William Le Baron Jenney

Biographical Sketches of the Leading People of Chicago

Inter Ocean, June 16, 1907

William Le Baron Jenney, Inventor of the skyscraper and for many years one of the foremost of America’s architects and en-gineers. died In Los Angeles, Cal., early yesterday morning at the age of 74 years.

Mr. Jenney was born in Fairhaven, Mass., Sept. 25, 1832. He graduated from the sei-entifle school at Cambridge, Mass., in 1853, and entered, in 1854, the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures at Paris, France, graduating in 1856. It was during this period of study that an American, Richard M. Hunt, was appointed by the French government an inspector, and, under M. Hector Lefuel, designed the Pavilion de la Bibliotheque, opposite the Palais Royal. Mr. Jenney frequently spoke of the admiration he had for Hunt at that time, and how much he was influenced in his after life by the success achieved by Hunt.

Served on General Grant’s Staff.
During the year 1858 Mr. Jenney again visited France, spending a year and a half in the study of architecture and art. Upon his return to the United States and upon the breaking out of the rebellion he was appointed Captain Additional Aid-de-camp, S. A., and assigned to engineer duty at Cairo, Ill. He served as engineer officer on the staff of General U.S. Grant from Cairo to Corinth, then, at General W. T. Sherman’s request, was transferred to his command and put in charge of the engineer works at Memphis. He accompanied General Sherman as member of his staff on the Vicksburg expedition, was chief engineer Fifteenth army corps at the siege of Vicksburg, and continued to serve on the staff of General Sherman until he resigned in May, 1866.

In the fall of 1868 he came to Chicago and began his professional career. His first architectural works of importance here were Grace Episcopal church, Wabash avenue, near Sixteenth street; the Portland block, Washington and Dearborn streets, built immediately after the Chicago fire, and the Mason building.

Invented Skeleton Construetion.
Mr. Jenney’s most important work, and for which he is best known, was the invention and first. application of the skeleton construction now in such general use for tail buildings throughout the country.

In the fall of 1883 Mr. Jenney was appointed architect for the Home Insurance company of New York city and instructed to prepare designs for a tall, fire proof office building, to be located on the northeast corner of Adams and La Salle streets, Chicago.

The architect was requested to report on the method of construction that would satisty the requirements for stability and for emall plers. It naturally followed that brick or stone were insufficient to carry the Joads on the piers, a material must be provided that would support a greater load per unit of section. The natural solution of the problem was to inclose an iron column within each of the small masonry piers, thus satisfying the three requirements small piers, strength, and fireproofing.

The quèstion of a column 150 feet high, under the extreme variation of temperature, say 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more, from the hot sun in summer to the excessive cold in winter, now presented itself. A solution was soon found by Mr. Jenney, by supporting the walls and floors of each story independently on the columns, thus dividing the total movement into as many parts as there were stories, the expansion and contraction In no one story being of sufficient importance to require special consideration. The drawings were then prepared and the first design for a preproof skeleton building was made.

Used First Steel In Construction.
The columns in the Home Insurance building were cast iron. The riveted columns of plates and angles were at that time thought too expensive. It was in this building that the first Bessemer steel beams were used, manufactured by the. Carnegle-Phipps company. who stated at the time that the Home Insurance building was the first in the United States to use steel beams in its construction. It introduced the steel skeleton.

In 1897 Mr. Jenney received the following letter, which establishes his claim as the inventor of the skeleton construction:

Feb. 13, 1897.
Mr. W. L. B. Jenney. Home Insurance Building. Chicago, III,-My Dear Sir: With your permission we shall take pleasure in naming a ship now being constructed for us by Messrs. Wheeler & Co., Detroit, Mich., the ‘W. L. B. Jenney,’ as a mark of our appreciation of your distinguished services In connection with the invention and introduction of lofty steel skeleton construction of buildings Yours very truly

(Signed)
F. T. Gates, President.

Bulldings Constructed by Jenney.
Among other prominent buildings built by Mr. Jenney while associated with W. B. Mundie are the following:
Union League club, Horticultural building Columbian exposition, The Fair, Siegel, Cooper & Co.’s store, the Association building, the New York Life building, Chicago National bank building, the Trude building, and the Fort Dearborn building.

The Last work in which Mr. Jenney was actively interested was the designing of the Illinois Vicksburg memorial, a monument constructed by the state of Illinois on the= battle-field of Vicksburg. Mr. Jenney was naturally much interested in this work, having taken a very active part in the siege. At the time the monument was dedicated Jenney was too ill to attend. Mr. Mundie took up the work where it was left by Mr Jenney and carried it on to a successful completion

Among the architects and engineers who have had early training with Mr. Jenney are D. H. Burnham, William Holabird, Martin Roche. D, E. Waid, A. H. Granger, H. V. D. Shaw, J. M. Ewen, and L. E. Ritter.

Retired From Business in 1905.
In the spring of 1905 Mr. Jenney retired from active practice and concluded to make his permanent residence in Los Angeles. The business has been carried on under the firm name of Jenney, Mundie & Jensen by W. B. Mundie and E. C. Jensen, who had been associated with Jenney for twenty years.

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