Stewart Building II Block 37
Life Span: 1902-~1983
Location: State nw cor Washington
Architect:
- Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Stewart Building.—92 State nw cor Washington
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
Stewart Building.—108 N State nw cor Washington
Chicago Tribune, May 9, 1896
Stewart’s corner, State and Washington streets, has undergone a great change within the last few days. The building which has stood on it for almost a quarter of a century, and which has during the last few years of its history been one of the landmarks of State street, being rapidly torn down.
Although the old building sold for only $3,000, it cost sixty-two times that to build it. For years it was considered one of the handsomest in the city and was the model of many of the older buildings now standing i State street or scattered throughout the business district.
But the creation of the modern office building meant the doom of the old corner, for Stewart’s corner has regularly undergone an upheaval the building which adorned it was proven to belong to another generation. So a new twelve-story terra cotta structure is going up on Stewart’s corner, which will be as much a revelation to these times as was the first house which ever stood on the lot in its days, and which was built by Gen. Stewart in 1844, or as was the St. James in 1858, or as the building, which is now almost torn down, was in 1873.
All three of the buildings which have stood on Stewart’s corner were built and owned by Gen. Hart L. Stewart, and as the ground is still owned by his heirs and the new building isb to be called the Stewart Building, it is probable the name by which the corner has been known for half a century will be as familiar to coming generations as it has been in the past.
Gen. Stewart received the original deeds for the land from the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commissioners, who were granted the property by the government. The next year the General built a handsome house, in which his family resided for many years. Before he built his house Gen Stewart had to have the sand in the lot taken away by the cartload and replaced by black dirt hauled from the sloughs.
After the business part of the rapidly growing had spread south and east of Stewart’s corner the old house was moved away and the St. James Hotel was built on the lot. It cost $90,000, a big price back in `858, and for a long time was on of the finest buildings in the city. On the ground floor the hotel building were three stores, which were rented for an average og $3,500. In startling contrast to this is the amount paid merely for ground rent by the company putting up the new building. The sum of $56,000 annually is to be paid for the first five years, $64,000 for the next five, and $75,000 each year for the remainder of the term of the ninety-nine years’ lease.
The great fire wiped out the historical St. James, and then Gen. Stewart erected the building which is now being torn down.
One of the most familiar features of the old building was Lapp & Flershem’s big clock. which was in the center of the building on the second floor. More people have regulated their lives by that old clock than by any precept in the neighborhood of State or Washington street, with his bwatch in his hand and gazing vacantly around in every direction. It can be set down he is looking for the old Stewart clock.1
Chicago Tribune, December 26, 1897
Heirs of the Pullman estate have transferred to the Stewart estate the ground at the northwest corner of State and Washington streets upon which the Steward building stands. It will later be transferred to the Northern Trust Company, which will act as trustee. The ground, which has the dimensions of 91×90 feet, was conveyed to George M. Pullman in trust for General Stewart’s heirs. In 1892 it was leased to H.H. Kohlsaat and by him released to the Merrimac Building Company for a term of 102 years at a graduated rental from $47,350 to $75,000 a year. The property has an incumbrance in the form of a first mortgage for $140,000, and another mortgage for $46,000 was placed upon it last week.
Chicago Tribune, October 26, 1898
BOOK CONCERN’S NEW BUILDING
Methodist Company to Erect a $160,000 Structure Adjoining the A. T. Stewart Block.
An eleven-story skyscraper is to be erected next spring by the Western Methodist Book concern, in Washington street, adjoining the twelve-story A. T. Stewart Building. It will be directly opposite the Reliance Building, and only a short distance from the Columbus Memorial Building. When the structure is completed the corner will be abie to boast a cluster of skyscrapers almost as imposing as lower Dearborn street.
The new building will combine externally several features of the Venetian and the Tacoma Buildings. It will be of steel construction, finished in white brick. The striking points of its architecture are the two bay windows adorning the front, and the single bay window on the east side, toward the Stewart Building, running to the tenth story. The cornice and iron work of the front will be ornamental. The building is to cost $160.000. Work on it will be begun next spring.
Chicago Tribune, April 3, 1902
Chicago Savings Bank.
The first meeting of the stockholders of the new Chicago Savings bank, organized by members of the Otis family, will be held on the vault floor of the Chicago National bank this afternoon. Following are the directors who will probably be elected. George H. Webster, Rudolph Matz, H. J. Evans, Charles H. Requa, D. B. Scully, W. G. Hibbard, Jr., Walter H. Wilscn, John E. Jenkins, William E. O’Neill, J. B. Otis, R. C. Otis. It is common report that Mr. Webster will be elected president. The bank will open for business in the Stewart building May 1.
Chicago Tribune, January 31, 1951
STEWART BUILDING IN LOOP PURCHASED BY LOAN ASSOCIATION
By Al Chase.
Chicago Federal Savings and Loan association has purchased for $400,000 the 12 story Stewart building and leasehold estate at the northwest corner of State and Washington sts., A. M. Jens, president, announced yesterday.
About 15,000 square feet of floor space on the first, second, and third floors will be extensively remodeled and occupied by Chicago Federal when present leases permit. The loan association now is at 211 S. La Salle st.
The ground lease of the site, fronting 91½ feet on State and 90 feet on Washington, runs to
1994, with option to renew for 99 more years. The annual ground rental is $75,000. The Charles Shedd estate was seller of the leasehold and building. The land is owned by Mrs. Stewart Patterson and others.
The Stewart building was erected in 1897 at a reported cost of $500,000. Its replacement value today is 2½ million dollars, Jens Scid. Gerard E. Hausen & Co. was broker in purchase of the property and has been appointed agent of the building.
Chicago Tribune, October 25, 1973
By Paul Gapp
Urban affairs editor
The Landmarks Preservation Council has asked city officials to con- sider saving four 19th Century buildings in a north Loop area proposed for urban renewal and partial demolition.
All the structures are in the block bounded by Randolph, Washington, State, and Dearborn Streets.
They are:
- The Springer Block-a stretch of small buildings on the west side of State Street, reaching southward from the corner of Randolph Street. The council said the buildings are “of exceptional quality” for the period, apparently due to remodeling work by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler in the late 1800s. They give continuity to State Street retail history, and if revitalized could be of great value to State and Randolph as a regular retail and entertainment center.”
Unity Building-137 Dearborn St. “The only office building by Clinton Warren, the famous hotel architect, and once one of the biggest and most famous buildings In Chicago,” the council said.
McCarthy Building (also known as the Landfield Building>-the northeast corner of Dearborn and Washington Streets. “Designed by John M. Van Osdel, it is one of the few surviving buildings downtown dating from 1872, the year after the great fire. A fine example of the style of the period Very interesting in its juxtaposition to Civic Center plaza and nearby buildings,” the council said.
Methodist Publishing House– now known as the Stop-and-Shop warehouse, 12 W. Washington St. The council said it was designed by Otis L. Wheelock and is “a nice example of the bay window variant of the Chicago , enhanced with Sullivanesque orna- ment.”
None of the buildings have been designated an architectural landmark by the city.
The Council, a private organization, made its plea to save the building in a letter to Lewis W. Hill, the city s urban renewal commissioner. It suggested a small governmental committee be formed to study the buildings.
A federal environmental impact statement will be required if the city moves ahead with the renewal project, the council said. Such statements must include an evaluation of architecturally important buildings.
An undetermined number of buildings would be torn down and the cleared land sold to developers for construction of housing, office, and other structures in an irregularly shaped six-block renewal area.
Hill said it will take six months to complete a feasibility study of the -dollar project.
- Stewart Building II
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1906
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