Conkey Building

Conkey Building, Franklin Building I, Old Franklin Building
Life Span: 1888-Present
Location: 341-351 Dearborn (Old), 519-531 South Dearborn
Architect: Bauman & Lotz

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Franklin Bldg.—341 to 351 Dearborn.
Franklin Engraving and Electrotyping Co.’s Bldg.—346 to 350 Dearborn.

Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1888

DEARBORN-ST.. south of Van Buren—(Two fronts, Dearborn and 3d-av.) Stores, with heat, in the new practically fire-proof Zeese and Conkey Building; ready about April 15.

Chicago and Its Resources, Twenty Years After 1871-1891

The W. B. Conkey Co., 341-351 Dearborn Street, General Printers and Book Manufacturers, have the most complete establishment in this country for the making of all kinds of catalogues, books, etc., in the shortest possible time; appreciating the fact that to-day Time is the great essential in printmg and binding, they have perfected their plant so as to be enabled to turn out the largest editions in an almost incredible short space of time.

In the Composing Room from 80 to 100 compositors are employed. There are many tons of body type, and 300 fonts of display type, embracing all the latest designs, all of which have been purchased new within the last year, and as it is not used for anything but tor electrotyping purposes, it must be alwavs clear, and in good condition

The Press Rooms contain forty cylinder presses, from the perfecting presses which take the paper from the roll and print both sides, to the finest six roller stop cylinder machines used on the highest grades of black and color printing. Immense fire-proof vaults are provided for all book plates and dies. The plates of 3,000 books are kept in these vaults, where they are perfectly secure from fire or accident. The provision made for caring for plates is most ample for years to come.

In the lighting of the printing factory Mr. Conkey having given careful study of the effect light has to color, has overcome the difficulty of lighting press rooms with arc electric lamps, avoiding the variations of color. The press rooms are lighted by over fifty arc lamps of 2,000 candlepower, and make them as bright as sunlight.

The consumption of the press rooms average about fifty tons of paper per day. Some of the presses print as many as 64 pages of an 8vo. at one time. Color work of the highest class and printing of the very finest half-tone illustrations are done on smaller presses containing every one of the latest improvements.

The Bindery is the largest in this country, employing about six hundred people, and equipped with all the modern improvements of the times, consisting of forty-five folding machines, twenty-two wire stitching machines, twenty-four improved book sewing machines, twenty-two cutting machines and twelve embossing machines, besides innumerable rounding, backing case-making, beveling, round cornering, indexing machines, etc.

This establishment can deliver to their customers 10,000 copies of a book of 400 pages, completely printed and bound, within twenty-four hours from the time the plates are placed in their hands. This Coiiipanv have two factory buildings, the printing building is 100×100 feet, six floors and basement; the bindery building is 125×70 feet, seven floors and basement. Two fast-freight elevators are required in each of the buildings, and also special conveyors are kept constantly moving with books unbound and bound, carrying them to any part of the bindery.

The printing department is run by two large engines of 150 horsepower, and the bindery department by a Hamilton-Corhss engine of 180 horse-power. Immense batteries of boilers in each supply abundant steam for power and heat.

Both buildings are fully equipped with high pressure automatic sprinklers, mercurial fire-alarms, complete equipment of fire-pails, etc. In addition special watchmen patrol every floor, and register their calls by time clocks, which secure perfect vigilance. As a result of these precautions the rate of insurance is less on this establishment than any smiilar one in Chicago. Time-clocks are provided for each department, so that each employe registers his own time. Electric call bells and telephones connect every department with the office, so that all parts of the establishment can be reached almost instantly, and are in perfect touch with the guiding head. From top to bottom everything is reduced to the utmost system and regularity. From 800 to 1,000 persons are constantly employed, varying according to the season, the pay-roll ranging from $8,000 to $10,000 per week, with an output of $1,000,000 per annum.

The machinery in each of the several departments are of the very latest improved; in fact, a fitting up the establishment nothing was found to be too good, which saved labor, or contributed to the perfection of the work turned out, and since then whatever improvements in machinery were made in their line have been secured, no matter at what cost.

The W. B. Conkey Company is an Illinois corporation, with a paid-up capital stock of $300,000, of which Mr. W. B. Conkey is President. The concern was started in a small way some fifteen years ago and has had a very healthy and steady growth ever since.

The Printing factory is located at Nos. 65-71 Plymouth Place, and the Binding factory at Nos. 78-88 Plymouth Place. The Printing building was erected some four years ago purposely for a printing building, and has all the necessary requirements for such. The Binding building was also erected some four years ago by and owned by Mr. W. B. Conkey, who built it expressly to meet the requirements of the bindery, being lighted on two sides by wide streets, and the building having a depth of only seventy feet gives it the most perfect daylight throughout for all its workrooms.

This concern prints and binds from the smallest pamphlet to the largest and finest bound book, executing all work in the highest style of art.

The motto of the concern is to be “Always on time,” which, no doubt, has been the key-note to its remarkable success.

Chicago Tribune December 22, 1892

art W. B. Conkey will, in all probability, be given the concession for printing the Exposition catalogue. This was practically agreed upon at a yesterday afternoon between members of the Board of Directors and National Comnmssion. The Board of Control of the latter body the right to finally pass upon the contract for the work. Inasmuch-as the full board has adjourned un- til Jan. 4, 1893, it was deemed necessary to secure several of its members remain in the city their consent to the contract, with the belief the entire body would ratify it later on. Mr. has signed the contract, and yesterday practically gave out the that unless he was as- sured before 6 o’clock that the contract would be his, he would withdraw his proposition. This announcement caused quite a stir among Exposition people, and they were not slow in bringing about a conference of all the parties in interest. As a result, Mr. Conkey and his attorney, ex-Judge Page, left the Rand-McNally Building with every assurance that the concession would go to Mr. Conkey.

As formally winding up all the charges preferred in connection with the investigation of Exposition officials in regard to the concession thre Executive at its meeting yesterday adopted a set of resolutions. After telling how the committee was organized the-resolutions say:

So apparent was it that the rumors which found expression to some extent in the public press, and which were insinuated in the charges filed with the committee, were wholly untrue, that the members of the labor organizations satisfied and honorably withdrew all such charges or insinuations.

On consideration of testimony of several of the Ways and Means committee who have had experience for the last eight months in the granting of concessions for the World’s Columbian Exposition, your committee is unanimously of the opinion that it is in many instances not wise to advertise for bids for concessions to be granted for the reason that the asking of specifications for many of the concessions so definite and certain that there could be intelligent bidding thereon is a matter wholly impracticable. But your committee is of the opinion that in the granting of concessions of any considerable importance it would be wise for the committee having it in charge to invite propositions by public or otherwise from persons engaged in the line of trade or business pertaining to the particular. This not so much for the reason of better terms to be obtained, for we are not satisfied that would always be the case, but for the sake of silencing those who might carp at perfectly honest and upright action if such inviting of competition was entirely omitted.

Submitted:
EDWIN, WALKER,
THOMAS MORAN.
MARK L. CRAWFORD,

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Something About Conkey.
So much has been said about W. B. Conkey that public interest has been excited. Twenty years ago there trumped into Chicago a lad of 14 years with little clothing no money. He was young Conkey. He didn’t know where to secure a meal, but he was willing to work. A dry goods firm gave him a position at a nominal salary, which enabled him to secure board and lodging. He didn’t like the position he held and shortly afterwards learned the business of type-setting, beginning in the office of R. R. Donnelley. Mr. Conkey passed through all the gradations of type-setting and graduated the printers’ room to a position as reporter on the morning newspaper then known as the Courier. That publication passed out of existence years ago, but not before Mr. Conkey had passed three years in its service. When he left the Courier he went to the Evening News, then controlled by Melville E. Stone. Mr. Conkey was engaged in the capacity of city circulator for Mr. Stone’s afternoon venture.

In 1877 Mr. Conkey started in a small way a newspaper mailing agency. His office wasn’t a big one and he had to do a great deal of hustling for patronage. His efforts in this necessitated private work in several of the morning newspaper offices. In fact, his busiest time was at 3 o’clock in the morning, when editions of the newspapers were sent out from the city. But Mr. Conukey didn’t like work at 3 o’clock in the morning, and soon started a little book-binding establishment. He called it a book bindery, but that title, however, was far too dignified for the venture. What the proprietor did was to bind certain small pamphlets instead of books. Within a few years be opened a real book-bindery on Dearborn street. While his quarters comparatively ample for the capital invested, they soon proved to be too small. Not having extensive funds at hand he called in Mr. Zeese. now a Chicago publisher, and the two erected the Franklin Building on Dearborn street. Mr. Zeese took two floors and Mr. Conkey a like number. But before the bookbinder began in the new establishment he engaged two additional rooms. Later, with the exception of Mr. Zeese, he bought out all the other tenants and took the remaining rooms in the building. Since that time Mr. Conkey has been uniformly prosperous. Two years ago he bought out an entire printing establishment, and a year ago last July purchased another-the plant of the Illinois Printing and Bindery company.

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Mr. Conkey was born in Sterling. Canada, in 1858. He was one of a family of half a dozen children, and when his father died, leaving the mother to care for the children, he resolved to look out for himself and to reach Chicago. Within twenty years he has experienced all the vicissitudes of fortune and has now secured from the Exposition company a concession which demands $100,000 in cash, a bond for $150,000, a check for another $10,000, and involves the payment of a large percentage of the gross receipts of his venture.

Chicago Tribune, January 6, 1893

CONKEY GETS THE CONTRACT.
Preparations Already Under Way for Printing the World’s Fair Catalogue.
W. B. Conkey was yesterday given finally the contract for the concession for printing the Exposition catalogue. The papers were signed by President Higinbotham and other Worid’s Fair officials. Mr. Conkey deposited the check for $10,000, and demonstrated his ability to pay at the proper time $100,000 as a bonus. The catalogue of the World’s Columbian Exposition will be bound in English cloth, and will cost $2.50 per volume. This is for the volume containing all the lists in one book. There will be individual catalogues for each of the twelve great exhibit buildings which may be carried in the pocket. These small books will cost at the rate or 10 cents for sixty-four pages. If they exceed this number an .al price will be charged. and if they fall below it a lower price will be fixed.

The system of designating the location of exhibits is one of letters and figures. Each building will be marked off with lines running longitudinally and latitudinally. The longitudinal lines will be lettered; the latitudinal ones numbered. For instance, if Mr. Smith’s exhibit were designated “P 31” the visitor woild first discover the longitudinal line on which it was located and then seek for the intersecting line with the proper number. One feature new to catalogues will be the absence of a single line of advertising as such. The book will be printed neatly and form straightforward reading matter. After the statement of the exhibitor’s name and address and his exhibit there may be additional descriptive matter. This additional matter will be charged for at the rate of $5 per line.

Mr. Conkey. as soon as the contract was closed yesterday, sent out to type founders ordering twelve tons of type. This large quantity was deemed necessary because it is the intention to keep the entire composition “standing.” The matter when put in type will be kept in that form the period of the Exposition. In order to guarantee the safety of the electrotypes ten sots will be made. One set will be stored in the First National Bank, another in a safety deposit vault on the West Side, another will be stored on the North Side, and six sets will be kept in the office of the publisher. The amount of metal that will be used in the electrotypes is estimated at six tons; amount of printing ink required, fifteen tons. The type if “set up” newspaper column width would make a line of metal one mile long. It will require a force of 1,000 people to handle the enterprise. At least forty cylinder presses, perfecting presses, with a of 12.00 perfected sheets per hour. Two hundred carloads of paper will be used in the bo:das. The estimated sale of the volumes ranges from 10,000,000 to 12,000,000.

Maj. Handy of the Department of Publicity and Promotion will be the editor-in-chief of the work. The descriptive matter and everything in reference to the exhibition will be furnished by the exhibiters themselves. This will be procured by means of blanks now being sent out to them for the purpose. This matter upon reaching Chbiago will be turned over to Maj. Handy and under his supervision edited and sent to the publisher. Mr. Conkey prints the work, places it on sale, and pays the Exposition company 10 per cent of the gross receipts until they shall reach $500,000. After that he pays 25 per cent of the receipts. In addition to the catalogue concession Mr. Conkey, associated with C. H. Taney of West Virginia, has secured the concession and contract for printing a directory of the Exposition. This directory is to contain a complete list of exhibiters, their home addresses, and the names of their exhibits. It wilt also embrace a history of the Exposition, cuts of all the buildings, portraits of the leading World’s Fair officials, as well as all the members of the Board of Lady Managers. In addition there will be given the rules and regulations of the Exposition.

This will also be copyrighted and sold at $2.50 per copy.

Inter Ocean, February 11, 1898

The W. B. Conkey company, book manufacturers and publishers, will remove from their present location at Nos. 341 to 351 Dearborn street, to an immense building to be erected for them at Hammond, Ind., costing $150,000, to be completed by June 1 next. The company is one of the most important of its kind in the country, employing 1,300 people, The reasons given for the change are various economies in conducting the business and bettered conditions for employes. In connection with the location of the Conkey plant at Hamond, a new corporation has been formed, known as the Hammond Land and Improvement company, the stockholders of which include prominent business men at Hammond and Chicago.

The land company will give ten acres of property and $75,000 cash to the Conkey company, the former as a site, the latter to help toward the cost of the new building. The holding in all is eighty acres, located in section 1, in the southern part of the residence district of the town, east of Homan avenue, between the Erie and Monon railroads. Seventy acres left to the Hammond Land and Improvement company, after the donation to the Conkey company, will be subdivided and improved, 640 lots being formed, worth $200 each or more. Each subscriber to stock of the company may take lots to the par value of his subscription. Lots will be purchased by employes of the Conkey company and others, it is expected, as home” sites. The improvements will be of high grade. Streets will be macadamized, and, water and sewers extended throughout the property. A park has been designed by O. C. Simonds. Its location will be west of the Conkey building. and landscape features will be extended throughout the subdivision. Among the subscribers to the stock of the land company are: Bryan Lathrop, Marvin A. Farr, Thomas Hammond, Jesse Moss, D. M. Cummings. Walter C. Larned, Walter H. Wilson, John E. Jenkins, George Rickcords, H. C. Dovenmueble, J. W. Eschenberg, George W. Hoffman, Mayor Mott, Senator Gostlin, J. M. Lautmann, William Kleihege, Alexander M. Turner, and J. G. Hoch.

Employment for Six Handred.
The eighty acres form a part of the George B. Rickords tract of 140 acres. The valuation placed on the seventy acres to be held by the land company is $21,000, which is said to be about one-third of its real worth.

For the two considerations (money and land) given the Conkey company they, on their part, enter into a contract to give employment to not less than 600 persons for a period of five years. From the very start, however, there will undoubtedly be a much larger number of people at work.

Both building and plant of the Conkey company will be unique in the industrial field, world-wide. Plans have been drawn by George C. Nimmons, who has given the most careful attention to the subject, having examined a large number of designs of foreign factory buildings, as well as those of this country. To perfect himself in this knowledge he has traveled extensively.

The special objects of the building were carefully considered in reference. to every detail of the plans. Lighting and power facilities were given special attention, with results that It is believed will prove superior lo those of any other factory structure in the world. An area of 520×453 feet will be covered by the building, which will be one-story high, twelve feet at the eaves and twenty-four feet at the highest point. Every twenty-nine feet of roof space will afford eleven feet of lighting surface, the rays coming from the north. This is accomplished through a series of sashes upraised at an angle, giving an appearance similar to that of a number of greenhouses. The method is an adaptation of that followed in a Belgian factory. Electrical power will be used in every department of the establishment, this for the first time in great Industrial plants. Compound condensing engines in duplicate will be installed, with dynamos attached, connecting with every one of the 600 machines which will be located in the building, through direct connected motors, which will produce the greatest amount of economy in the transmission and use of power. This building, covering nearly four acres of ground, with the large number of machines located in it, without a belt in use, will be a perfect example of the improvements in mechanical engineering since the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Building Will Be Fireproof.
The exterior will be of red brick and the interior absolutely fireproof. For the front a harmonious design has been drawn, the root being planned to cut off the view of the angular skylights. Included with the area given in the foregoing the building is divided into the main office, 75×106 feet, with offices on either side 30×107 feet. The factory, 320×530 feet; the bindery, 352×116 feet; pressroom, 116×256 feet; composing-room, 112×87 feet; electrotyping department, 82×87 feet: stockroom, 208×81 feet; shipping-room, 116×98 feet. To the north of the main building there will be a plate vault of fireproof materials 150×60 feet and an engine-house 40×80 feet.

Electric lighting appliances will extend throughout the plant. Corridors will be unusually large. Lunchrooms for both sexes, with kitchens attached, form part of the plan. Lockers will be installed, one for each employe, for the storage of outer wraps, etc. There will be spacious outer lavatories, bicycle storage rooms, and dining rooms, one for the officers of the company and one for the clerical force.

In brief, every possible convenience, both for the good of the business and the comfort of the employes, seems to be provided for in these comprehensive plans. The negotiations leading up to these transactions have extended over some months. They were conducted by J. H. Van Viisingen & Co.

W. B. Conkey embarked in business in Chicago twenty years ago with a small capital, which grew so rapidly that the corporation which was subsequently organized has been for many years the largest publishing establishment in the United States, doing a business of about $2,500,000 a year. The magnitude of the company’s operations is illustrated by a consideration of the amount ot space the plant occupies in the southern part of the business district, on Dearborn street and Plymouth place, south of Van Buren street.

Ten years ago Mr. Conkey built the Franklin building, extending from No. 341 to No. 351 Dearborn street. It is seven stories high, fronting 125 feet, with a depth of 68 feet, six of the floors of which are occupied by the company. For four years this afforded ample space, but at the end of that time he purchased the leasehold estate at the property at Nos. 63 to 71 Plymouth place, the building being seven stories high and extending over 100×100 feet. Subsequently he acquired on a lease the property at Nos. 73 to 77 Plymouth place, and later on rented a seven-story warehouse, 50×100 feet, on Market street, all of which he occupies at the present time.

Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1902

The assignment of the leases of the former W. B. Conkey printing plant to the Franklin Printing and Publishing company, made it 1887, has just been recorded. It was made by Alexander Zeese and Walter B. Conkey, and the record at this time signifies the preliminary step of the transfer of the property. The leasehold covers 123×65½ feet at 341-51 Dearborn street, and was made March 1, 1887, by three different owners, John H. Walker, Mary Young, and James A. Murphy, for a term of ninety-nine years at an aggregate ground rent of $7,300 to Zeese and Conkey, who erected the printing house on the site.

Chicago Tribune, April 3, 1904

H.O. Stone have negotiated recently the following lease in the Central Business District:
For the Franklin Printing and Publishing company to the George H. More + company, stores, 341 and 343 Dearborn street, for a term of years from May 1; rental, $15,000.

Chicago Tribune, July 31, 1907

Franklin Printing Company Sells Dearborn Street Property.
The Franklin Printing and Publishing company has sold. to Julius Rosenwald the seven story brick building and leasehold estate at 341-351 Dearborn street for $81,000. The property has a frontage of 122 feet, running through to Plymouth, place, and is 125 feet north of Harrison street. The ground Is owned by James A. Murphy and is under a lease for ninety-nine year. from 1387 at an annual rental of 27,300. The building principally is occupied by printers. Benjamin Rosenberg negotiated the sale.

Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1982

art By David Ibata
Two recently announced urban rehabilitation projects worth $12.5 million will convert former industrial buildings to apartment and retail use and add 150 living units to the South Loop.

The Old Franklin Building, 525 S. Dearborn St., and the Lakeside Press Building, 731 S. Plymouth Ct., are former printing plants. They are part of the South Loop Printing House: Historic District.

Renovations are scheduled to begin this spring and be completed in early 1983. Both projects will tap federal urban redevelopment financing.

Community Resources Corp., developer of the Transportation Building, 600 S. Dearborn St., will transform the Old Franklin Building into a 54-unit apartment house with 8,500 square feet of retail space.

The 7-story, 48,000-square-foot building was completed in 1894 and was sold by the Francis Beider Charitable Trust to Community Resources in 1979, according to Theodore G. Gaines, vice president of the development firm. Project value is $4 million.

The 7-story, 158,000-square-foot Lakeside Press Building will house 96 rental units and 18,000 square feet of commercial space. Developers are Columbia Homes Inc., Hinsdale, and Borg-Warner Corp.

The 80-year-old structure was designed by Howard van Doren Shaw. It was the original home of R.R. Donnelly and Sons. Columbia Homes purchased the building in 1980 from its most recent owner, Triangle Publications Inc., publisher of the Racing Form.

Project value is $8.5 million, according to Royal Faubion, president of Columbia Homes.

High demand for South Loop rental apartments is spurring renovations despite the recession, according to Gaines.

“The rental market in Printing House Row has been phenomenally good,” he said. “We can’t provide enough apartments to meet the demand.”

Now also is the time for an apartment developer to draw from tandem financing programs of the Government and Federal National Mortgage Assocations before Reagan administration budget cuts eliminate them, Faubion said.

Rents in the Old Franklin Building will range from $450 a month for 650-square. foot studios; to $700 for 1,250-square-foot two-bedroom apartments. Retail rents will range from $6 to $10 a square. foot.

Rents in the Lakeside Press Building will go from $465 to $970 for one and two bedroom units. Sizes will range from 451 to 1,430 square feet. Retail rents will range from $12 to $15 a square foot.

Both buildings also qualify for rehabilitation tax credits under the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act. The act permits a 25 percent credit on certified rehab expenses in historic buildings; and a 20 percent credit on renovation costs in other structures at least 40 years old.

“We’ll take advantage of the tax credit, but we’ll probably opt for the 20 percent credit for ordinary buildings rather than; the 25 percent credit for historic ones,” Gaines said.

Conkey Company was sold to Rand McNally on December 31, 1948

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