Rand McNally Building
Life Span: 1880-1890
Location: Monroe street, between Clark and LaSalle
Architect: Edward Burling
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1885
Rand, McNally & Co. W. H. Rand, pres. and treas; Andrew McNally, v. pres. and supt; Thomas C. Haynes, sec. printers, stationers, map and wood engravers, electrotypers, map pubs. and pubs. railway guide 148, 150, 152 and 154 Monroe
Chicago Tribune, April 14, 1880
RAND & M’NALLY.
Their New Location.
Yesterday at noon Messrs. Rand, McNall & Co., in the office of Messrs. Hitchcock & Dupee, signed a very important agreement. It is well known that for two years past their present quarters had been too small for them. They spread from Madison on to State street, but the best manufacturing facilities demanded by the firm could not be had in their present present location. They leased a term of twenty years, with the privilege of purchasing within ten years, the property known as the Douglas lot, on the south side of Monroe street, between Clark and LaSalle, being 90 feet front by 190 feet deep. The annual rental is fixed at $5,000, and the price to be faid for the land, if purchased within ten years, is $100,000 cash. It is more likely that the property will soon be purchased by the firm.
They will at once proceed with the erection of two buildings for the use of the house, to cost $75,000. The plan, as proposed and designed by Mr. Burling, the architect, comprises two buildings, fron and rear, with a court of a depth of fifty feet, giving ample light. The buildings will be six stories in height, and the press-room will be the largest and best-lighted of any in the country used fo a like purpose, and will be located under the court, on the ground floor, an innovation of no small importance. The front building will contain the business office of the firm on the ground floor, and there will be some stores and offices to be rented out. The upper floors will contain the book-rooms, artists’, engravers’, and designers’ departments, lithograph rooms, etc. The rear building will be especially constructed for a factory. The latest improvements will be used.
Work will be commenced at once on the construction of the building. Should Messrs. Rand, McNally & Coo. not purchase the property within the ten years named, at the end of twenty years there is to be a reappraisal of the property under the lease, and at the end of thirty years the owner, Mr. Douglas, or his heirs, shall have the privilege of purchasing the improvements at an appraisal, or Messrs. Rand McNally & Co. shall have the same privilege in regard to tye ground. But there is no doubt but that the firm will purchase the real estate long before the expiration of the ten years named in the lease.
The lot upon which the Central Trust Company Illinois’ building once stood was cleared by the Great Fire of 1871, and remained vacant until 1880, when the building shown above was erected upon it and was occupied by Rand, McNally & Co. It was a five-story building in front and six stories in the rear, with a light court about 40 feet wide separating the two buildings.
Rand McNally Building
Vault and Engine Rooms
Madison and State Streets
1880
Rand McNally Building
Counting Room
Madison and State Streets
1880
Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1880
RAND, M’NALLY & CO.’S NEW INDEXED ATLAS OF THE WORLD.
Rand, McNally & Co., the well-known publishers, have now in press a new work, as shown by the above caption. It will comprise some fiOO pages, containing largo scale maps of every country upon the face of the globe, maps In every respecr equal to those in the Rand-McNally Business Atlas, and all indexed in the same man ner. In addition to having all maps indexed the same as the Rand-McNally Business Atlas, the work will contain both historical and descriptive matter, uniformly for each country, with many and various illustrations.
This work is deserving of especial mention at this time, as it will contain the only full set of map plates for every country upon the earth that has been engraved in this country within the last twenty years. It will be no patched-up work, a plate obtained here and another there and put together with little expense and called an atlas. Every portion of this work is new throughout, and has cost the publishers not less than $50,000. If it obtains the sale it deserves, it will be placed in every household in this country. Those wanting a good atlas (and where can a late map be found?) should remember that Rand, McNally & Co.’s New Indexed Atlas of the World will be published just as soon as a work of this character can be printed.
Rand McNally Buildings
Robinson Fire Map
1886
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