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The Schlesinger & Mayer Building II
Life Span: 1899-Present
Location: 1 South State Street
Architect: Louis Sullivan
Chicago Tribune, May 28, 1898
A marble building to cost $1,000,000 will be erected by Schlesinger & BMayer on the site of their present establishment at State and Madison streets. Construction will be begin within a year, and it is expected that the building when completed will be unique among structures of its kind.
Louis H. Sullivan, the architect who, In conjunction With Dankmar Adler, designed the Auditorium, is at work on the plans, and it is to be the intention to construct the exterior wholly of Georgia marble and bronze, the material being the same as that used in the construction of the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington.
For some time past Schlesinger & Bayer have been quietly securing leases of property in Madison street, between State and Wabash, and it is now given out that. Stanton & Co., grocers, 54 and 56 Madison street, and Haskell Bros., trunk manufacturers, 52 Madison street, have disposed of their leases to the firm. How much more Madison street frontage has been obtained is not known, as the parties to the negotiations decline to divulge information, but It is believed that much of the block is controlled by Schlesinger & Mayer. The Stanton and Haskell leases are not to expire for a year, but at the end of that time the present buildings they occupy will be torn down to make room for the new Improvement.
Twelve Stories and Fireproof.
The exact size of the new cannot be given. It wlll be twelve stories high and fireproof.
A large amount of the space In the buildings which Schlesinger & Mayer occupy at present is owned by several proprietors. In State street the firm has a frontage of 18G feet, but a lease entered into last year with E. Nelson Blake for the property at 145 State street the house will control, for fifteen years from May 1, 1900, thirty feet additional, giving a total frontage In State street of 210 feet.
Considerable speculation is being indulged in as to the secret movements of Schlesinger & Mayer in acquiring real estate. They control by long-term leases the Haskell and the Barker properties, with buildings five stories high, extending over a frontage of eighty feet, and have under lease and occupy three stores of the Silversmiths’ Building, giving them a total frontage in Wabash avenue of 160 feet. In Madison street they occupy the seventy-three feet of frontage leading east from State to the alley, and exactly how much more they own by lease on that street, as Indicated by the purchase of the leases of the various merchants who occupy the different stores, is still a secret,
Ground Space in Prospect.
It is thought that the new building will occupy that-section of ground owned by L. Z. Leiter, fronting 180½ feet In State street and 140½ feet in Madison. Conjecture also says that the Catholic Church property at the southwest corner of Wabash avenue and Madison street Is to be included in the im- provement. This block fronts 180 feet in Madison street and eighty feet in Wabash avenue. The ground on which the St. Mary’s Block stands is owned by the Catholic Bishop, and Is under lease to Chief Justice Fuller and others, trustees, on a contract which expires In 1904. Some of the other leases which have been acquired do not expire until 1905, and it probably would not be as difficult to secure the St. Mary’s Block as others, which do not run out until later.
Buying cautiously and gradually Schlesinger & Mayer have secured about half the block, lying between Wabash avenue and State street and Madison and Monroe streets. They may acquire more property.
Schlesinger & Mayer have expanded rapidly during the last few years. The firm started business twenty years ago, and at that time occupied a single store, 25×100 feet In size, on the West Side. The present establishment occupies over 300,000 square feet.
Architect Sulllvani has designed the ornate exteriors of all of the Schlesinger & Miayer extensions. Great care is being paid to detail in the designs, and it is planned that the building shall surpass in beauty of architecture anything of Its character heretofore attempted,
Schlesinger & Mayer Building II
About 1911
This dry-goods merchant house was founded in Chicago in 1872 by Leopold Schlesinger and David Mayer, both immigrants from Germany. The company soon opened branches in New York and Europe. In 1881 Schlesinger and Mayer had moved their dry-goods store into the Bowen Building that was on the corner of State and Madison. In 1899, the company commissioned architect Louis Sullivan to dramatically redesign this store, where it employed nearly 2,500 people. The refurbishing included the removal of the Bowen Building’s attic story and the addition of two stories across the Bowen Building and the adjacent four-story structure to the south. The facades were added to match the bottom stories of the building and the building was painted white. When the refurbished structure was completed in 1904, Schlesinger & Mayer was no longer financially able to operate there.
Schlesinger & Mayer Building II
The building was sold to H.G. Selfridge & Co. in 1904. Mr. Selfridge also inherited the Schlesinger & Mayer employees who had neither the spirit, pride or ambition he had worked with in his twenty years at Marshall Field. He was uncomfortable fighting with Field’s for customers.
That firm occupied the structure for only two months before it sold the building (the land under it was owned at the time by Marshall Field) to Otto Young, who then leased it to Carson Pirie Scott for $7,000 per month.
Subsequent additions were completed by Daniel Burnham in 1906 and Holabird & Root in 1961.
The building has been used for retail purposes since 1899, and has been a Chicago Landmark since 1975. It is part of the Loop Retail Historic District.
Schlesinger & Mayer Building
Location Plan
Schlesinger & Mayer Building
Under Construction
Lease History
On November 9, 1897 Schlesinger gained control of lots 4-9 from the M. W. Powel Co. On July 14, 1898, Schlesinger leased all of lots 1-12 from Levi 2. Leiter and wife shortly thereafter, Leiter deeded the property to Marshall Field (July 27, 1891). Leopold Schlesinger transferred the lease, which was to run to June 29, 2004, to Schlesinger and Mayer on August 7, 1902.
On June 13, 1904, the lease on the buildings, apparently now owned by Otto Young, was passed on to Harry G. Selfridge, with the approval of Marshall Field. At the same time, the lease- hold of Schlesinger and Mayer was transferred to Selfridge, who then passed it back to Otto Young. John T. Pirie obtained a lease on the property from Selfridge on August 12, 1904. The property was owned by Otto Young at the time of his inventory, dated June 19, 1907. On June 26, 1919, Samuel T. Pirie et al. transferred their lease to Carson, Pirie, Scott, & Company, Illinois Corporation. The company renewed the lease through the First National Bank of Chicago on March 3, 1947 and again on October 3, 1955. The owner appears now to be the 1-29 South State Street Corporation, which has carried on the title for the First National Bank, the Trustee originally appointed to succeed Otto Young, October 3, 1955).
Schlesinger & Mayer Building
Location Plan
A 1904 John T. McCutcheon illustration showing Mr. Selfridge carving up the Schlesinger and Meyer department store and serving to the partnership of Messrs. Carson, Pirie, Scott and another dozen gentlemen.
H. G. Selfridge & Co,
Grand Opening Advertisement
Chicago Tribune
June 13, 1904
Schlesinger & Mayer II
About 1900
Proposed 1906 drawing of a clock to be built and placed on the Carson, Pirie, Scott building.
Carson Pirie Scott & Company Advertisement
1910
Carson Pirie Scott & Company
Alson Skinner Clark (1876–1949)
1908
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