Four months after the death of noted Chicago philanthropist and investor Richard Driehaus, his namesake museum is fulfilling one final dream.

       The Driehaus Museum, a restored 19th century Near North mansion that celebrates the art and architecture of Chicago’s Gilded Age, is buying the equally historic Murphy Memorial Auditorium next door.

       Purchased from the American College of Surgeons for an undisclosed price, the six-story French Renaissance Murphy building at 50 E. Erie St. will allow the museum to expand its offerings, while preserving a significant piece of Chicago architectural history.

       Driehaus, who died in March at the age of 78, bought the adjacent mansion that would become his museum from the American College of Surgeons in 2003.

       The exterior of the John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium at 50 E.Erie St. in Chicago on July 1, 2021. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

       “It was always part of his vision, that the two buildings would be joined again, under the same purpose,” said Anna Musci, the museum’s executive director.

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       Built in 1926 and designed by noted Chicago architects Benjamin Marshall and Charles Fox, whose other work includes the Drake Hotel and the Blackstone Hotel, the Murphy building was originally used as a lecture hall for surgeons.

       The building features Tiffany-designed bronze doors depicting prominent figures in the history of medicine and has a towering stained-glass window inside the auditorium. It was named for John B. Murphy, a Chicago abdominal surgeon credited with performing a lifesaving surgery on President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

       The American College of Surgeons occupied the Murphy building until 1997. In 2006, the organization completed a three-year restoration on the building and began renting out the ornate three-story auditorium for events such as weddings, commercial shoots and fundraisers.

       The 32,000-square-foot building went on the market in late 2019.

       Ward Miller, executive director of the nonprofit Preservation Chicago, said the building is one of the most historically significant structures in Chicago without a landmark designation. That put it at risk for demolition, had it fallen into the wrong hands, he said.

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       “The Murphy Auditorium is really an amazing structure,” Miller said. “It was facing an uncertain future when the American College of Surgeons placed it for sale.”

       An interior view of the Murphy Auditorium in Chicago. (Allen Bourgeois)

       A Chicago native who grew up in a modest Southwest Side bungalow, Driehaus graduated from DePaul University and launched his career in 1968 at former Chicago investment bank A.G. Becker. A successful portfolio manager, he went on to work at several different brokerage firms before founding Driehaus Capital Management in 1982. He rose to prominence in Chicago’s philanthropic circles, supporting a number of causes, including the preservation of historical architecture.

       Driehaus, who made the landmarked Ransom Cable House, also on Erie Street, the headquarters for his investment firm, had his eye on acquiring the Murphy building for several years, Musci said.

       When the American College of Surgeons decided to sell the property, Driehaus began pursuing it as an extension of the museum, and an opportunity to preserve another historic building on the block, Musci said.

       “We began looking at that several months before his death,” Musci said. “He was very excited about the opportunity to buy the building.”

       The Richard H. Driehaus Museum at 40 E. Erie St. on July 1, 2021. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

       The Driehaus Museum is also designated a Chicago landmark. Built in 1883 by Chicago banker and entrepreneur Samuel M. Nickerson, the three-story mansion dubbed the “marble palace” is located just off the Magnificent Mile in a glitzy neighborhood formerly known as McCormickville.

       The mansion became a social nexus for Chicago’s elite during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

       In 1919, the mansion was acquired by a group of wealthy Chicago benefactors, who donated it to the newly formed American College of Surgeons for use as the organization’s national headquarters.

       Purchased by Driehaus in 2003, the mansion reopened as a museum after a five-year restoration, focusing on art and design from of the Gilded Age through exhibitions and educational programs.

       Adding the Murphy Auditorium will enable the museum to broaden its offerings.

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       “It will allow us to expand our educational programming with its big auditorium,” Musci said. “We can have larger lectures, workshops, concerts in that space, in addition to renting it out.”

       A view from the balcony inside the Murphy Auditorium circa 1928. (Archives of the American College of Surgeons)

       Plans include some interior and exterior work, and “small reconfigurations of space” that can be used for artists, workshops and staff offices, Musci said. The museum expects to close on the acquisition within two months and reopen it for public use in 2022.

       David Hoyt, executive director of the American College of Surgeons, said the organization could not have found a better buyer than the Driehaus Museum.

       “It is an important legacy to have the building remain part of Chicago’s unique architectural fabric now and for years to come,” Hoyt said in a news release.

       Preservation Chicago’s Miller said he hopes the new owners will push to designate the building as a Chicago landmark.

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       “We will certainly consider that,” Musci said.

       rchannick@chicagotribune.com

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