What is the oldest building in Chicago?
Henry B. Clarke House
Clarke House may have been modeled on the home of William B. Ogden. The Clarke house is often described as the oldest surviving house in Chicago, although part of the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House in the Norwood Park neighborhood was built in 1833. (However, Norwood Park was not annexed to Chicago until 1893.) The Clarke House was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 14, 1970. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1971.
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was the home of the "Chicago Tribune", Tribune Media, and tronc, Inc., formerly known as Tribune Publishing. WGN Radio (720 kHz) originated broadcasts from the building until moving to 303 Wacker Drive in June, 2018. The last WGN Radio broadcast emanated from the Tribune Tower on June 18, 2018. The ground level houses the large restaurant Howells & Hood (named for the building's architects), whose patio overlooks nearby Pioneer Court and Michigan Avenue. CNN's Chicago bureau was also located in the building. It is listed as a Chicago Landmark and is a contributing property to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District. The original Tribune Tower was built in 1868, but was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. In early 2018, work began on converting the entire office building into condominiums, expected to be completed by 2020.
Richard J. Daley Center
Situated on Randolph and Washington Streets between Dearborn and Clark Streets, the Richard J. Daley Center is considered one of Chicago's architectural highlights. The main building was designed in the International Style by Jacques Brownson of the firm C. F. Murphy Associates and completed in 1965. At the time it was the tallest building in Chicago, but only held this title for four years until the John Hancock Center was completed. Originally known as the Chicago Civic Center, the building was renamed for Mayor Daley on December 27, 1976, seven days after his death. The , thirty-one story building features Cor-Ten, a self-weathering steel. Cor-Ten was designed to rust, actually strengthening the structure and giving the building its distinctive red and brown color. The Daley Center has 30 floors, and is the tallest flat-roofed building in the world with fewer than 40 stories (a typical building would have 50-60 stories).
Auditorium Building (Chicago)
Sullivan and Adler designed a tall structure with load-bearing outer walls, and based the exterior appearance partly on the design of H.H. Richardson's Marshall Field Warehouse, another Chicago landmark. The Auditorium is a heavy, impressive structure externally, and was more striking in its day when buildings of its scale were less common. When completed, it was the tallest building in the city and largest building in the United States.
Chicagoland Vampires
Navarre House, the oldest house in Chicago, was founded before the Great Chicago Fire by Master Celina Desaulniers. Navarre's current master is Morgan Greer.
Old Main (Eastern Illinois University)
The Old Main, also known as the Livingston C. Lord Administration Building, is the oldest building at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Construction on the building began in 1896 and was completed in 1899. Architect George H. Miller designed the building, which has a medieval style resembling a castle. The building features a central tower, multiple turrets, and a crenellated roof line. It is one of five medieval buildings built at Illinois' public universities under Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld's administrations; the buildings are collectively known as Altgeld's castles. The Old Main originally housed all of the offices and classrooms for Eastern Illinois, its library, auditorium, and gymnasium; it was the only building on campus until 1909, when Pemberton Hall opened. The building is now used mainly as an administrative building, though it still contains some classrooms.
Kenwood, Chicago
The southeastern portion of Kenwood contains the Indian Village neighborhood, which features the Chicago Landmark Powhatan Apartments and the National Register of Historic Places Narragansett. The 1902 Blackstone Library is another well-known landmark in the neighborhood. It continues to be part of the Chicago Public Library system. The recently reopened Hyde Park Art Center, located on Cornell Avenue just north of 51st Street and East Hyde Park Boulevard, is Chicago's oldest alternative exhibition space, with an on-site school and studio.
Prairie Avenue
Historic preservation in Chicago has saved some of the city's architectural heritage. The efforts of the Chicago Architecture Foundation and the Landmarks and Preservation Council of Illinois have been at the forefront of these efforts. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks (now part of the city's Department of Planning and Development) has designated the Prairie Avenue Historic District as a city landmark.
A few of the mansions of the heyday still remain in the 1800-block including the National Historic landmark designated John J. Glessner House designed in 1886 by architect Henry H. Richardson for Glessner; these provide a sense of the street's former character. Glessner House, which was the subject of a notable preservation battle in the 1960s, is considered to be Richardson's finest urban residence. This district includes the Henry B. Clarke House, which although twice relocated is purported to be the city's oldest standing house. In addition to the Clarke House and the Glessner House, nine other houses from the late-19th century remain in the historic district portion of Prairie Avenue. Both the Glessner House and the Clarke House are on the National Historic Register and now serve as museums. Most of the Prairie Avenue families worshiped at the Chicago Landmark Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Silas B. Cobb
It is believed that up to the time this subscription was made, few, if any, ones had ever been made to education by a Chicago citizen at one time. A noble building, the Cobb Lecture Hall, now stands on the University campus, a monument of the builder's liberality and public spirit. - excerpted from "History of Chicago" by John MosesCobb was the earliest benefactor of the physical construction of the University of Chicago. While the original endowment for the university was funded by a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, it was stipulated that such money could not be used for buildings. The university thus looked for donors who could secure Rockefeller's endowment by providing funds for the campus' physical facilities. Cobb provided the funds for the campus' first building, Cobb Lecture Hall, which included classrooms, a recitation hall, and a chapel. Constructed in 1892 at a cost of $222,000, it is the oldest and most expensive of the campus' original sixteen buildings. Members of Cobb's family were also major benefactors to the university's construction, including sister-in-law Mrs. Jerome Beecher, who funded Beecher Hall, and son-in-law George C. Walker, who funded the Walker Museum.
Chicago
The destruction caused by the Great Chicago Fire led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era, which would then be followed by many other cities around the world. Today, Chicago's skyline is among the world's tallest and densest.
Manhattan Building (Chicago, Illinois)
The Manhattan Building is a 16-story building at 431 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney and constructed from 1889 to 1891. It is the oldest surviving skyscraper in the world to use a purely skeletal supporting structure. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976, and designated a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978.
Frederick O. Bemm
The Chicago History Museum's collection includes 471 negatives of Chicago buildings including the Art Institute of Chicago, Church of the Disciples, Dearborn Station, the Field Museum, Montgomery Ward Tower, Pure Oil & Jeweler's Building, Railway Exchange Building, Studebaker Hall Theater, and the Tavern Club as well as residential buildings owned by Max Epstein, Robert Mandel, Potter Palmer, Jos. Peters, Jules Raymond, J. B. Shaw, Benjamin Squire, P.A. Starch, Dudley Craft Watson, James V. R. Willett and various monuments in Jackson and Lincoln Parks as well as College in the Hills in Herod, Illinois and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois plus images of agricultural equipment and the Pontiac automobile service station and the Chalberg family that ran it. The Art Institute also has a large collection of his work including photographs of architectural projects by Edward H. Bennett and views of.various buildings including the Blackstone Hotel, Blair Building in New York City, Gorham Building, a Corn Exchange Bank building, buildings at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, various chapels, monuments, statues, residential building exterior and interior shots, and panoramas.
Germania Club Building
The Germania Club Building, located at 108 W. Germania Place in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, is the historic headquarters of the Germania Club, the oldest German-American organization in the city. The Germania Club was founded in 1865 as the Germania Männerchor, which formed to sing at Abraham Lincoln's funeral. The club built the Germania Club Building in 1889; it was designed by August Fiedler in an eclectic style featuring neoclassical and German Renaissance influences. The five-story building has a two-story limestone base with a portico and arched doorway on the south end. The upper stories feature arched windows capped by pediments and a pilaster supporting the cornice atop the building. The building includes a grand ballroom, banquet room, and restaurant and bar. The club played an important role in Chicago's German-American community, once the largest ethnic community in Chicago.
McMillan Hall
McMillan Hall is a building on the campus of Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, United States. Built in 1793, it is the only surviving building from Washington Academy. It is the eighth-oldest academic building in the United States that is still in use for its original academic purpose and is the oldest surviving college building west of the Allegheny Mountains.
The Columbian (Chicago)
The Columbian is a 517-foot-tall (158 m) skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was constructed from 2005 to 2008 and has 47 floors, 225 units and four elevators. It is the tallest brick-clad building, and 76th tallest building, in Chicago.
Noble–Seymour–Crippen House
The Noble–Seymour–Crippen House is a mansion located at 5624 North Newark Avenue in Chicago's Norwood Park community area. Its southern wing, built in 1833, is widely considered the oldest existing building in Chicago.
Masonic Temple (Chicago)
The Masonic Temple Building was a skyscraper built in Chicago, Illinois in 1892, and from 1895 to the 1920s the tallest building in Chicago. Designed by the firm of Burnham and Root and built at the corner of Randolph and State Streets, the building rose 21 stories. When the clock tower was removed from the 1885 Board of Trade Building in 1895, the Masonic Temple became the tallest in the city.
Century Tower (Chicago)
The Century Tower Condominiums, formerly known as the Trustees System Service Building, is a historic building located at 182 West Lake Street in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois.
Wright–Kay Building
The Wright–Kay Building, originally known as the Schwankovsky Temple of Music, is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It is located at 1500 Woodward Avenue, at the corner of Woodward and John R. Street, in proximity to the Lower Woodward Avenue Historic District. The building was listed on the State of Michigan's Historical Register in 1980 as #P25241.
Burnham Center
The Burnham Center, originally known as the Conway Building and later as the Chicago Title & Trust Building, is a historic skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. Built with funds from the Marshall Field estate, it was the last building designed by Daniel Burnham before his death on June 1, 1912 and was completed in 1913.
Old Montreal
Old Montreal is a major tourist attraction. With some of its buildings dating to the 17th century, it is one of the oldest urban areas in North America. In the eastern part of the old city (near Place Jacques-Cartier) the following notable buildings can be found: Montreal City Hall, Bonsecours Market and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, as well as preserved colonial mansions, such as the Château Ramezay and the Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site of Canada. Further west, Place d'Armes is dominated by Notre-Dame Basilica] on its southern side, accompanied by the Saint-Sulpice Seminary (the oldest extant building in Montreal). The other sides of the square are devoted to commerce; to the north is the former Bank of Montreal Head Office and to the west, the Aldred Building and the 1888 New York Life Building, the oldest skyscraper in Canada. The rest of Saint Jacques Street is lined with old bank buildings (like the Old Royal Bank Building) from its heyday as Canada's financial centre.
Culture of Chicago
The central part of Chicago was largely destroyed by the Chicago Fire in 1871. Almost all the buildings currently standing in the city's downtown area were built after that, one exception being the Chicago Water Tower.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, Chicago was a key location in the development of the skyscraper. This movement was spearheaded by architects promoting the Chicago School design philosophy, including Louis Sullivan and others. Notable tall buildings and skyscrapers built before the mid-1930s include the Rookery Building, the Auditorium Building, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Monadnock Building, the Reliance Building, the Sullivan Center, the Marquette Building, the Chicago Building, the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, the London Guarantee Building, 333 North Michigan, the Carbide & Carbon Building, the Merchandise Mart, and the Chicago Board of Trade Building.
East Chicago Street Historic District
One of the most significant buildings in the district is the Coldwater Public Library at 12 E. Chicago. In 1869, the Ladies Library Association was formed to start a local library. By 1870, the Association had collected 1200 volumes, and started a library in the house of Dr. John Beech (across the street at 11 E. Chicago). By 1880, the library was flourishing and the Coldwater City Council adopted a resolution providing for the establishment of a city library. A site was procured, but it wasn't until 1885 that a successful businessman, Edwin R. Clarke (whose house is located at 299 E. Chicago Street), donated funds to construct a building. The library opened in 1886. The first President of the Library Board Henry C. Lewis, who live at 53 E. Chicago. Lewis was an art collector, and constructed a gallery near his house at 45. E Chicago, which is now a portion of the Masonic Temple.
Chicago Sun-Times
The "Chicago Sun-Times" claims to be the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city. That claim is based on the 1844 founding of the "Chicago Daily Journal", which was also the first newspaper to publish the rumor, now believed false, that a cow owned by Catherine O'Leary was responsible for the Chicago fire. The "Evening Journal", whose West Side building at 17–19 S. Canal was undamaged, gave the "Chicago Tribune" a temporary home until it could rebuild. Though the assets of the "Journal" were sold to the "Chicago Daily News" in 1929, its last owner Samuel Emory Thomason also immediately launched the tabloid "Chicago Daily Illustrated Times".
Near North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is the oldest part of Chicago. In the 1780s, in what is now the Near North Side, on the northern banks of the Chicago River near today's Michigan Avenue Bridge, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable built the first known permanent settlement in "Eschecagou." Today this is marked by Pioneer Court.
Old Town, Chicago
Old Town is the site of many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings, as well as St. Michael's Church, originally a Bavarian-built church and one of seven to survive within the boundaries of the Great Chicago Fire.
Monadnock Building
The Monadnock belongs to the Printing House Row District, a National Historic Landmark which includes the Manhattan Building, the Old Colony Building, and the Fisher Building, some of Chicago's seminal early skyscrapers. The Manhattan Building, built by William LeBaron Jenney in 1890, was the first building in Chicago with a complete steel skeleton or "Chicago" construction, an innovation Jenney had introduced in the Home Insurance Building in 1884. The first 16-story building in America, at the time it was "regarded with awe and fear". Jenney's masterpiece, the Manhattan was considered a technical triumph in construction. The 17-story Old Colony, built by Holabird & Roche in 1894, was considered one of the structural masterpieces of its time for its revolutionary portal form of bracing. It is the only survivor of a group of Chicago school buildings with rounded corner bays. The Fisher Building, built by Burnham in 1894, was an engineering miracle—the first tall commercial building to be built almost entirely without bricks. Its steel frame and thin terracotta curtain wall allowed two-thirds of the surface to be covered with glass.
Victor F. Lawson House YMCA
The Victor F. Lawson House is a historic former YMCA building located at 30 W. Chicago Avenue in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The building was built in 1931 for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, which was established in 1858 and had grown considerably during the 1920s. It was named for newspaperman Victor Lawson, one of the YMCA's largest donors until his death in 1925. The architecture firm of Perkins, Chatten & Hammond designed the 24-story building in the Art Deco style. The YMCA used the new building to provide affordable housing and community services during the Great Depression, including family programs that were copied in other cities, and the building became the headquarters of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago after World War II.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
The Archbishop's Residence at 1555 North State Parkway is the official home of the Archbishop of Chicago and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1885 by the Most Rev. Patrick Feehan, first Archbishop of Chicago, it is a three-story, red brick building and is one of the oldest structures in the Astor Street District, according to the Landmarks Preservation Council.
Ernest R. Graham (architect)
According to an obituary in "The New York Times" (November 23, 1936, page 21, column 1): "For nearly half a century, he was one of the great builders of Chicago." Among the buildings that Graham planned or contributed to in Chicago were the Merchandise Mart, Field Building (now the La Salle Bank Building), Wrigley Building, Field Museum of Natural History reconstruction, Shedd Aquarium, Continental Illinois Bank Building, Union Station (Chicago), Marshall Field & Company Stores, the old Chicago Main Post Office Building, Pittsfield Building, State Bank of Chicago Building, and the Civic Opera House.
Ludington Building
The Ludington Building is the earliest-surviving, steel-frame building in Chicago, Illinois. It is located in the Chicago Loop community area. It was designed by William Le Baron Jenney and was named a Chicago Landmark on June 10, 1996. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1980. The Ludington Building "was commissioned by Mary Ludington Barnes for the American Book Company"; presently it is one of twenty buildings that comprise the campus of Columbia College Chicago.
Pontiac Building
The Pontiac Building is a historic high-rise building located at 542 S. Dearborn St. in the Printer's Row neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1891, the building is the oldest surviving work in downtown Chicago designed by the architecture firm Holabird & Roche. The fourteen-story building represents the Chicago school of architecture and is designed as a steel frame covered in brick. The building's Dearborn Street facade features three tiers of bay windows, while the facade on Federal Street features one tier of bay windows flanked by two tiers of flat windows; while the outer two tiers on both facades each span two bays, the middle tier spans only one. The bottoms of these tiers of windows, located at the second floor of the building, feature terra cotta soffits; the building's cornice is also terra cotta. The first two floors of the building feature limestone piers with decorative capitals. Due to the building's architectural significance, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976.
Reid, Murdoch &amp; Co. Building
The Reid, Murdoch & Co. Building, also known as the Reid Murdoch Building, the Reid Murdoch Center or the City of Chicago Central Office Building, is a seven-story office building in Chicago. It was constructed in 1914 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It also has been designated as a Chicago Landmark. It is located at 325 North LaSalle Street in the River North neighborhood, alongside the Chicago River between LaSalle Street and Clark Street.
Lillian &amp; Albert Small Jewish Museum
The historic synagogue building has been restored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and is now home to the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum. Washington's oldest surviving synagogue building, it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites, and the Historic American Buildings Survey. It is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States. It is also an official project of the Save America's Treasures program. Today the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington hosts building tours, walking tours, lectures, student field trips, weddings, and bar and bat mitzvahs in the historic sanctuary.
Warwick Allerton - Chicago
The Warwick Allerton - Chicago (formerly Allerton Hotel and Warwick Allerton Hotel Chicago and Allerton Crowne Plaza Hotel) is a 25-story hotel skyscraper on the Magnificent Mile in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building in the city to feature pronounced setbacks and towers resulting from the 1923 zoning law. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on May 29, 1998.
A. M. Rothschild &amp; Company Store
The A. M. Rothschild & Company Store, also known as the Goldblatt's Building, is a historic department store building located at 333 South State Street in the Loop neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The store was built in 1912 for the Rothschild & Company department store, which was founded in the late 1800s by Abram Rothschild. Prominent Chicago School architects Holabird & Roche designed the store; while the firm had also designed the company's previous, smaller store, the 1912 building was their first and only full-block department store design. The building's skeletal frame and large windows are typical of Chicago School buildings, while its extensive terra cotta ornamentation reflects the then-popular Beaux-Arts style. Rothschild & Company occupied the building until 1923, when Marshall Field & Company purchased it; it was sold again in 1936 to Goldblatt's, who ran their flagship store in the building until 1981.
Old North Building
The Old North Building, or simply Old North, is the oldest extant academic building on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and was the second major building built on the campus. To the east, the building is joined to Healy Hall and to the west, it is joined to New North, while the southern façade of the building encloses Dahlgren Quadrangle. Built in the Georgian style, Old North was one of the grandest buildings in Washington at the time of its completion in 1795. It served as the flagship of the university until the construction of Healy Hall. Old North currently houses the McCourt School of Public Policy.
Metropolitan Tower (Chicago)
Designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the Metropolitan Tower was named the Straus Building when completed in 1924. Though it was the first building in Chicago with 30 or more floors, it was never officially designated Chicago's tallest building since the Chicago Temple Building, also completed in 1924, is taller by but has seven fewer floors. The Straus Building and the Chicago Temple Building were the first to take advantage of the 1923 zoning ordinance; before then, no building in Chicago could be taller than .
National Register of Historic Places listings in Central Chicago
Currently there are 124 National Register of Historic Places listings in Central Chicago, out of 354 listings in the City of Chicago. Central Chicago includes 3 of the 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago: the historic business and cultural center of Chicago known as the Loop, as well as the Near North Side and the Near South Side. The combined area is bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, the Chicago River on the west, North Avenue (1600 N.) on the north, and 26th Street (2600 S.) on the south. This area runs five and one-quarter miles from north to south and about one and one-half miles from east to west.
The Chicago central city area includes many early classic skyscrapers of the Chicago School of Architecture, such as Burnham and Root's Monadnock and the Reliance Buildings, as well as buildings from the early Modernist period, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's IBM Building and 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments. Chicago's earliest surviving building, the Henry B. Clarke House is on the Near South Side, close to the Prairie Avenue District, which many critics view as the jewel of residential Chicago architecture. Architect Louis Sullivan's work is represented by the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, and Auditorium Building. Though Frank Lloyd Wright worked downtown early in his career as an assistant to Sullivan - including work on the James Charnley House - his own work in the central city is represented only by a renovation of the lobby of Daniel Burnham's and John Wellborn Root's Rookery Building.
U.S. Bank Building (Chicago)
U.S. Bank Building, formerly 190 South LaSalle Street, is a tall skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It was completed in 1987 and has 40 floors. Johnson/Burgee Architects designed the building, which is the 57th tallest building in Chicago. From 1988-2016 the lobby of the building featured a tapestry by Helena Hernmarck titled "The 1909 Plan of Chicago" depicting the Civic Center Plaza proposed in the Burnham Plan of Chicago.
Housing at the University of Chicago
Snell-Hitchcock Hall, often referred to as "Snitchcock", is located at 1009 E. 57th St., on the main campus quad, and houses 156 residents in two houses. Formally Amos Jerome Snell Hall and Charles Hitchcock Hall, more commonly known as Snell–Hitchcock or Hitchcock–Snell, was built in 1892 (Snell) and 1901 (Hitchcock). They are the oldest residence halls still in use as such on campus. Snell is built in a collegiate-Gothic style, while Hitchcock is Prairie Style inspired Gothic. The buildings both feature limestone exteriors and fireplaces, hardwood molding and trim.
Flatiron Building (Atlanta)
The English-American Building, commonly referenced as the Flatiron Building, is a building completed in 1897 located at 84 Peachtree Street NW in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on the wedge-shaped block between Peachtree Street NE, Poplar Street NW, and Broad Street NW, also creating a one-block break in Williams Street. It was completed five years before New York's Flatiron Building, and shares a similar prominent flatiron shape as its counterpart. It was designed by Bradford Gilbert, a Chicago school contemporary of Daniel Burnham, the designer of the New York building. The building has 11 stories, and is the city's second and oldest standing skyscraper. The Flatiron building is protected by the city as a historic building in the Fairlie-Poplar district of downtown, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Schaller's Original Pump
Schaller’s Original Pump, at 3714 South Halsted Street, was opened in 1881 by George “Harvey” Schaller and is the oldest bar and restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. It is a local landmark in the Chicago South Side neighborhood of Bridgeport and remains owned and operated by the founder’s descendants.
The Heritage at Millennium Park
The Heritage at Millennium Park, located at 130 N. Garland Court in Chicago, Illinois is a mixed-use tower. Completed in 2005, with a height of 631 feet and 57 floors, the building was designed by the architectural firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz (architects of Legacy Tower as well). It is the 36th-tallest building in Chicago. In what is becoming common practice with newer buildings, the Heritage preserves and makes use of the façades of four existing buildings in its base.
Chicago Club
In 1893, the club decided it needed larger quarters, and it purchased from the Art Institute of Chicago its former building on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street. This building has been put up in 1886-1887 and was designed by Burnham and Root to be the first home of the Institute, which moved across the street to its current location in 1892. This building remained the clubhouse until the 1920s, when it collapsed during remodelling.
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 and located in Chicago's Grant Park, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 million guests annually. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, is encyclopedic, and includes iconic works such as Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte", Pablo Picasso's "The Old Guitarist", Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks", and Grant Wood's "American Gothic". Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present cutting-edge curatorial and scientific research.
Harker Hall
Harker Hall, also known as the Chemical Laboratory, is a historic building on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in Urbana, Illinois. Built in 1877, the building originally served as the university's chemical laboratory. Architect Nathan Clifford Ricker designed the Second Empire building, which originally featured a mansard roof. In 1896, a lightning strike set the roof on fire, and architect James White replaced it with a hip roof. The building was named Harker Hall in honor of Oliver A. Harker, who served as dean of the university's law school from 1903 to 1916. Until it stopped hosting classes, the hall was the oldest classroom building at the university.
Washington Square Park (Chicago)
Washington Square, also known as Washington Square Park, is a park in Chicago, Illinois. A registered historic landmark that is better known by its nickname Bughouse Square (derived from the slang of bughouse referring to mental health facilities), it was the most celebrated open air free-speech center in the country as well as a popular Chicago tourist attraction. It is located across Walton Street from Newberry Library at 901 N. Clark Street in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is Chicago's oldest existing small park. It is one of four Chicago Park District parks named after persons surnamed Washington (the others being Washington Park, Harold Washington Park, and Dinah Washington Park). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, 1991.
Pacific Garden Mission
Pacific Garden Mission is a homeless shelter in the Near West Side section of Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1877, by Colonel George Clarke and his wife, Sarah. It has been nicknamed, ""The Old Lighthouse"." It is the oldest such shelter in Chicago. According to the PGM website, "Pacific Garden Mission is the oldest, continuously operating rescue mission in the country."
List of tallest buildings in Chicago
Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper. The Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885, is regarded as the world's first skyscraper. This building used the steel-frame method, innovated in Chicago. It was originally built with 10 stories, a considerable height in the 1800s, to a height of , making it the tallest building in the world. It was later expanded to 12 stories with a height of . The building was demolished in 1931. New York City then began building skyscrapers as Chicago had done, and the two cities were virtually the only cities in the world with huge skylines for many decades. Chicago has always played a prominent role in the development of skyscrapers and three past buildings have been the tallest building in the United States. Being the inventor of the skyscraper, Chicago went through a very early high-rise construction boom that lasted from the early 1920s to the late 1930s, during which 11 of the city's 91 tallest buildings were constructed. The city then went through an even larger building boom that has lasted from the early 1960s. The tallest buildings are concentrated in various downtown districts such as the Loop, Streeterville, River North, the South Loop, and the West Loop. Other high-rises extend north along the waterfront into North Side districts such as the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Uptown and Edgewater. Some high-rises also extend south from downtown along the waterfront to South Side districts such as Kenwood, Hyde Park, and South Shore.
First Unitarian Church of Chicago
One of the oldest churches in Chicago, First Unitarian Chicago was founded July 29, 1836 and is currently located at 5650 S. Woodlawn Avenue. Its founding was in part the result of a small group of Chicago Unitarians with the minister Charles Follen. Its first building was constructed in 1841 on what is now the site of the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza. The building, twice enlarged before it burned down, held the first church bell in Chicago placed there in January 1845.
Pittsfield Building
The Pittsfield Building, is a 38-story skyscraper located at 55 E. Washington Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, that was the city's tallest building at the time of its completion. The building was designated as a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002.
Culture of Chicago
The tallest buildings in Chicago are Willis Tower, Trump Tower, the Aon Center, 875 North Michigan Avenue, and the Franklin Center. Willis Tower was originally named Sears Tower, and was the tallest building in the world from 1973 to 1998. It is now the second-tallest building in the United States, after One World Trade Center, though the height to the roof of Willis Tower is greater than that of One World Trade Center.
Monadnock Building
The building was one of the first five selected by the Chicago Commission on Architectural Landmarks in 1958, "in recognition of its original design and its historical interest as the highest wall-bearing structure in Chicago". The commission went on to note that the "restrained use of brick, soaring massive walls, omission of ornamental forms, unite in a building simple yet majestic." In 1973, the Chicago City Council voted unanimously to designate the Monadnock a Chicago Landmark, stating that "The two halves of this building provide a unique perspective for examining the history and development of modern architecture. ... Together, they mark the end of one building tradition and the beginning of another." Critics of the Monadnock's landmark status objected that it would prevent the necessary demolition of the building, which was "an excellent example of a building that is ... no longer fulfilling the functions it was designed to fulfill" and "a wasting asset" that underperformed the market and was far less valuable than the land on which it stood would be.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
In 1996, the MCA opened its current museum at 220 East Chicago Avenue, which was the site of a former National Guard Armory between Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue from 1907 until it was demolished in 1993 to make way for the MCA. The four-story building designed by Josef Paul Kleihues, which was five times larger than its predecessor, made the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago the largest institution devoted to contemporary art in the world. The physical structure is said to reference the modernism of Mies van der Rohe as well as the tradition of Chicago architecture. The museum opened at its new location June 21–22, 1996, with a 24-hour event that drew more than 25,000 visitors. For its 50th anniversary in 2017, the museum unveiled a $16 million renovation by architects Johnston Marklee, which redesigned 12,000 square feet within the existing footprint of the original Joseph Paul Kleihues design.
Portage Theater
Located at Six Corners in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago's Northwest Side, the Portage Theater is one of the oldest movie houses in Chicago. The Portage Theater opened on December 11, 1920 as the Portage Park Theatre (the former name is still visible on the building's facade). Built for the Ascher Brothers circuit with 1,938 seats, the Portage was the first theater built specifically for film (and not vaudeville) in the area.
Former Chicago Historical Society Building
The Former Chicago Historical Society Building is a historic landmark located at 632 N. Dearborn Street on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets near downtown Chicago. Built in 1892, the granite-clad building is a prime example of Henry Ives Cobb's Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1997. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, under the name, Old Chicago Historical Society Building.
Gage Group Buildings
The tallest building is known as "18 South Michigan Avenue" and was previously called the Gage Brothers and Company Building. Before the Chicago street addresses were changed in 1909, the building had the address of 130 S. Michigan Avenue. The ornamental flourishes at the top of Sullivan's façade were pushed upwards when four stories were added in 1902 by different architects. This is one of only five buildings in Chicago designed by Louis Sullivan that are still standing.
Architecture of Chicago
Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in Chicago. Among them are the so-called "Chicago seven": James Ingo Freed, Tom Beeby, Larry Booth, Stuart Cohen, James Nagle, Stanley Tigerman, and Ben Weese.
Daniel Burnham led the design of the "White City" of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition which some historians claim led to a revival of Neo-Classical architecture throughout Chicago and the entire United States. It is true that the "White City" represented anything other than its host city's architecture. While Burnham did develop the 1909 "Plan for Chicago", perhaps the first comprehensive city plan in the U.S, in a Neo-Classical style, many of Chicago's most progressive skyscrapers occurred after the Exposition closed, between 1894 and 1899. Louis Sullivan said that the fair set the course of American architecture back by two decades, but even his finest Chicago work, the Schlesinger and Meyer (later Carson, Pirie, Scott) store, was built in 1899—five years after the "White City" and ten years before Burnham's Plan.
400 East Randolph
Built in 1963, 400 East Randolph is the oldest and most established building in the neighborhood. It was converted from apartments to condominiums in 1973. The building contains many assets such as a domed pool, a private bus that ferries residents around Chicago, and a recently remodeled restaurant on the seventh floor.
Unity Building (Chicago)
The Unity Building in Chicago, Illinois, at 127 North Dearborn Street in the Chicago Loop, was a 17-story building that was once the tallest skyscraper in Chicago. Gustave Loehr had an office in this building, and it was in his office that Rotary Club of Chicago, held its first club meeting, on February 23, 1905.
Old Cahokia Courthouse
The reconstructed Cahokia Courthouse is a historic site of the state of Illinois and is one of the oldest in the United States. Since 1985, it has been under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA). Exhibits focus on the issues dealt with by the court around 1800, and the history of the structure's physical movements. A visitor center also features exhibits about the area's occupation by the French in the 18th century, as well as the nearby Nicholas Jarrot Mansion.
Chicago Building
The Chicago Building or Chicago Savings Bank Building is an early skyscraper, built in 1904–1905. It is located at 7 W. Madison Street, Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by architectural firm Holabird & Roche, it is an early and highly visible example of the Chicago school of architecture.
Neal Clothing Building
The Neal Clothing Building is the oldest existing building on the central square of Lima, Ohio, United States. Built before the end of the Civil War, it has been recognized as historically significant as a representative of the city's earliest period.
Elgin, Illinois
The Elgin Public Museum at Lords Park was the oldest building in Illinois built expressly as a museum that was still serving that purpose.
Hallock–McMillan Building
The Hallock–McMillan Building, also known as the Hallock and McMillan Building, is the first and oldest commercial brick building in downtown Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The building was designed by Absalom Hallock and completed in 1857. It is adjacent to the Fechheimer & White Building. In 1975, it was listed as a "primary landmark" in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination of the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, the building's designation subsequently "translated" to "contributing property" under post-1970s NRHP terminology.
Frederick W. Clark
Frederick William Clark (August 12, 1857 — February 2, 1916) was an American engineer, builder, and president of Clark Construction Company, which was responsible for many iconic buildings in Chicago from 1902 until 1909. Among the buildings that had the Clark imprint are the Charleston Navy Yard, the Art Institute of Chicago, the old Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Station, and the Schlesinger & Mayer Department Store (later known as the Carson Pirie Scott Building).
Chicago Building
The building is a critical component of a grouping of significant structures, including Carson Pirie Scott and the former Mandel Brothers Store, at what was once labeled the "World's Busiest Corner." The building was designated a Chicago landmark on March 26, 1996. In 1997, it was converted to a dormitory for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The corner of the 3rd floor of the Chicago Building contains the cornerstone of Chicago. It is the 0-0 degree point of the city, and is the location from which all addresses in Chicago begin.
Washington Block
Washington Block is a Chicago Landmark building located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Designed by Frederick and Edward Baumann it was built between 1873–1874 in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on January 14, 1997. When completed, Washington Block was one of the tallest buildings in the city of Chicago and is described as a rare example of the "isolated pier foundation" (see below) which contributed to the foundation of knowledge that has made Chicago the birthplace of the skyscraper.The building has limestone facades and originally included an exterior staircase that led to a second-floor corner entrance. The lobby has a curving hardwood staircase. Today the first floor is occupied by a 7-Eleven and the second floor occupied by Carter Legal Group PC. The building, which is located at the corner of North Wells Street and West Washington Street is five stories tall.
Chicago Board of Trade Building
Other nearby buildings of note include the Continental Commercial National Bank, now called 208 South LaSalle Street, which broke records in 1911 as the city's most expensive development, with a cost exceeding $10 million. The Rand-McNally Building that had served as the headquarters of the World's Columbian Exposition was demolished to accommodate the structure. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, at 230 South LaSalle Street, was built in a Greco-Roman style and contained the largest vaults in the world and one of the first building-wide wired communication systems. Both the Federal Reserve Bank and 208 South LaSalle demonstrate the popularity of neoclassical architecture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were meant to project a sense of financial security.
West Loop–LaSalle Street Historic District
The West Loop–LaSalle Street Historic District is a historic district centered on LaSalle Street in the western Chicago Loop. The district encompasses Chicago's financial center, which is anchored by the Chicago Board of Trade Building, and also includes several of its major government buildings. Development in the district began in 1873 and, with the exception of a lull during the Great Depression and World War II, has continued through the present day. Most of the district's buildings are high-rises with at least ten stories, with the tallest being the 49-story One North LaSalle Building. Many of Chicago's prominent architectural firms designed buildings within the district, and the buildings feature styles such as Classical Revival, Chicago School, Art Deco, Romanesque Revival, and International. Significant buildings within the district include the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago City Hall, and several office buildings for large banks and insurance companies.
Chapin and Gore Building
The Chapin and Gore Building is a historic building located at 63 East Adams Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The distilling company of Chapin and Gore had the building constructed in 1904 for their business; the original building consisted a first-floor bar and store and offices and warehouse space in the remainder of the building. Architectural partners Richard Schmidt and Hugh M. G. Garden designed the building, which has a functional plan but includes substantial ornamentation such as terra cotta and brickwork. The building's ornamental capitals and cornice were removed in the 1950s. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 27, 1979 and later designated as a Chicago Landmark on January 21, 1982.
Rookery Building
The Rookery Building is a historic landmark, office building located at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Completed by John Wellborn Root and Daniel Burnham of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their offices. The building is high, twelve stories tall, and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It has a unique style with exterior load-bearing walls and an interior steel frame, which provided a transition between accepted and new building techniques. The lobby was remodeled in 1905 by Frank Lloyd Wright. Beginning in 1989, the lobby was restored to the original Wright design.
42nd Precinct / Town Hall Police Station
The 42nd Precinct/Town Hall Police Station, located in Chicago's Lake View community area, is one of the oldest and most architecturally significant extant historic police station buildings in Chicago. It was constructed in 1907 on the site of Lake View Township's Town Hall and subsequently has been commonly referred to as the "Town Hall Police Station." Only three older police station buildings are extant in Chicago.
History of the University of Chicago
The old Bronzeville campus left a deep and lasting legacy on the University of Chicago. The affinity for Gothic architecture first began in 1857 at the Bronzeville campus as did the University of Chicago's tradition of public debate as sport. The current quarter system practiced at the University of Chicago was an innovation that began at the Bronzeville campus and continues uninterrupted to this day. Alumni from the pre-1890 Bronzville campus are recognized as alumni of the University of Chicago today while more than half of the university's post-1890 trustees and donors (including its largest donor John D. Rockefeller) had a relationship to the University of Chicago prior to 1890. The university's current mascot of a Phoenix rising from the ashes is a reference to the fire, foreclosure, and demolition of the original Bronzeville campus with the current Hyde Park campus emerging triumphantly in its place. As an homage to this pre-1890 legacy a single stone from the rubble of the original Douglas Hall in Bronzeville was brought to the current Hyde Park location and set into the wall of the Classics Building. To honor Stephen A. Douglas, a bronze bust of the university's founding donor was placed in Hutchinson Commons which is today the main dining hall and student center on campus. All told these connections have led the Dean of the College and University of Chicago and Professor of History John Boyer to conclude that the University of Chicago has a "plausible genealogy as a pre– Civil War institution".
The University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus began in 1890 through the efforts of the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, who later called it "the best investment I ever made." The University of Chicago held its first classes there on October 1, 1892. The original tract of land, comprising the current main quads, was donated by Marshall Field, owner of the Marshall Field and Company department store chain. The modern university emerged from a reorganization of the predecessor institution of the same name, later renamed as the Old University of Chicago. The earlier institution was founded by prominent members of the Chicago and greater Illinois community including Justice Stephen A. Douglas and Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth. Graduates of the Old Chicago University were later assimilated into the ranks of the alumni of the University of Chicago.
Chicago Board of Trade Building
The 141 W. Jackson address hosted the former tallest building in Chicago designed by William W. Boyington before the current Holabird & Root structure, which held the same title for over 35 years until being surpassed in 1965 by the Richard J. Daley Center. The current structure is known for its art deco architecture, sculptures and large-scale stone carving, as well as large trading floors. An aluminum, three-story art deco statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture (particularly grain), caps the building. The building is a popular sightseeing attraction and location for shooting movies, and its owners and management have won awards for efforts to preserve the building and for office management.
North Wells Street Historic District
The North Wells Street Historic District is a commercial historic district located on the west side of the 1200 block of North Wells Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The district consists of seven buildings: four stores, two factories, and a firehouse. Built from 1871 to 1888, the buildings are an unusually intact block of what was once a much larger commercial district on the Near North Side. The four stores include a two-story frame storefront building, one of only six remaining from the post-Chicago Fire period in the city, and three three- or three-and-a-half-story store and flat buildings. The factories include a three-story loft and a two-story building that resembles the storefronts. The firehouse, known as Engine Company No. 27, is the second-oldest in the city.
One North LaSalle
The Chicago Board of Trade Building was the tallest building in Chicago for some 35 years by conventional definitions. At 530 ft and 48 stories, One North LaSalle was the fourth tallest building (fifth tallest after the completion of the LaSalle National Bank Building) structure for approximately the same period. Other sources, however, claim this building was the tallest structure for approximately the same period defined by excluding items on top of the main building such as the Board of Trade Building's statue and pyramidal top, the steeple of the Chicago Temple Building, the pyramidal top of the Pittsfield Building, and the mansard roof of the Civic Opera House. The height differences are easily seen in scale depictions.
Latin School of Chicago
The current campus has three buildings. The lower school (junior kindergarten to grade 4) building is the oldest structure dating to 1926 and is located at 1531 N. Dearborn. The upper school (grades 9–12) building at 59 W. North was completed in 1969. The middle school (grades 5–8) building, located at 45 W. North, was completed in the fall of 2007. It includes a green roof garden and was designed with environmentally friendly materials. The building was awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2012.
Chicago Theatre
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz (B&K) group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and partner Sam Katz. Along with the other B&K theaters, from 1925 to 1945 the Chicago Theatre was a dominant movie theater enterprise. Currently, Madison Square Garden, Inc. owns and operates the Chicago Theatre as a performing arts venue for stage plays, magic shows, comedy, speeches, and popular music concerts.
Hammond Building
The Hammond Building was a high-rise building completed in 1889 at the southeast corner of Griswold Street and West Fort Street in the financial district of downtown Detroit, Michigan directly across Fort Street from the Detroit City Hall. The building was designed by George H. Edbrooke, and is considered the first skyscraper in the city, and was the tallest in the state when built. Russell Wheel & Foundry supplied and erected the iron and structural steel for the building. The Hammond Building was demolished in 1956 to make way for the National Bank of Detroit Building, which has since been renamed The Qube. At 12 stories, the steel-framed United Way Community Services Building (1895), originally the Chamber of Commerce Building, qualifies as Detroit's oldest existing skyscraper.
Downtown Aledo Historic District
The Downtown Aledo Historic District is a national historic district located in downtown Aledo, Illinois. The district includes 75 contributing buildings and a park. The majority of the buildings are commercial structures, but the district also includes the city's Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad station and both the city's and Mercer County's major government buildings. Development in the district began in the 1850s, and the oldest surviving buildings date from the following decade. The district includes examples of many prominent American architectural styles from the mid-19th century onward; the most prevalent styles are Classical Revival, Romanesque Revival, and Italianate.
Chicago Mill Company Office Building
The Chicago Mill Company Office Building is a historic commercial building at 129 North Washington Street in West Helena, Arkansas. It is a single-story wood frame structure, whose Craftsman styling includes broad eaves and a wraparound porch supported by square columns. Built c. 1920, it housed the local offices of the Chicago Mill Company, one of the largest lumber concerns to operate in West Helena when that business was booming in the 1920s and 1930s. It is one of the few commercial buildings in West Helena to survive from that time.
List of Washington &amp; Jefferson College buildings
The oldest building on campus is McMillan Hall, which was built in 1793 and served as the only building for the old Washington Academy. It is the eighth-oldest academic building in the United States that is still in use for its original academic purpose, and is the oldest surviving college building west of the Allegheny Mountains, which was considered part of the American frontier during the Colonial period.
Madison Street (Chicago)
Madison Street is a major east–west street in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to human intervention, the Chicago River emptied into Lake Michigan at the present day intersection of Madison Street and Michigan Avenue.
Per a 1908 decision by Chicago's city council, Madison serves as the north–south dividing line for Chicago's street numbering system, while State Street serves as the east–west line. At one point, the intersection between the two streets was considered the "world's busiest corner."
Notable buildings located along Madison Street include the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, Chase Tower, Three First National Plaza, the Chicago Civic Opera House, Citigroup Center and the United Center.
Architecture of Chicago
The buildings and architecture of Chicago have influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. The built environment of Chicago is reflective of the city's history and multicultural heritage, featuring prominent buildings in a variety of styles by many important architects. Since most structures within the downtown area were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 (the most famous exception being the Water Tower) Chicago buildings are noted for their originality rather than their antiquity.
List of Eastern Michigan University buildings
EMU has several administrative buildings that also serve as student life locations. Bruce T. Halle Library houses one of the largest collections of children's literature in the United States. The building has as an automated retrieval system (the ARC) capable of housing 1 million items. While the most-used books are still on shelves, the majority of the school's books are stored within this system, which runs several stories underneath the library itself. Other buildings of historical significance include McKenny Union, Pierce Hall, Starkweather Hall, and Welch Hall. McKenny was the first student union on the campus of a teachers' college when it opened in 1931. Pierce Hall was dedicated as part of the centennial celebrations of the Normal College in 1949. The residents of Ypsilanti donated the money to construct the 120-foot tower; in June 1950, the school installed the Alumni Memorial Chimes, which were donated by the alumni and dedicated to those who died in World War II.
Starkweather Hall is the oldest building still standing on EMU's campus, and Welch Hall is the second oldest building on campus. In parts of Starkweather, the original doorknobs remain, bearing the initials "SCA" for the Student Christian Association, for whom the building was originally constructed. Starkweather Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Chicago Theatre
Abe and Barney Balaban, together with Sam and Morris Katz—founders of the Balaban and Katz theater chain, built the Chicago Theatre in 1921 as one of a large chain of opulent motion picture houses. The theater would become the flagship for 28 theaters in the city and over 100 others in the Midwestern United States that B&K operated in conjunction with the Paramount Publix chain. Cornelius W. Rapp and George L. Rapp were primary architects and the final construction cost was $4 million ($ million in dollars). The Rapp brothers also designed many other B&K properties in Chicago, including the Oriental and Uptown Theatres. Preceded by the now-demolished Tivoli Theatre of Chicago and Capitol Theatre of New York City, the Chicago Theatre was the "...largest, most costly and grandest of the super deluxe movie palaces" built up to that date and thus now the oldest surviving grand movie palace. The Chicago Theatre was among the earliest theaters in the nation to be built in Rapp and Rapp's signature Neo-Baroque French-revival style. It is the oldest surviving example of this style in Chicago.
Municipal Courts Building (Chicago, Illinois)
The Municipal Courts Building, also known as the Lake View Building, is a skyscraper located at 116 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The building was built from 1906 to 1907 to serve as a temporary home for Chicago's Municipal Court. Jacob L. Kesner built the building, which was originally 12 stories tall, on a strip of land only wide; Kesner was one of the few property owners willing to grant the Municipal Court a short-term lease. The building was completed later than planned, had less square footage than promised, and charged a higher rent than a competing offer from a warehouse, prompting Mayor Edward Dunne to conduct an ethics investigation into the approval of the building contract. The court only used the building until 1911; after it moved out, Kesner added another five stories to the building.
Montgomery Ward Company Complex
The Montgomery Ward Company Complex is the former national headquarters of Montgomery Ward, the United States' oldest mail order firm. The property is located along the North Branch of the Chicago River at 618 W. Chicago Avenue in Near North Side, Chicago, Illinois. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978.
Chicago Water Tower
The tower gained prominence after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. While some incorrectly believe that the tower was the only building to survive the fire, a few other buildings in the burned district survived along with the tower. The tower was the only public building in the burned zone to survive, and is one of just a few of the surviving structures still standing. In the years since the fire, the tower has become a symbol of old Chicago and of the city's recovery from the fire. In 1918, when Pine Street was widened, the plans were altered in order to give the Water Tower a featured location.
The tower has undergone two renovations. The first took place during a three-year period, 1913–1916. At that time many of the limestone blocks were replaced. The second renovation occurred in 1978. This renovation consisted mostly of interior changes with only minor changes made to the exterior of the building. In 2014, the small park the tower is sited in was named for former Chicago mayor Jane Byrne.
Margaret Taylor-Burroughs
The museum moved to its current location at 740 E. 56th Place in Washington Park in 1973, and today is the oldest museum of black culture in the United States. Both the current museum building, and the Burroughs' S. Michigan Avenue home are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the house is a designated Chicago landmark.
St. James Cathedral (Chicago)
St. James Cathedral is the mother church of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Diocese of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The cathedral stands at the corner of Huron and Wabash streets. It is the oldest church of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal tradition in the Chicago area, having been founded in 1834. Originally built as a parish church, that building was mostly destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. Only the bell tower survived, and this was incorporated into the rebuilt church, including the soot-stained stones around the top of the tower which remain black today. St. James received the status of cathedral in 1928 after the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was destroyed in a fire in 1921, but the arrangement was terminated in 1931. On May 3, 1955, St. James was again designated the cathedral and was formally set apart on June 4, 1955. The church is led by the Episcopal Bishop of Chicago.
Near North Side, Chicago
Old Town is now considered an affluent and historic neighborhood, home to many of Chicago's older Victorian-era buildings. However, in the 1950s, most of this area was an enclave to the first emigrants from Puerto Rico to Chicago, who referred to it as part of "La Clark" until commercialization decorated late 1960s shop signs with the name of Old Town. The neighborhood is home to St. Michael's Church, originally built to serve German immigrants, and one of only 7 to survive the great Chicago fire. St. Michael's, Holy Name Cathedral, Immaculate Conception, and St. Joseph's Catholic churches all catered to Latinos with a Mass in Spanish.
Norwood Park Historical District
The Norwood Park Historical District (also known as Old Norwood) is a historic district in the Norwood Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. It is bordered by Bryn Mawr, Avondale, and Harlem Avenues, and is home to the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House, which was built in 1833 and is widely considered to be the oldest house in Chicago. (However, it was not located in Chicago at the time it was built; Norwood Park was annexed to Chicago in 1893.) The historic district is also home to Norwood Park Public School, William Howard Taft High School, Norwood Park (the park), Myrtle Park, and Norwood Circle Park. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Emmel Building
The Emmel Building is an historic building located at 1357 North Wells Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The building is an example of a store and flat building, with a commercial space on the first floor and residential space on the upper two floors. Peter Emmel, a painter and interior decorator who came to Chicago from Germany in 1854, had the building built for his business and family. The building has an Italianate design with intricate carved stone on the second and third floors of the front facade. A metal cornice with brackets and a gable tops the building. While the building's layout is similar to the store and flat buildings of the commercial district to the south, its architecture is closer to that of the homes in the nearby Gold Coast.
Chicago City Hall
Chicago City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Adjacent to the Richard J. Daley Center and the James R. Thompson Center, the building that includes Chicago City Hall houses the offices of the mayor, City Clerk, and city treasurer of Chicago; some city departments; aldermen of Chicago's various wards; and chambers of the Chicago City Council on the west side of the building. The building's east side (called the County Building) is devoted to the various offices of Cook County, including chambers for the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Situated on a city block bounded by Randolph, LaSalle, Washington Boulevard, and Clark Street, the 11-story structure was designed by the architectural firm Holabird & Roche in the classical revival style and built to replace and expand an earlier city hall. Its location has served as the center of city government from 1853 to 1871, and with a break due to the Great Chicago Fire, from 1885 to the present. The current hall was officially dedicated on February 27, 1911.
London Guarantee Building
The London Guarantee Building or London Guaranty & Accident Building is a historic 1923 commercial skyscraper whose primary occupant since 2016 is the LondonHouse Chicago Hotel Formerly, for a time named the Stone Container Building, it is located near the Loop in Chicago, and is one of four 1920s skyscrapers that surround the Michigan Avenue Bridge (the others are the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower and 333 North Michigan Avenue) and is a contributing property to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District. It stands on part of the former site of Fort Dearborn. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.
List of tallest buildings in Michigan
The following is a list of the tallest skyscrapers in the U.S. state of Michigan on a year-to-year basis. The chart below shows the skyscraper, its height, when it was completed, how long it was the tallest, and what skyscraper surpassed it. The Frank & Seder (1881) is considered Detroit's oldest existing iron-framed tall building. The Hammond Building (1889) is considered Detroit's first steel-framed skyscraper, though it is now demolished. Detroit's oldest existing steel-framed skyscraper is the 12-story United Way Community Services Building (1895) at 1212 Griswold, originally known as the Chamber of Commerce Building.
Chicago Loop
Dearborn Station at the south end of Printers Row, is the oldest train station still standing in Chicago; it has been converted to retail and office space. Most of the area south of Congress Parkway between Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, excepting Chinatown, is referred to as the South Loop. Perceptions of the southern boundary of the neighborhood have changed as development spread south, and the name is now used as far south as 26th Street.
Moyse Building
The Moyse Building, also known as the Gray Building, is a historic building located at 13150 7th Street in Chino, California. Built in 1887, it is the oldest surviving building in the city. The building has served in several capacities for the city and has played a part in several civic firsts. After W. R. Dawson completed the building, he ran Chino's first post office from it. The second floor housed the city's first school, which had five students its first year. When Chino was first connected to telephone service, the Moyse Building was one of the first buildings with a connection. The building also hosted the city's first communal Thanksgiving celebration, which was led by the Rev. A. B. Orgen. In recent years, the building has housed the Chino Chamber of Commerce.