and John Sailor. Weather permitting, part of the program will involve a short walk out to Black Bear from our main cabin. This promises to be an interesting and informative program!