Congress Plaza Hotel was built in 1893 to accommodate the many people from around the world visiting Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition. The hotel opened as the&nbsp;Auditorium Annex and had only one tower at the time of its completion.&nbsp;The south tower was completed in 1907 and the growth of the hotel mirrored the growth of the city.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>The hotel boasted the first air-conditioned ballroom in America, and following the completion of the second tower, the hotel offered over 1,000 guest rooms. In 1908, the hotel's name was&nbsp;changed the Congress Plaza.&nbsp;Before long, the hotel had a second nickname, "Home of the Presidents"- a reference to visits by Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party&nbsp;even gained its nickname "Bull Moose" because of a comment he made to reporters at the hotel.&nbsp;<br><br>The hotel is still a spot of elegance and luxury for travelers to the Windy City. &nbsp;Along with magnificent&nbsp;hotel rooms and&nbsp;suites, there are also two restaurants, a fitness center, and a barbershop. &nbsp;Every Halloween, the hotel hosts the Haunted Halloween Ball, a reference to the&nbsp;many ghost stories that revolve around the historic building. &nbsp;

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Completed in 1983, the Congress Plaza Hotel was built to accommodate the many people from around the world visiting Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition. Louis Sullivan assisted in the design of the hotel's exterior. The hotel boasted the first air-conditioned ballroom in America, and following the completion of the second tower, the hotel offered over 1,000 guest rooms. Chicago's Congress Plaza Hotel offers guests a view of the ornate interiors of America's grand Gilded Age hotels with marble floors, glittering chandeliers, Grecian statues and mosaic archways that adorn the interior.

Congress Plaza Hotel

This walking tour begins at the Chicago Hilton and includes stops at some of the city's other historic hotels to provide plenty of opportunities for rest and refreshments.  The tour heads north along the west side of Michigan Avenue, so please be sure to check out the walking tours for Grant Park or customize this tour to include landmarks such as the Cloud Gate or the Art Institute of Chicago. After reaching the Palmer House, the tour turns west and then south along Dearborn, returning users near their starting point while offering additional stops at some of the city's most famous buildings and public art installations along the way. The tour concludes near its starting point at Dearborn Station, just two blocks from the Hilton Chicago and Blackstone Hotel where the tour began. Enjoy historic Chicago!

<p>Ernest Steven operated the LaSalle hotel, a large and successful hotel at the corner of LaSalle and Madison, from 1909 until the completion of this hotel. After five years of planning and construction, the Stevens Hotel welcomed United States Vice President Charles Dawes as its first registered guest. The 1927 grand opening featured celebrities and was feted as one of the greatest nights in the history of the city. In its early years, the Stevens Hotel hosted countless movie stars, world leaders, and icons of the era such as Charles Lindbergh. Five years later, the Stevens Hotel sat empty while its bankrupt owners</p>

<p>Like most large ventures of the 1920s, Hotel Stevens was financed by private bonds. Construction and furnishing the hotel cost a total of $28 million, ten times more than Yankee Stadium. While business was good in 1928 and 1929, the interest from these bonds prevented the hotel from earning a profit. The stock market crash of October 1929, combined with the global depression, ended any chance of the hotel becoming profitable. The Great Depression saw the closure of eighty percent of American hotels, and with the fanfare of the hotel’s opening, the fall of the Stevens made national headlines. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>With the hotel losing revenue throughout the early 1930s, the Stevens family operated the hotel and paid interest on its bonds using money he borrowed from his insurance company. By the end of 1932, Stevens had borrowed $13 million from his insurance company which led to its insolvency and a criminal investigation into the propriety of the loans to the hotel. J.W. Stevens suffered a stroke in 1933 while his eldest son committed suicide and Ernest Stevens was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to prison. A year later, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned his conviction and Stevens found work as a hotel manager. His son, John Paul Stevens, graduated from Northwestern and was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1975. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The hotel was held in receivership and never returned the bondholder’s original investment. In 1942, the United States Army purchased the hotel for $6 million. Similar to many other large hotels that were purchased or leased by the military, the Army utilized the hotel as barracks for soldiers training in the Chicago area. In those years, as many as ten thousand soldiers were billeted in the former luxury hotel and the ballroom served as a mess hall. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Conrad Hilton purchased the hotel at the end of the war, along with the nearby Palmer House. The hotel would continue to be known as the Sevens until 1951, and while it was no longer the largest in the world, it became the largest combined hotel and convention center in the world in 1960 thanks to the addition of 53,000 square feet of meeting hall space. The hotel was completely remodeled in 1984 at the cost of $185 million. As part of this project, crews removed hundreds of walls that had once divided guestrooms in order to better compete with more recent hotels that offered significantly larger rooms. While this reduced the hotel from 3000 to 1544, the renovation allowed the historic hotel to better compete with modern luxury hotels and led to a unique feature where many of the Hilton’s rooms offer two bathrooms. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The hotel is best-known today for its ornate lobby and the Grand Ballroom. The lobby features wood paneling that was recovered from the French cruise-liner&nbsp;S.S. Normandie. The ballroom was one of the largest of its kind and an engineering marvel owing to its immense size and a design that did not rely on interior pillars. The first event held at the Grand Ballroom was the Motion Picture Association Ball in 1927, and today, the ballroom looks almost exactly as it did in 1927, with the exception of one missing chandelier. The location of that chandelier is unknown and its disappearance occurred during the three years when the Army owned and operated the hotel and used the ballroom as the mess hall. The rest of the chandeliers in the lobby are original and were made in Paris with crystal from Czechoslovakia. &nbsp;</p>

When this iconic Chicago establishment opened in 1927 as the Sevens Hotel, it was the largest hotel in the world with three thousand guest rooms. What made the Stevens unique was not simply its exceptional size, lavish ballrooms, and opulent dining facilities; the hotel design included a private restroom and an exterior window for every guestroom. This feature would become standard decades later, but this was not the only reason why owners James W. Stevens and his son, Ernest Stevens, would become famous. The entepenuers risked their fortune and millions from investors to build “a city within a city.” A hotel guest could enjoy shopping, entertainment, and services that included a hospital, bowling alley, miniature golf course, candy factory, numerous shops, 1200-seat theater, and a twenty-seven-chair barber shop. The hotel went into recievership in the early years of the Great Depression and was acquired by the US Army in 1942. Hotel magnate Conrad Hilton acquired the property and the Palmer House Hotel in 1945. 

Hilton Chicago (Stevens Hotel 1927-1951)

<p>At the beginning of the 20th-century, brothers Tracy and John Drake founded the Drake Hotel Company. The brothers were born with a pedigree of sorts, as they were the sons of hotel tycoon John Drake. John Drake also happened to be business partners with Timothy Blackstone. The two brothers began construction on the Blackstone Hotel in 1908, and it was finally finished in 1910, and the brothers named the hotel after Timothy Blackstone. Numerous factors lead the hotel to be a massive success, such as the luxurious rooms, the rich décor shown in the rest of the hotel itself, and also its close proximity to a number of railroad stations for convenience. Despite the hotel’s success, the brothers wanted to create another hotel building, the Drake Hotel. In order to fund their construction venture, the brothers mortgaged the hotel, but the Great Depression hit, and the brothers lost the hotel, leading to the brothers filing for bankruptcy.</p><p>Following the Drakes’ loss of the Blackstone Hotel, it would go on to change hands through different companies through the following decades. Over the years, the hotel attracted a number of celebrity guests and United States Presidents. But around 2000, the hotel fell on hard times and closed, as it was in a great state of disrepair. The hotel re-opened in 2008 as the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel. On May 29, 1998 it was designated as a Chicago Landmark, and on May 8th, 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.</p>

The Blackstone Hotel, now known as the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel, is a historic hotel located in the Loop district of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1908 and named for business executive Timothy Blackstone, the hotel was known primarily for its luxurious accommodations, as well as its history of hosting United States Presidents, so much so that it gained the moniker “Hotel of Presidents.” During the second half of the 20th-century, the hotel became run down and not suitable for use by 2000. After a lengthy rehabilitation project, the hotel reopened in 2008 as the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel. On May 29, 1998 the hotel was designated as a Chicago Landmark, and on May 8th, 1986 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Blackstone Hotel

Architect Solon Spencer Beman's original task in designing the Studebaker Building was to create an eight-story retail space for the Studebaker company. Customers who came to this building could view select custom features and see some of Studebaker's most ornate carriages-including those designed for the White House. The company built carriages at its main factory in South Bend, Indiana, but the company hoped to shift some manufacturing and assembly operations to retail outlets such as this one. The company produced its first vehicles in 1902. Like many other early car manufacturers, the company produced electric powered cars prior to shifting their attention to gasoline and internal combustion engines in 1904. &nbsp;<br><br>The building's facade was one of the most splendid of its day, including its iconic pair of massive granite columnns inset above the main entryway that measure more than three feet in diameter. As demand for the company's products grew, Beman's plans were modified to incorporate space to manufacture components on site. To achieve this goal, Beman removed the culminating floor of the building in the late 1890s&nbsp;so he could add three more stories (a distinction somewhat visible in the face today). By the time these modifications were complete, though, Studebaker had found a more suitable manufacturing facility elsewhere. As a result, the modified building on Michigan Avenue was transformed into studios for artists. <br><br>At the time of this transformation, the building was further adorned with an array of Art Nouveau accents, including a painted mural cycle on the tenth floor. Incorporating&nbsp;works by some of the most innovative artists of the late 19th-century - including Frank X. Leyendecker, brother of famed illustrator J.C. Leyendecker - these murals became the perfect capstone to a building wholly dedicated to the arts. Many of Chicago's most notable artists and architects worked in the Fine Arts Building over the years.<br><br>One such artistic resident was&nbsp;Lorado Taft, who one of the most prominent sculptors in Chicago in the 1890s and who contributed extensively to the sculpture of Chicago's&nbsp;Worlds Columbian Exposition in 1893. One of his works,&nbsp;<i></i>the<i>&nbsp;Fountain of the Great Lakes&nbsp;</i>(1907-1913), can be seen across the street (and two blocks north)&nbsp;in the southern outdoor courtyard adjacent to the Art Institute.<br>

The Fine Arts Building was constructed between 1884 to 1885 and remains one of the most distinctive buildings along Michigan Avenue. The structure was designed by American architect Solon Spencer Beman (1853-1914) for the Studebaker Company, a leading manufacturer of carriages that would become one of the largest American car companies in the early 1900s. The company decided to remodel the building just a decade following its construction, creating spaces for numerous artist studios. From that point, the building became known as the Fine Arts Building. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1978.

Fine Arts Building (Studebaker Building)

The Santa Fe Building, now known as the Motorola Building, is one of the shining examples of the Chicago School of Architecture,&nbsp;which provided the impetus for the&nbsp;modern day skyscraper.&nbsp;An integral figure in that architecture style was&nbsp;Daniel H. Burnham, whose firm built the Santa Fe Building (completed in 1904).&nbsp;Although its original tenants were the Santa Fe Railroad company who used the building for as a railway exchange, many architectural firms owned offices in the building.<sub>1</sub><br><br>Burnham and his firm were one of the architects that used the space. In fact, one can still glance upon&nbsp;the northeast corner of the roof and "see the top of the penthouse&nbsp;Burnham had built as the space where the&nbsp;<i>Plan of Chicago</i>&nbsp;(1909) was to be prepared."<sub>2</sub>&nbsp;Influenced, in part, by&nbsp;Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who designed a new Paris for Napoleon III in the late 1840s, Burnham looked to make Chicago a new type of&nbsp;Paris. However, that entailed wide buildings rather than tall buildings. Obviously,&nbsp;the city of big shoulders certainly did not evolve as Burnham had hoped. The building from which Burnham orchestrated the Plan of Chicago proved to be of greater influence than his actual vision for Chicago.<br><br>However, one principal aspect of the Plan of Chicago existed in having an expansive set of parks, including along Chicago's lake shore.&nbsp;Today's&nbsp;Grant and Millennium Park exist as manifestations of that vision, ironically keeping the Santa Fe building and Chicago's majestic skyline in full view, providing Chicago with much of its identity.<sub>3&nbsp;</sub>One can now bask in the idea of making Chicago's shoreline a park while looking at the very building where people conjured that idea. More than that, one can look at the skyscrapers that Burnham (and his partner, Root), helped inspire.&nbsp;<br><br><br>

Designed by Daniel Burnham's architectural firm, this building once served as the center of activity as Daniel Burnham and his team devised the "Plan of Chicago," which was published in 1909. The 17-story building, known for its porthole windows on the top floor, serves as a fine example of the Chicago School of Architectural style, which Burnham helped to create and popularize in the early 1900s. The building was originally known as The Santa Fe Building and was built as a railway exchange for the Santa Fe railway. This name adorned the building until 2012 until Motorola purchased the building and replaced the sign with one reading, "Motorola." 

Motorola Building (Formerly the Santa Fe Building, or Railway Exchange Building)

<div>An Overview of the Collections<br><br>The museum’s collections include the Dr. Charles E. Metz collection of WWII aircrafts, the Hershel “Woody” Williams collection, the Francis P. Kane collection, the Robert O Harder collection, the Lt. Col. Robert C. Peithman, USMCR collection, the William P. Levine collection, the Norman Kuperman Military History collection, the Dr. James Wengert Military Medical collection, the Holabird Family collection, the Parish Collection on Soviet history, the Dr. Charles C. Moskos collection, the Lt. Sollie Kaplan collection, the Prior Family Archives, and the Jack V. Sewall collection. &nbsp;<br><br>History of some of the Named Collections<br><br></div><div>The Hershel "Woody" Williams collection was donated by WWII Veteran Hershel "Woody" Williams, who had fought&nbsp;in the Battle of Guadalcanal and the famous battle in&nbsp;Iwo Jima in the Marine Corps. He has donated his metal of honor to the museum as well as a tapestry that is dedicated to the 62 recipients of the medal of honor from West Virginia, the state that Williams was born and raised.<br><br>The&nbsp;Dr. James Wengert collection is the collection of the doctor's books and&nbsp;personal papers from his time as a&nbsp;&nbsp;U.S. Navy Flight Surgeon in the Vietnam war, where he served&nbsp;on the aircraft carrier USS&nbsp;Randolph<span>. His collection discusses many different medical renovations over many vast times of war.&nbsp;<br></span><br>Parrish Collection on Soviet Union is a book collection on the the Soviet Union Military aspects.&nbsp;<span>Michael Parrish, an Associate Professor at Indiana University, donated the collection to the museum.<br></span><br>General Artifacts&nbsp;<br><br></div><div>The library features over 3,000 rare books and a few exhibits, including an American Revolutionary War Soldier’s Notebook, Remember the Maine: 45 Star Flag, and the Benjamin O Davis Glass Photographic Plate. &nbsp;The museum features lectures, movie screenings, and a book club. &nbsp;</div>

The Pritzker Military Museum and Library feature a collection of books and other materials on military history and citizen soldiers in America with a mission to increase understanding of military history and sacrifice. The museum houses a collection of prints, posters, photos, artifacts that cover early war and conflicts, 20th-century war and conflicts, modern war and conflicts, military reading lists, military leaders, and the armed forces, as well as a permanent exhibit called Medal of Honor. The museum also prides itself on being "a public forum to discuss the past, present, and future of the military." Admission is $5 or free for any member or person with an active military ID.

Pritzker Military Museum & Library 

<p>Chicago during the height of the Gilded Age was an extravagantly splendid city, full of glamorous fashion and architecture. When the city hosted the World’s Fair in 1893, many new buildings appeared in anticipation of the event. One of the most unique to be constructed during the early 1890s was the Chicago Athletic Association. While the majority of these buildings were designed in the Chicago School or Beaux Arts style, Henry Ives Cobb designed the 11-story CAA in what is known as a Venetian Gothic style. Based on the palace of the Doge in Venice, Cobb constructed the façade of this building with crisscrossing arches and columns. When completed in 1893, the Chicago Athletic Association was the premier men’s club in the city, seeing such guests as Marshall Field, William Wrigley, Jr., AG Spaulding, and Cyrus McCormick.&nbsp;</p><p>A few alterations occurred to the Chicago Athletic Association during the early 20th-Century: in 1906, a 12-story annex was added which included a second ballroom and lodging for women, and then in 1926 the height of the building was increased to 19-stories for additional guest lodging. The CAA served as a recreation space for Chicago’s upper class for over a century, eventually closing in 2007 due to low membership. Then in 2012, the building was purchased for $13 million by AJ Capital Partners, Agman Partners, and Geolo Capital. The partners hired Hartshorne Plunkard Architects and interior architects Roman + Williams to meticulously restore and modernize the CAA into a 241-room luxury hotel. The newly renovated and aptly named Chicago Athletic Association Hotel opened in 2014. The majority of the CAA’s original 1893 architectural features were preserved, such as the ornate ironwork, tiled floors, and stained glass. The Chicago Athletic Association Hotel is currently one of the premier adaptive reuse projects in the city of Chicago.</p>

The Chicago Athletic Association (CAA) opened in 1893 in congruence with the World’s Fair being held in Chicago. Designed by Henry Ives Cobb to feature crisscrossing arches that mimic the extravagant palace of the Doge in Venice, the 11-storied building is often described as Venetian Gothic. The Chicago Athletic Association catered to the city’s most elite men, such as Marshall Field, William Wrigley, Jr., AG Spaulding, and Cyrus McCormick. The CAA closed its doors in 2007 after 114 years in operation. Then in 2012, the building was purchased for $13 million by AJ Capital Partners, Agman Partners, and Geolo Capital. The partners hired Hartshorne Plunkard Architects and interior architects Roman + Williams to meticulously restore and modernize the CAA into a 241-room luxury hotel. The Chicago Athletic Association Hotel is currently one of the premier adaptive reuse projects in the city of Chicago.

Chicago Athletic Association

To look at the Jewelers Building, is to gaze into the intersection of several Chicago histories. During the 1880s, when advancements in engineering and architecture, notably in the wake of the city's great 1871 fire, skyscraper architecture boomed -- the development of the famous Chicago School of Architecture arose. The Jewelers Building was designed by Louis Sullivan and&nbsp;Dankmar Adler, both of whom enjoy their own distinct and historical stories, notably Sullivan. Meanwhile, the building itself represents the booming jewelers district, hence the need for the building.&nbsp;<br><br><h3>The Jewelers District</h3><p>Located in the heart of Chicago's Loop, there are numerous buildings deemed significant in&nbsp;the evolution of Chicago commercial architecture and early twentieth-century skyscrapers, The district's history provides a lens into Chicago's broader economic history as it grew to become the heart of the city's center for&nbsp;jewelry manufacturing and trade, silver manufacturing, and watch manufacturing and repair.&nbsp;<br><br></p><h3>Louis Sullivan&nbsp;</h3>An integral figure in the Chicago School of Architecture, his&nbsp;partnership with Dankmar Adler began in 1879, and their first important project was the Central Music Hall in Chicago. The success of the Music Hall and buildings such as the Jewelers Building helped provide substantial success for the two&nbsp;partners.&nbsp;At the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (a.k.a. World's Columbian Exposition), Sullivan's Transportation Building, with its shimmering gold-leafed entrance, not only won awards, but clearly showed his disapproval of the famed "White City," built by rival (and no friend) &nbsp;Daniel Burnham.&nbsp;<br><br>Sullivan was also a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and influenced the eventual development of the Prairie School of architecture. However, The national depression of the 1890s profoundly affected Adler and Sullivan's firm, resulting in the end of their partnership by 1895. Trend in architecture, notably the dominance of the Beaux-Arts architectural style for which Burnham helped create, led to the end of Sullivan's significant influence, but he continued to design buildings and he wrote&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>The Autobiography of an Idea</i> before his death in 1924.<br><br><br><div><br><br></div><div><br></div>

Constructed between 1881-1882, the Jewelers Building at 15-17 S. Wabash Ave. remains the only surviving example of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan's early work in Chicago's Loop District. Martin Ryerson, Chicago businessman and real estate investor, commissioned Adler & Sullivan to construct this building, which he rented to the Samuel A. Maxwell Company. Sullivan, often regarded as the "father of the skyscraper," provided his unique stylized floral, ornamental style to the building. During the early-20th-century, the building became known as the Little Jewelers Building, likely to differentiate between the larger Jewelers Building constructed on Wacker Street. The Little Jewelers Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 7, 1974 and designated a Chicago Landmark on December 18, 1981.

Little Jewelers Building

<p>The first Palmer House was built was a wedding present to Bertha Honoré, the bride of Potter Palmer. Potter Palmer (May 20, 1826-May 4, 1902) was the founder of a dry goods store, called Potter Palmer and Company, located on Chicago’s Lake Street. In 1865, Palmer brought two partners into his business, Marshall Field and Levi Leiter. This store eventually grew into a department store chain called Marshall Field and Company, which was bought by Macy’s, Inc. in 2005.</p>
<p>Palmer’s wife Bertha (May 22, 1849-May 5, 1918) was a successful businesswoman and philanthropist in her own rite. She served a number of positions in Chicago, including the President of the Board of Lady Managers, which meant that she was instrumentally important in organizing the World’s Colombian Exposition, held in 1893. She was also among the first members of the Chicago women’s club, a group of women who met to discuss various societal problems in an effort to find solutions. Part of the larger General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Chicago-based group sought to provide inexpensive milk for poor children and better general care for children whose mothers were in prison. Later in her life, she became a pioneer in the early days of Florida real estate. In 1910, she purchased over 80,000 acres of land in the Sarasota area. She convinced acquaintances and friends who had means to spend winters in Sarasota Bay. In 1914, she established a hunting preserve called “River Hills” on the 19,000 acres of land she bought in Temple Terrace, Florida.</p>

Originally known as “The Palmer,” the Palmer House Hilton Hotel has been one of the city's most important places for events and welcoming guests from the day the establishment opened its doors on September 26, 1871. The original Palmer hotel greeted only a few guests, however, as it was destroyed by fire 13 days later--one of hundreds of buildings destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire on October 9, 1871. The second Palmer House was completed in 1875. The third and final Palmer House was built between 1923 and 1925 and was acquired by Conrad Hilton in 1945. Thor Equities acquired the Palmer House Hilton in 2005 and announced its intention to sell the historic property in 2015. 

Palmer House Hilton

Russian-French artist Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was born into near-poverty in Belarus which was part of the Russian Empire. In 1911, he fled the declining tsarist-controlled country and arrived in Paris just ahead of World War I. He later returned to Russia, lived in Germany during the Weimar Republic, Nazi-controlled France during World War II. While living in the United States following the war, he became one of the most influential modernists. Absorbing the ideas of artistic contemporaries, such as Picasso's Cubism and Matisse's Fauvism,&nbsp;Chagall also worked to infuse his art with elements derived from his Jewish heritage. The result was a powerful combination cultural and artistic contemplation.&nbsp;<br><br>In the mosaic, Chagall represented six different vignettes inspired by Chicago. but many of the themes are universal in nature. Imagery of figures and animals combined with an immense array of hundreds of lush colors creates an engaging and timeless&nbsp;display.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><br>A fantastic compliment to&nbsp;Chagall's&nbsp;<i>Four Season</i> mosaic is a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago - in addition to several paintings by the artist, the museum also houses Chagall's famed&nbsp;<i>America Windows</i>, a marvelous stained glass cycle executed in 1977 in commemoration of the United States' bicentennial.&nbsp;

Situated in front of the Chase Tower Plaza, Marc Chagall's "Four Seasons" mosaic is one of the most dazzling landmarks in Chicago's bustling Loop district. Stretching 70 feet in length and wrapping around a rectangular support, Chagall's mosaic was dedicated in 1974, a gift to the city from banking giant Frederick H. Prince. Twenty years after its dedication, the mosaic underwent extensive restoration, including the addition of a protective canopy to shield the installation from the elements.  

Marc Chagall's "Four Seasons" Mosaic

<div>The Inland Steel Company can trace its roots to the Chicago Steel Works, which produced farm equipment during the 1870s and 1880s. After that company had gone defunct, Rosell Buckingham acquired the equipment and sought investors or buyers in creating a new steel company. On October 30, 1893, the eight investors incorporated the Inland Steel Company, purchased the 40 rail cars of second-hand machinery from Roswell Buckingham and started operating out of Chicago Heights.&nbsp;<br></div><div><br></div><div>In 1901, the Inland Steel Company accepted an offer to build an open hearth steel plant on the southern tip of Lake Michigan in what is now known as Indiana Harbor. &nbsp;Monumental costs, nearing $1 million forced the company to sell some of it assets, but by 1914, Inland Steel was a full-production steel manufacturer operating on its new site. &nbsp;By 1917, Inland's annual production topped one million tons, and that number grew throughout the economically-booming 1920s. Even during the Great Depression, Inland Steel purchased several local steel companies; its power grew immensely.</div><div><br></div><div>Because Inland Steel enjoyed such financial strength and produced so much steel, Inland Steel was prepared to meet the demands during World War II. Under the federal government's Defense Plan Corporation, Inland built two additional blast furnaces and 146 coke ovens. The company broke production records by providing steel for bombs, shells, tanks, planes, and ships. As a result, the company received awards from the Army and Navy for "high achievement in the production &nbsp;of war material" and from the United States Maritime Commission for "outstanding achievement on vital wartime contracts."&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>After the war, Inland Steel shifted production back to consumer products so that by the mid-1950s, the company had emerged as the eighth largest steel manufacturer in the country, and the only major steel manufacturer located in Chicago. Thus, a need existed for developing a long-term plan, including building a modern headquarters, eventually leading to the construction of the Inland Steel Building.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill were chosen to design and head the project. The firm had previously designed buildings in the spirit of the International Style of Architecture, notably in New York. The Inland Steel Building was not the first postwar skyscraper built in Chicago, but it was the first truly modern construction, comprised mostly of a metal and glass exterior. In time, Chicago's skyline became dominated by massive glass and metal structures, such as the more-than-100-story buildings, the John Hancock and Sears Tower.&nbsp;<br><br>The American steel industry declined steadily during the 1960s and into the 1970s, but Inland Steel did not suffer as many other steel companies had done. By the late 1990s, Inland Steel was seen as a smart buy; it was purchased by Ispat International in 1998.&nbsp;<br><br>To look at the tower is to look at the once flourishing steel industry and its influence on America. The building also demonstrates modern construction, as well as a 20th-century need for large headquarters, something that has changed with the technological advances of the 21st century.&nbsp;</div>

Completed in 1958, the Inland Steel Building was the first modern glass skyscraper erected in downtown Chicago since 1934, during the interwar period. Built with dynamic stainless steel and glass curtain walls, Miesian-inspired exposed structural frame and unobstructed office floors, the Inland Steel Building demonstrated the significant gains made during the war and post-war years and represented a new boom in Chicago skyscraper construction. Meanwhile, the name points to the building's occupant, Inland Steel, reminding us of a time when the American steel industry flourished. 

Inland Steel Building

Following the destruction of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, city leaders and investors were able to "start anew" and build a planned downtown business area that would soon rival New York.Once known as a livestock terminus, Chicago used the destruction of the fire as an opportunity to build an urban infrastructure that reflected the optimism of the city boosters. Combining innovations such as fireproof steel-framed construction with traditional building elements, the city of Chicago became so synonymous with the skyscraper that architects around the world referred to these buildings as belonging to the Chicago Style.<br><br>The Marquette Building serves as a classic example of the First Chicago Style of architecture-a style that can be seen in buildings throughout the Loop and other buildings that were constructed throughout the city in the late 19th and early 20th century. These buildings feature terra cotta and other forms of masonry that cover steel-frame construction.&nbsp;<span>The Marquette&nbsp;Building features a&nbsp;red terra cotta facade that has been slightly darkened over the years due to the acidity caused by air pollution. <br><br>The buildings of the&nbsp;Chicago Style also</span>&nbsp;feature ornamental details throughout the first two or three floors&nbsp;of the building's exterior, as well as an&nbsp;ornamental&nbsp;"cap" on the building's top floor. These details can be seen when viewing the ornate cornice and features of the top floor and the lower two floors&nbsp;with the rest of the building.&nbsp;The most distinguishing feature of the First Chicago School, and one that is especially prominent in the Marquette Building, is the use of&nbsp;large horizontal plate-glass windows. For more information about the windows of the Marquette Building, please see the short video below. &nbsp;

Built in 1895 by the George A. Fuller Company, this Chicago landmark was one of the first steel-framed skyscrapers in the city. The building was named in honor of the French missionary Jacques Marquette, who with Louis Jolliet in 1674, became the first European to explorer and map the lands around Lake Michigan. The building was served as corporate headquarters to numerous railroad companies and other businesses over the years. During the mid-20th century, some of the historic buildings throughout the Loop such as Louis Sullivan's Stock Exchange were demolished in favor of new construction. The Marquette Building, like so many of the other historic buildings throughout the Loop, was saved due to the efforts of preservationists and community members who partnered with local government and business leaders. Since 1975, the building has been owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a leading supporter of education that is also working with the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois to restore and share the history of this building. The Foundation operates an interactive exhibit on the building's first floor that is open to the public, as well as virtual exhibits that are available by clicking on the link below. 

The Marquette Building

<div>The building was commissioned by Peter and Shepherd Brooks, real estate developers from Boston. The Monadnock's construction was part of the building boom that followed the price recession known as the Long Depression, or the Great Depression of 1873-79. The Brooks family made a fortune in the shipping insurance business. They began investing in Chicago real estate in 1868 and had the Grannis Block building built on Dearborn Street in 1880. Property manager Owen F. Aldis convinced the Brooks brothers and other wealthy investors to build skyscrapers in Chicago. By the turn of the century, Aldis managed almost one fifth of the office space in the Loop and had created over 1 million square feet of office space in the city.</div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;When the Monadnock was completed in its entirety, it included 1200 rooms and was capable of accommodating 6000. To put this in perspective, the Chicago Daily Tribune made the observation that the population of most Illinois cities at the time would've comfortably fit in the building. Some of the building's first tenants were the American Exchange National and Global Savings Banks and the Santa Fe, Michigan Central, and Chicago&amp;Alton Railroads. Although it was quite an architectural feat, the Monadnock did receive some harsh criticism for its aesthetic. French architect Jacques Hermant said of the building, "The Monadnock was no longer the result of an artist responding to particular needs with intelligence and drawing for them all of the possible consequences. It is the work of a laborer who, without the slightest study, super-imposes 15 strictly identical stories to make a block then stops when he finds the block high enough."</div><div><br></div>

Located in the Loop District of Chicago, the Monadnock building, originally known as the Monadnock Block, is a skyscraper whose construction began in 1891. The oldest section of the building, the north half, was designed by the architectural firm Burnham and Root and was the tallest load-bearing brick building in the world. The southern half of the building was designed by Holabird and Roche in 1893 and features more ornamental design elements. At the time of its completion in 1893, the Monadnock Building was the largest office building in the world.

Monadnock Building

Calder’s Flamingo is an abstract sculpture by Alexander Calder that was installed in its current location in 1974. Measuring more than 50 feet tall, it rests in the rectangular plaza boarded by three federal Bauhaus style buildings in the heart of Chicago.  This “sculpture’s vivid color and curvilinear form contrast dramatically with the angular steel and glass surroundings. However, Flamingo is constructed from similar materials and shares certain design principles with the architecture, thereby achieving successful integration within the plaza” (“Calder’s Flamingo”).  The sculpture’s monumental size and open design allows visitors to walk under and through the sculpture. A reduced scale model of the sculpture is housed in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Calder's Flamingo 

<div>Built in 1896, the Fisher Building stands as a reminder of the early influence of the Chicago School of Architecture and the subsequent emergence of the skyscraper. When completed, the Fisher Building was one of the tallest buildings in the world and one of only two buildings in Chicago to reach upwards of eighteen stories. Today, it is the oldest of the two remaining; the other building was the&nbsp;older and taller&nbsp;Masonic Temple&nbsp;demolished in 1939. As well, the Fisher Building&nbsp;serves as a reminder of Chicago's flourishing printing industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. <br><br>The building was commissioned by paper tycoon Lucius Fisher, president of the Union Bag and Paper, and it is located just north of the historic Printer's Row in Chicago. Though constructed by the Daniel Burnham firm, the actual design was conducted by Charles Atwood, who did much of his early work in New York. Thus, the building is&nbsp;notable for its Chicago School design and function, but its aesthetics draw from several other styles. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The Fisher Building was revolutionary for its time as it&nbsp;features a steel frame structure and an exterior comprised 75% windows and 25% terra cotta.<br>Originally constructed as an eighteen-story&nbsp;tower, a two-story addition was added in 1907. The most prominent characteristics of&nbsp;the building&nbsp;is its gothic ornamentation and aquatic creature carvings. Indeed, marine details and mythical sea creatures adorn a large portion of the building, as well as crabs, salamanders, dolphin door handles, starfish, frogs, and ornamental fish on the glass.<br></div><div><br></div><div>A 2001 renovation and restoration of the Fisher Building&nbsp;ostensibly converted it from an industrial space to that of residential use. Those residing in what is now the Fisher City Apartments enjoy beautiful views of the city, still taking advantage of the numerous windows used in its original construction.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div>

Built in 1896, the Fisher Building stands as a reminder of the early influence of the Chicago School of Architecture and the subsequent emergence of the skyscraper. When completed, the Fisher Building was one of the tallest buildings in the world. Commissioned by paper tycoon Lucius Fisher, president of the Union Bag and Paper, it is located just north of the historic Printer's Row in Chicago. A 2001 renovation and restoration of the Fisher Building ostensibly converted it from an industrial space to that of residential use.

Fisher Building

<p>William Le Baron Jenney is considered one of the architects responsible for developing the modern skyscraper, which earned him the nickname Father of the American skyscraper. Jenney was born in Fairhaven, MA in 1832 to a wealthy family. He began his education at the Philips Academy in Andover, then attending the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard but transferring to the Ecole Centrale Paris where he studied engineering, architecture, and iron construction methods. Jenney graduated from the Ecole Centrale one year after Gustave Eiffel, architect of the Eiffel Tower. When he returned to the US in 1861, Jenney joined the Union Army as an engineer. Over the course of the war, Jenney designed fortifications for Sherman and Grant, and earned the ranking of Major.</p><p>After the war, Jenney moved to Chicago, IL where set up his own architectural firm. His career and contributions to the development of modern architecture are often underacknowledged. With the completion of the 10-story Home Life Insurance Building in 1885, Jenney is credited with designing the world’s first skyscraper as the building was supported entirely by a steel frame. His use of a steel and iron structure meant that the building weighed 1/3 less than it would have with a load-bearing masonry structure, the weight change allowed for a taller building to be constructed. The Home Life Insurance Building was unfortunately demolished in 1931, set the new standard for urban architecture.</p><p>Jenney’s innovative steel-frame building structure provided the means for some of Chicago’s most famous historic buildings. Reaching a staggering height of 16-stories, the first skyscraper to reach such a height, the Manhattan Building became Jenney’s greatest achievement. Because it was still unknown how safe these new tall buildings were, he deliberately constructed the Manhattan Building with horizontal sections and setbacks as a means to lessen the appearance of 16 stories. The height of the building also required both wind-bracing techniques to be incorporated in its design and an original foundation system, which became the standard for high rise structures. As a means to maximize the amount of natural light into the building, Jenney designed the façade to feature oriel windows. The decoration of the Manhattan Building is also heavily ornamented with masks and vegetative detailing.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, the Manhattan Building is the third-oldest skyscraper in Chicago and is the earliest surviving skyscraper relying on an entirely skeletal support structure. The Manhattan Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976 and designated as a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978.</p>

At the time of its completion in 1891, Chicago’s Manhattan Building was one of the most innovative buildings of the era. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, he sought to push the limits of building height during a time when the traditional practices of architecture were being questioned and experiments with new designs and ideas began taking shape. At that time, constructing a building at such a height of 16-stories was generally thought to be unsafe. To remedy that concern, Jenney designed the Manhattan Building to feature horizontal sections and setbacks which creates an allusion of a shorter building. Today, the Manhattan Building is the third-oldest skyscraper in Chicago and is the earliest surviving skyscraper relying on an entirely steel skeletal support structure. 

Manhattan Building

The nine-story, large clock tower that adorns the red brick Dearborn station signifies the importance of the railroad to those living in Chicago, and much of the U.S., at the turn of the 20th century. The size of the clock, and the height of the tower, proved necessary for those roaming the town so that they could gage their daily schedules based on the train schedules. Both people and goods traverse the nation and landed in Chicago in abundance during that era.&nbsp;<br><br>Chicago's history first began with investors who saw potential in Chicago due to its location near Lake Michigan and the possibility of connecting the lake to the Mississippi River, which would ostensibly connect New York to New Orleans through Chicago. That resulted in the construction of the Illinois &amp; Michigan (I&amp;M) Canal -- one of many canals built in the U.S at that time, including the Erie Canal in the early 19th century&nbsp;that connected New York to Lake Erie through Buffalo (near Niagara Falls). The canal was one of the last steps of creating mass transportation for a country still relying heavily on waterway navigation -- the railway would soon takeover. &nbsp;<br><br>Not long after the I&amp;M was finished, investors quickly turned to idea of the railway. Chicago, partly due to the influence of Stephan A. Douglas, existed as one of the major hubs of the Trans-Continental Railway, approved during the Civil War. With St. Louis existing as a border state and enduring turmoil during the war, Chicago grew substantially as a Midwestern hub, including for industries such as meatpacking. The war, a nation changing its dietary habits, investors who bet on Chicago during its canal stages, and other factors all worked towards turning Chicago into a boomtown, one that would enjoy one of the fastest growth periods every seen by any city;&nbsp;Between 1870 and 1900 Chicago's population exploded from 300,000 to nearly 1.7 million. And that growth largely coincided with increased railway traffic.&nbsp;<br><br><div>During its peak, during the Roaring Twenties, 146 trains per day arrived to Dearborn Station carrying 17,000 passengers.&nbsp;Trains included&nbsp;Santa Fe’s luxurious Super Chief, El Capitan, and Chief, as well as several other prominent railway companies, most of whom sent their best trains to Dearborn Station. <br><br>The clock, once a functional necessity, quickly grew to something more of a decorative novelty as Chicago's skyscrapers grew in rapid fashion, hiding the clock from most people's sight. That was the first sign of a changing society that slowly saw the demise of the important of passenger railway travel. Even by the 1920s, more people began taking streetcars or even automobiles. That trend continued so that by September 30, 1967, &nbsp;the Monon Railroad ended its service to Dearborn and others quickly followed suit. The station closed in 1971 and now exists as a retail shop on the southern end of Chicago's "Printer's Row," another industry that helped Chicago grow.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

Chicago's immense growth in the late 19th and early 20th century coincided with its existence as a major railway hub. The Dearborn Station, built in 1885, sat at the south end of the business district near the infamous "Loop," and is the only station remaining of Chicago's six major stations that emerged in the late 19th century. Its nine-story clock tower reminds us of a time when railway schedules heavily influenced the general flow of people's daily lives. 

Chicago Loop Walking Tour - Michigan Ave and Dearborn

Congress Plaza Hotel

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information