Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic and Murder

The art nouveau murals on the tenth floor of the Fine Arts Building

Originally built in 1887 as a factory and showroom for Studebaker carriages, the company soon moved, and the Studebakers turned to architect Solon S. Beman to renovate it for a new purpose. The building was rededicated as the Fine Arts Building in 1898 with theaters and artist studios that would house such greats such as architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Wizard of Oz illustrator William W. Denslow, sculptor Lorado Taft, novelist Hamlin Garland, Little Review founder Margaret Anderson and more. With the incredible 10^th floor Art Nouveau murals, the exquisite Venetian Court, the sound of music coming from classes throughout the building’s warrens, and then the murder which took place close to his 8^th floor office back in 1980, the Fine Arts Building became fascinating fodder for the author who writes mysteries as well.

Keir Graff, author of Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic and Murder

Graff is the author or coauthor of fourteen novels and the editor of two anthologies. With Linda Joffe Hull under the pen name Linda Keir, he writes mysteries and thrillers about marriages in trouble; with James Patterson, he writes the MK’s Detective Club series for middle-grade readers. The former executive editor of Booklist, he is also the co-founder of Publishing Cocktails Chicago and the cohost of the Filmographers Podcast. An in-demand speaker and teacher, he provides writing advice and book recommendations in his free monthly newsletter Graff Paper.

“I was asked by Newcity in 2023 to write a piece on the building and it ended up being 25,000 words long,” Graff said. “I got such a great response, and the magazine still gets requests for the issue, so I decided to expand it into a book. I spoke to several local publishers, but Trope really got what I was looking for: history packed with lots of images, a gorgeous coffee table book. In telling the story, I am very aware that I’m a newcomer to the building, but I think it’s also helpful that I’m seeing it with fresh eyes.”

Graff takes readers behind the scenes of this cultural hub and home for working artists. The building was an immediate success, but the Great Depression brought a long, slow decline. Graff explores the building’s history, its revitalization, and its cultural place in Chicago. Featuring interviews with current tenants, historical photos and artifacts from the building’s archives, and a foreword by bestselling author Gillian Flynn, Graff’s book shines a new light on this storied building and its long history.

We asked Graff about the book’s subtitle: Music, Magic and Murder:

“The Fine Arts Building is open to artists working in all disciplines, from painters and puppeteers to dancers and filmmakers, but since its founding music instructors have been the most predominant. And there are many tenants who support musicians, from instrument makers and repairers to a sheet music store. And hundreds of young people—the next generation of musicians—come to the building every week to rehearse with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.”

The recently renovated Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building.

To Graff, the magic is felt by so many who enter the Fine Arts Building:

“They just have this feeling of awe, and so many people I talk to use the word magic. Not just because of the beautiful surroundings but because of all the amazing things that are happening here. Everyone is on fire to create.

“It can feel like time travel, because many artists are still doing things the way they would have 100 years ago, but it’s not time travel—because it’s still a working building. And there’s community. Some people leave their doors open to welcome neighbors and tenants talk in the halls. We probably don’t have the artistic ferment of the days of the Little Room—there were a lot more clubs back then—but good things happen when artists work close to one another.”

And we asked Graff to tell us more about the murder:

“It is shocking how many people have died in the building, which seems to have more than its share of tragedies,” Graff said. “The most famous was the murder of Everett Clarke, a star from the golden age of radio in the 1930s and 1940s. His acting career declined as TV took over, so he took a studio on the 10^th floor where he became a much-loved acting teacher.

“On September 9, 1980, his next-door neighbor heard a voice call out ‘No, Paul! God, no, Paul!’ but she assumed Clarke and a student were acting out a scene. When Clarke didn’t come home, an elevator operator opened the studio door, which had been locked from the inside. Clarke had been stabbed to death with scissors and the murderer had escaped through the window. Police were able to identify the killer as Paul DeWitt, a student of Clarke’s who’d suffered a mental breakdown.”

Although Poetry Magazine founder Harriet Monroe did not have a studio at the Fine Arts Building, she was an integral part of the artist community there for many years and was an active member of the Little Room where the vibrant artistic environment and the people she met there helped her launch her magazine. It was at the Little Room that writer Hobart Chatfield-Taylor suggested that Monroe ask Chicago businessmen to contribute $50 a year for five years, and Chatfield-Taylor contributed the first $50.

The Dial, a semi-monthly journal of literary criticism founded by Francis Fisher Browne, the Chicago offices of The Saturday Evening Post, and The Little Review were among the tenants. Margaret Anderson, who edited The Little Review, was the first to publish James Joyce’s Ulysses in the United States. Frank Lloyd Wright designed a bookstore on the seventh floor for Browne as well as the Thurber Art Gallery. Other former tenants included: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Municipal Arts League, the Public School Arts Society, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.

“I often think about the members of the Little Room, who had serious discussions about art but also a sense of fun,” Graff said. “They clearly loved the social aspects and would sometimes stage whimsical plays. We may not have a Little Room today, but its legacy lives on. The Fine Arts Building really is the most magical place.”