Driehaus Museum
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| Established | 2003 |
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| Location | 40 East Erie Street Chicago, Illinois United States |
| Coordinates | 41°53′40″N 87°37′36″W / 41.89431°N 87.62654°WCoordinates: 41°53′40″N 87°37′36″W / 41.89431°N 87.62654°W |
| Type | Decorative Arts Museum |
| Public transit access |
CTA bus routes: Routes 3, 10, 26, 36, 125, 143, 146–148 and 151 Chicago 'L': Chicago Station Grand Station |
| Website | www |
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is a museum located at 40 East Erie Street on the Near North Side in Chicago, Illinois, near the Magnificent Mile. The museum is housed within the historic Samuel M. Nickerson House, the 1883 residence of a wealthy Chicago banker. Although the mansion has been restored, the Driehaus Museum does not re-create the Nickerson period but rather broadly interprets and displays the prevailing design, architecture, and decorating tastes of Gilded Age America and the art nouveau era in permanent and special exhibitions.
The interiors are replete with marble, onyx, carved exotic and domestic woods, glazed tiles, and stained glass. On display are original furnishings from the Nickerson era along with American and European decorative arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including art nouveau furnishings and a number of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The museum is named after its founder, the Chicago businessman, philanthropist, and art collector Richard H. Driehaus. The artworks on display in the museum are selections from the private Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts.
The mansion was designed for Samuel M. Nickerson by one of Chicago’s earliest prominent architects, Edward J. Burling of the architectural firm of Burling & Whitehouse. Construction took four years and cost $450,000; it was reportedly the most expensive and elaborate private residence in Chicago at the time of its completion in 1883.
The Nickerson family lived in the mansion from 1883 to 1900. They sold the house and property to the paper magnate Lucius George Fisher, who lived there until his death in 1916. In 1919, a group of prominent Chicagoans purchased the home and presented the deed as a gift to the American College of Surgeons, who used the building as administrative space until 1965. From 1965 to 2003 it was leased by the College of Surgeons to various tenants.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and designated a Chicago landmark on September 28, 1977.
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