C. P. Kimball Building

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C. P. Kimball Building
Life Span: 1892-1940?
Location: 315, 316 and 317 Michigan av., Southwest corner of South Michigan Avenue and 11th Street
Architect: Flanders & Zimmerman

Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899

Kimball C P & Co

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Kimball C P & Co Charles P Kimball pres and treas; Louis E Burr sec; carriages and harness 315, 316 & 317 Michigan av

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
Kimball C P & Co Charles P Kimball pres and treas; F A B Smith v pres; Stuart B Andrews sec; carriages, harness, automobile bodies and electric vehicles 1100-1102-1104 S Michigan av

Rand McNally Bird’-Eye Views of Chicago, 1893

② The Kimball Building
This conspicuous feature of Michigan Boulevard stands at the southwest corner of Harmon Court, with frontages of 160 feet on the court and 80 feet on the boulevard. The structure is 7 stories high, or 115 feet, the clock-tower rising to the height of 140 feet. Granite, pressed brick, and terra cotta form the exterior, the construction being thoroughly steel and fire-proof. There are 3 elevators—1 passenger and 2 freight. This building was erected in 1892, and is entirely occupied by the owners, C. P. Kimball & Co., as a repository and factory for high-grade carriages, sleighs, and harness.

Bit and Spur, March, 1905

Enlargement of the Kimball Carriage Company
The many friends and patrons of the well known coach builders, C. P. Kimball & Co., were surprised to learn on January 15 that two prominent Chicagoans, A. A. Carpenter. Jr., and James R. Walker, had been admitted to the firm. The new corporation consists of the following officers: President, Charles F. Kimball; vice president. A. A. Carpenter, Jr.: treasurer, James R. Walker: secretary, Louis E. Burr; assistant secretary. F. A. B. Smith.

Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Walker belong to two of the oldest families in Chicago and are men of wealth and social position. Mr. Carpenter has been engaged in the lumber business for years, and is still connected with the Ayer & Lord Tie Company. Mr. Walker is a capitalist. who has been occupied by his large real estate holdings, the principal item of which is the Taconaa Building.

Both Messrs. Carpenter and Walker have more or less interest in the carriage industry through their own private stables. Mr. Walker especially having kept up in past years an extensive establishment in Chicago and also at his country home at Pittsfield, Mass. Mr. Carpenter, in addition to being a lover of horses, is an enthusiastic automobilist.

The business standing of the two partners is additional surety that Kimball Quality, the recognized standard for half a century, will always be maintained.

The addition to the firm’s roster started the rumor that Mr. C. F. Kimball would retire. This is absolutely incorrect as Mr. Kimball is still president of the firm and will, as heretofore, give his best personal efforts towards increasing the volume of the business and its already enviable prestige.

Louis E. Burr and F. A. B. Smith, who have been with the firm since boyhood, and who have contributed in no small degree to the success of the business, will, of course continue in their old positions.

The sudden growth of the automobile business has opened a new field for the coach builder-furnishing bodies and tops for the chassis – and it is on this account particularly that Mr. Kimball consented to the admission of the two new partners, so that the business might be enlarged very materially in this new line. The manufacture and sale of fine carriages and harness, however, will still form the basis of the business, and there will be no change in the policy that has prevailed since the founding of the house in 1815.

The Bit & Spur takes this occasion of extending to C. P. Kimball & Co their heartiest wishes for continued success.

Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, March, 1909

C. P. Kimball & Co., 315 Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill., exhibited a complete line of automobiles bodies on Berliet and Peerless chassis. The bodies shown were full limousine with French cab panels, and finished in golden brown, striped with a broad line of gold leaf, price $1,900, finished in French broadcloth. A special town brougham body is also shown, finished in Yale blue, and upholstered in broadcloth showing an introduction of scarlet harmonizing with the striping. This body is fitted with extra side panels, and extra doors. The phaeton can easily be converted into a limousine. This body sells for $2,100.

Motor Age, January 26, 1911

Kimball Makes a Limousine.
Although the C.P. Kimball Co., of Chicago, is known primarily as a body making concern, still it finds time to manufacture electric pleasure cars, mostly to order. In line with this one of its offerings for the present season is what is termed a station wagon, but which in reality is an electric limousine in that it carries an enclosed body with a capacity of six – four in the tonneau and two on the front seats. This limousine is fitted with solid tires, and wheel steer and a wheelbase of 100 inches. The motive power is derived from a forty-two cell thirteen-plate battery. Another Kimball is an inside-drive coupe with either wheel or lever steer and solid tires, while novelty is a George IV. phaeton, the body on which is constructed along novel lines.

Carriage Monthly, 1910

The C. P. Kimball Co., carriage and automobile manufacturers, have purchased from Stewart B. Andrews, property on Michigan Avenue 300 feet south of Thirty-ninth Street, Chicago, Ill. The lot is 100 X 161 feet, and completes the company’s purchase of 400 feet on the avenue at that point. The purchase price of the property bought was $17,500, the price of the entire 400 feet being $77,000, the entire property will be used for a new building costing $500,000, for which plans already have been drawn. The new structure, when completed, will be devoted to the automobile department of the company’s business.

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