E. W. Blatchford & Chicago Shot Tower Companies
Life Span: 1867-1901
Location: Southwest corner of Clinton and Fulton streets
Architect: TBD
Chicago Shot Tower Company
The Land Owner
The Chicago Tribune, February 19, 1901
After remaining for thirty-four years one of the landmarks and sights of Chicago, the old shot tower at the southwest corner of Clinton and Fulton streets is to be torn down and the ground under it devoted to other uses.
Fifteen and twenty years ago the Chicago shot tower was one of the prime attractions of the city. Its existence was known for a hundred miles in any direction, and strangers from contiguous towns were usually anxious to visit the place “where shot was made.” It was as much a center of interest in its day as the Auditorium is now. Before it became surrounded with high buildings and in advance of the skyscraper the tower was one of the loftiest points in the city. But it is to go. In a commercial sense it has become a “back number,” and’ it is to be razed by its owners because it no longer serves the purpose of its original construction. It has been “distanced” in the rapid march of business.
Little or no shot has been made In the old tower for several years. When the American Shot and Lead company was formed the Chicago tower absorbed by the trust. It is not known what sort of a building will supplant the tower, but it will not be one for the manufacture of shot.
The tower was built In 1867, and is 195 fect high. The shot were made from molten lead and dropped from the top of the tower into water at the bottom of the structure, the ball formation being obtained in the falling. The Chicago tower is not the oldest in the West, the one in St. Louis antedating It. The American Shot and Lead company owns similar towers in Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha, and New Orleans. The plants In Cincinnati and St. Louis, however, are the only ones now operated.
“There has been a change In the trade center of the shot business during the last fifteen or twenty years,” said J. R. Wettstein, secretary of the American Shot and Lead company. “The consumption has moved from the West and South to the East.
Chicago Shot Tower Company Advertisement
The Land Owner
1873
Chicago Shot Tower
Robinson Fire Maps
1886
Volume 3 Plate 3