Magie’s Building

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Magie’s Building, Western Bank Note Building
Life Span: 1864-1871
Location: southwest Corner LaSalle and Randolph
Architect: Augustus Bauer

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1867

Magie’s Building

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Magie’s Building—Southwest corner LaSalle and Randolph
Western Bank Note & Engraving Co. Charles Knickerbocker, sec. C. C. Cheny, treas. LaSalle, sw, cor. Randolph

Chicago Tribune, July 21, 1864

On the corner of Lasalle and Randolph streets a fine business block is being erected from plans by A. Bauer, for Haines H. Magie. It will be 40 feet front on Randolph by 80 on Lasalle street, and be four stories with basement and attic in height. The materials used in the construction is pressed bricks with cut stone facings, and the estimated cost is $35,000. The building is intended for the offices of brokers or professional men.

Chicago Tribune, January 2, 1865

Magie’s Block.—A handsome, brick, and stone block 40 feet front by 80 in depth, and four stories with basement and French roof, on the southwest corner of Randolph and Lasalle streets. It is intended for the offices of business and professional men and cost $35,000.

Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1865

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.
Magles Block In Flames- Loss $27,000.
At a few minutes past eleven o’clock last evening flames were seen issuing from the roof of the large new block on the southwest corner of LaSalle and Randolph streets, known as Magie’s building, and almost before the fire engines, located within a few blocks of the scene, could be brought into play, the whole roof was one mass of flame; it continued to burn furiously till the roof was consumed, the efforts of the Department availing to save the lower portion of the building.

The great height of the building made it exceedIngly difficult for the engines to operate effectively. The ladders were too short to reach the ledge of the roof, and it was some time ere the hose could be carried up the stairs of the structure, and on the roof of the adjoining buildings. Meanwhile the flames continued their havoc, and gained each moment a stronger hold on the timbers which supported the Mansard roof. The top was covered with composition roofing, a material which once on fire, furnisher a fuel rich in carbon and difficult to extinguish. It was soon in a state of collapse, and the noise of falling timbers every now and then told too surely of the progress of the devouring element. The action of the flames was less potent on the sloping sides, which were covered with tiles, but the fire once among the limbers, darted forth its livid jets through the joinings, and ever and anon as the fastenings became loosened the tiles fell to the street below, seriously endangering the firemen who were working there, while the gathered crowd kept at a most respectable distance. The situation was one of the most unfavorable that can be imagined, the water supply being quite short. and the great distance from the ground rendering it scarcely possible to ply the streams from the hose very effectively.

The attic story, where the fire originated. is divided into sleeping rooms. The fire broke out in the cupola in the centre, and aided by a strong wind, soon swept the whole length of the building. On the stroke of 12, about an hour after the first discovery, the roof fell in with a loud crash, carrying with it the chimneys, and scattering the firemen who were at work below; none of them were hurt. though the escape of some of them is little short of miraculous. The falling roof carried the fire into the next story—the whole floor occupied by the “Western Union Bank Note Engraving Company.” By this time, however, the flames had been got so far under control that but little damage was done on that floor except by water, with which it was extensively flooded.

By half-past twelve o’clock the firemen had gained the mastery, and the shrill whistles of the engines gave the signal for departure. Only then Was it possible to enter the building, and gain some idea of the havoc caused. The following are the losses as near as could be ascertained at that late hour.

The building is owned by H. H. Magic, (now in New York.) and was finished a year ago at a cost of $35,000. The roof was completely destroyed, and the next floor was much damaged. The whole of the building was thoroughly drenched with water, the ceilings broken down, and the walls much injured. Loss about $15,000, fully insured in the local companies, none of the companies having agencies in the building being concerned in the insurance.

The sleeping rooms were occupied by the employes of the Bank Note Engraving Company. They were ordinarily furnished; the number of tenants and amount of loss could not be ascertained last evening. the occupants having run out on the first alarm in undress, and betaken themselves to the residence of their friends. Loss in this department estimated at $2,000.

The Engraving Company occupied the fourth story. J. Y. Scammon is President of the company; C. Knickerbocker, Secretary; C. C. Cheney, Treasurer. They had a large stock of drawings,
design, plates, &c.. all of which are more or less damaged by the perfect avalanche of water poured into the building. The loss in thie department cannot be known till the contents have been thoroughly overhauled; it may be set downroughly at §8,000.

The third story is occupied as sleeping rooms and private offices, the next below as insurance and law offices, and the first floor entirely by insurance offices; the Randolph front containing the offices of the Home Insurance Company, A. C. Ducat, and the “Manhattan,” Miller & Wilmarth. On the LaSalle street front the office of the “Lumberman’s Insurance Company,” Thomas Goodman, Agent, and the Garden City Insurance Company, P. H. Beam, Secretary. The whole of the basement is occupied by lbach & Schick as a restaurant, familiarly known as the “Sharp Corner Restaurant.”

All these were injured by the drenching, but nothing was burned. The books and papers were, in most instances, removed to places of greater apparent safety. The greatest damage will be to carpets and furniture. Probably $2,000 would be required to put them in order.

The fire, as already stated, broke out in the cupola; it was probably the work of an incendiary. It was necessary to break down the door in order to get at the flames. The streams from the T. B. Brown and Frank Sherman were magnificent, and stopped the flames almost as by magic when they got in working order.

Chicago Illustrated, May, 1866

This view is taken from a point south of the Court House, taking in the north half of the block on LaSalle between Washington and Randolph streets, and so much of the block north as exhibits the building for many years known as the Metropolitan Hall, now occupied by Eastman’s National Business College. The east side of the public square is shown, and presents an appearance by no means worse than the reality.

The building upon the north corner of the block is built of Milwaukee brick, with stone trimmings, and is owned by H. H. Magie, Esq. It is occupied by Insurance agents and others: the Lumberman’s Insurance Company having the principal offices on LaSalle street.

Chicago Evening Post, May 20, 1868

A Monument in Engraving.
We are in receipt of a handsome steel engraving from the Western Bank Note and Engraving Company, of this city, which could have been issued at no time nor place more appropriate than now, while the National Republican Convention is in session. It is the facsimile of a document originally engrossed upon parchment and compiled by the Hon. Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana, with such o namentation and additions as the tastes of the engravers have seen fit to make.

The engraving contains the act of Congress passed by both Houses, early in 1865, amending the Constitution so as to abolish slavery in the United States. To this are appended the autographs of all the Senators and members of the House who voted for the measure, the signature of the then President and Vice President, the Clerks of the Senate and the House. These names, besides their important connection with this single fact, are those of the public men most distinguished in a trying time for our republic. Their autographs would be considered valuable enough singly, but combined and attached to this historie bill, they become so much more the object of public interest.

The artistic merits of the engraving, which may be seen at the rooms of the Western Bank Note and Engraving Company, on the corner of La Salle and Randolph streets, are such as demand special mention. Few persons have an adequate idea of the enormity of detail and work involved in a steel engraving of this description. The art of the painter and the art of the engraver are combined. A dozen different machines used in transferring impression from steel to steel; diamond pointed instruments for the delicate tracing of the lines; hundreds of tons of pressure in securing the lasting and perfect impression, and other details too numerous to mention, are as essential as the skill of the workman who directs the graver. It is creditable to Chicago that she alone of all Western cities can produce a work of art which calls for these essentials.

The chief artistic beauty of the present engraving is to be found in the vignette which forms the center piece. This was originally designed for it by the company, and is exceedingly happy in the conception. The group is that of a freedman, his wife and child, the latter reeling at the feet of its mother and reading. The man supports a medallion of the lamented Lincoln, in which an excellent likeness has been attained. The accessories are the peace branches, the doves, a rainbow in the sky and the Angel of Peace pointing to the capitol emblematic of the nation. The lines bring out the light and shade as truly as in India ink sketch. Under this are the names of the Senators and members in autograph. The national shield and the words “Amendment to the Constitution,” form a back-ground to the whole, and, being lithographed, look as though they were a part of the paper. The whole is surrounded by a scroll border of geometrical lathe work, ornamented with monograms and appropriate emblems.

Abolishing slavery : Joint resolution of the thirty eight Congress of the United States of America, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery, followed by a list of Congressmen voting aye.

Crosby Opera-House

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