1880-1900 The Golden Age

Golden Age Gallery

Chicago architecture has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. The city of Chicago, Illinois features prominent buildings in a variety of styles by many important architects. Since most buildings within the downtown area were destroyed (the most famous exception being the Water Tower) by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Chicago buildings are noted for their originality rather than their antiquity.

Beginning in the early 1880s, the Chicago School pioneered steel-frame construction and the use of large amounts of glass. These were the first modern skyscrapers. William LeBaron Jenney’s Home Insurance Building of 1885 was the first use of steel-skeleton instead of cast iron and stone. Louis Sullivan, realizing that the skyscraper could be used to create a new form of architecture, discarded historical precedent and designed buildings that emphasized their vertical nature. Since he was based in Chicago and many of his buildings were built there, this new form of architecture became known as the “Chicago School”. Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include Henry Hobson Richardson, Dankmar Adler, Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, William LeBaron Jenney, Martin Roche, John Root, Solon S. Beman, and Louis Sullivan. Frank Lloyd Wright started in the firm of Adler and Sullivan but created his own Prairie Style of architecture.

In 1892 the Masonic Temple surpassed New York’s World Building, breaking its two year reign as the tallest skyscraper, only to be surpassed itself two years later by another New York building.

Daniel Burnham led the design of the “White City” of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition which led to a revival of Neo-Classical architecture throughout Chicago and the entire United States. He later developed the 1909 “Plan for Chicago”, perhaps the first comprehensive city plan in the U.S. The “White City” represented anything other than its host city’s architecture. Louis Sullivan said that the fair set the course of American architecture back by two decades.

golden

Glossop’s Hotel, Business, and Amusement Map; Frank Glossop, 1884
By the mid-1880s this portion of the South Division was almost exclusively the location of businesses of different kinds, with far less of its real estate occupied by residences and churches than in the years before the fire. There was also more clustering of the businesses by type. Note the Inter-State Exposition Building on the lakefront.

Adams Express Building
Albert Fleury
A. H. Andrews Building II
Art Institute
Art Institute of Chicago
Ashland Block II
Athenæum Building
Atwood Building
Auditorium
Baker’s Theater
Board of Trade I
Borden Block
William Borden Mansion
Boyce Building
Brother Jonathan Building
Brunswick Hotel
Butler Paper Building
Cable Building
Ransom R. Cable Mansion
Calumet Block
Calumet Club
Caxton Building
Central Station
Chamber of Commerce III
Champlain Building
Chicago & Northwestern Wells Street Station
Chicago Avenue Police Station
Chicago Burlington & Quincy Offices
Chicago’s Clock Towers
Chicago’s Cycloramas
Chicago Daily News Building I
Chicago Edison Company Power House Building
Chicago Herald Building
Chicago Historical Society III
Chicago Homeopathic College
Chicago National Bank
Chicago Opera House Block
Chicago Public Library Building
Chicago Stock Exchange
Chicago Telephone Company Building
City Hall VI
Cold Storage Exchange
Coliseum I
Coliseum II
Columbus Memorial Building
Commercial National Bank
Como Block
Conkey Building
Cook County Courthouse II
Counselman Building
Dale Building
Daniel Burnham 1846-1912
Davis-Rankin Block
Dearborn Street Station
Donohue & Henneberry
Douglas Club
Ellsworth Building
Enterprise Building
Fair Department Store
Farragut Boat Club
Farwell Block IV
Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing Company
First National Bank of Chicago IV
First New York to Chicago Telephone Call
First Public Bath Houses
Fisher Building
Fort Dearborn Building
Fulton Street Wholesale Market
A. S. Gage Building
Germania Mænnerchor
Giles Bros. & Co.
Girard Building
Grace Hotel
Grand Central Station
Grannis Block
Great Northern Hotel
H. E. Bucklen Building
Hardy Subterranean Theater
Haymarket Theatre
Hiram Sibley Warehouse
Home Insurance Building
Hotel Richelieu
The Hub
Hull House
Illinois Central Hyde Park Station
Illinois Club
Illinois National Guard First Regiment Armory II
Illinois Theatre
Illinois Trust and Savings Bank
Indiana Club
Insurance Exchange Building
Inter Ocean Building I
Isabella Building, Van Buren, Between State and Wabash streets
Jewett Building
John M. Smyth Block
Kaiserhof Hotel
Kenwood Club
LaBerge Flats
Lakeside Club
Lakeside Press
Bryan Lathrop Mansion
LaSalle Club
Leiter Building II
Lexington Hotel
Libby Prison Museum
Louis Nettelhorst Elementary School
Lyon & Healey Factory
Maller’s Building
Manhattan Building
Marquette Building
Marshall Field Warehouse
Masonic Temple
Matthew Laflin Memorial Building
McVicker’s Theater III
McVicker’s Theater IV
L. Hamilton McCormick Mansion
Harold McCormick Mansion
McCoy’s European Hotel
Medinah Building
Methodist Book Concern
Metropole Hotel
Metropolis of the Prairies
Monadnock Building
Monon Building
Montauk Block
Montgomery Ward—Phase II
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Spirit of Progress Story
Morrison Hotel I
New Windsor Theatre
New York Life Insurance Building
Newberry Library
Samuel Nickerson Mansion
Odd-Fellows Building – The tallest building in the city that was never built.
Old Colony Building
Omaha Building
Ottawa Building
The Owings Building
Parker Building
Phenix Building
Picturesque Chicago – 1882
Pontiac Building
Temporary Postoffice
Potter Palmer Mansion
Price Building
Pullman Building
Railway Exchange Building
Rand McNally Buildings
Reliance Building
Rialto Building
Robert Law Building
Robinson’s Fire Atlas of Chicago
The Rookery
Schiller (Garrick) Theater
Schlesinger & Mayer Building II
Security Building
Security Deposit Company Building
Skandinaven Building
James B. Speed Hotel, Clark street, near Van Buren
Standard Club
State and Madison in 1897
Steinway Hall
Stock Exchange
Studebaker Building
Tacoma Building
Tattersall’s Building
Temple Court Building
Teutonic Building
Thompson & Taylor Spice Co
Tree Studio Building
Troescher Building
Trude Building
Union Club
Union Depot
Union Hotel
Union League Club
Union League Club Building I
United States Appraiser’s Building
Unity Building
Virginia Hotel
Washington Park Club
Wellington Hotel II
Western Bank Note Company
Western Wheel Works
William Deering Plant
Woman’s Temple
Y.W.C.A. Hotel
Young Men’s Christian Association Building
Yukon Building
Zearing Building