City Hotel Block
Life Span: 1873-1890
Location: State and Lake streets
Architect: John M. Van Osdel
Pitkin & Brooks Building
Incorporated, State Street corner of Lake. Chicago. This is one of the oldest and most progressive establishments in the line of lamps and glassware in Chicago. It makes a specialty of fine ware of the most artistic patterns. It was started by Pitkin & Brooks in 1872 in a shanty on the Lake Front, built just after the fire to accommodate the trade burned out by the great conflagration of 1871.
The capital then employed was only $6,000. From this comparatively small beginning the business has grown until it is one of the largest in the west. It occupies three double stores 56, 58 and 60 Lake Street, employing 300 hands in its several departments.
On 25 January 1901, the building was on fire causing $450,000 in damages. The company closed in 1920 following the death of the President, Edward Hand Pitkin.
Pitkin & Brooks Invoice
2 July 1901
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