page_title: Howard Van Doren Shaw
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Howard Van Doren Shaw / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Exterior of the Home Insurance Building by architect William Le Baron Jenney in Chicago, Illinois.
context_page_description: Howard Van Doren Shaw AIA was an architect in Chicago, Illinois. Shaw was a leader in the American Craftsman movement, best exemplified in his 1900 remodel of Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He designed Marktown, Clayton Mark's planned worker community in Northwest Indiana.
context_section_description: Howard Van Doren Shaw was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 7, 1869. His father Theodore was a successful dry goods businessman and was part of the planning committee for the World's Columbian Exposition. His Dutch-American mother Sarah (née Van Doren) was a prolific painter and a member of the Bohemian Club. Howard had one brother, Theodore, Jr. His family resided at 2124 Calumet Avenue, then a part of the Prairie Avenue district, the heart of the social fabric of the city. Prairie Avenue was also the site of Chicago's most modern residential architecture, including Henry Hobson Richardson's John J. Glessner House. Howard Shaw met Frances Wells, his future wife, in the district's Bournique's dancing school on Twenty-Third Street. Wells was the daughter of Moses D. Wells, a prominent wholesale dry goods merchant.
  Shaw studied at the Harvard School for Boys in Hyde Park Township. He was accepted to Yale University, graduating with a bachelor of arts in 1890. While at Yale, Shaw was the lead editor of The Yale Record, the world's oldest humor magazine. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) later that year. MIT was one of the few architectural schools in the country at that time, closely following the rules set forth by the École des Beaux-Arts. Shaw completed the two-year program in one year. Shaw would use the elements of Georgian, Tudor, and neoclassical design he learned from MIT in most of his later works.
  After returning to Chicago in June 1891, he joined the Jenney & Mundie firm. William Le Baron Jenney was emerging as an innovating designer, creating the first skyscrapers. His firm was already gaining a reputation as a training ground for new architects, such as Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan. Shaw worked directly with emerging architects James Gamble Rogers, Alfred Hoyt Granger, and D. Everett Waid. Shaw received his first commission from his wife's parents, who desired a new house in Lakeville, Connecticut. After the completion of the Wells house, he traveled to Europe to study the endemic architecture. He visited Spain, southern France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and England. 
  Shaw spent two months in England before returning to Chicago. He rejoined Jenney & Mundie in early 1893, and on April 20, he married Francis Wells. Chicago architecture was receiving new recognition thanks to the success of the "White City" at the World's Columbian Exposition. Shaw worked on one last commission for the firm, the Snitzler house, in 1894.
  In 1894, Shaw established his own practice while finishing his work for Jenney & Mundie in his father's attic on Calumet Avenue. His first solo commissions were for his father, who wanted one house for his daughter and son-in-law, and another for the newlywed Shaws. These two adjacent houses featured a combination of Queen Anne, Tudor, and Romanesque styles. The incorporation of Indiana Limestone set these houses apart from their neighbors. 
  Shaw soon received five other requests for buildings in the Hyde Park neighborhood. Hyde Park, recently annexed by Chicago, was the fastest-growing neighborhood, thanks to the recently opened University of Chicago. Shaw received the commissions from individuals who were familiar with his father and family.
  Shaw's first major commission was for Richard R. Donnelley, cofounder of Lakeside Press. Donnelley's son, Thomas, had been a classmate at Yale and admired Howard's architecture. Shaw agreed to design a new printing plant for the company in 1897. 
  Lakeside Press published high-quality works, so it was necessary to reflect this in the building's design. Most printing press buildings of the age built from wooden to support the machines. However, Shaw decided to use a more fireproof design, with concrete floors and reinforcement columns. The building was a great success for Lakeside Press, and Shaw later received several more commissions from Donnelly, including a 1902 addition to this building.
  As Shaw's business grew, he moved his offices into the Montauk Building.
  In 1897, Shaw bought a one-third share of a 53-acre (
caption: Shaw worked with Jenney & Mundie in the top floor of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago
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