The Tribune Building II

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Chicago Tribune Building II
Life Span: 1872-1901
Location: SE corner of Dearborn and Madison
Architect: Burling & Adler

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1874

Chicago Tribune

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1885
Chicago Tribune, Joseph Medill, editor-in-chief, Dearborn se. cor. Madison
Inland Architect and Builder, R. C. McLean, managing editor, 19 Tribune bldg.

Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899
Chicago Tribune, Dearborn, se cor Madison

Built on the same site as Tribune Building I, was five stories high, with one basement, on spread foundations. Burling and Adler were the architects. The frontage on S. Dearborn street was 72 feet. The Windsor Hotel, with a frontage of 120 feet on S. Dearborn street, had adjoined Tribune Building II on the south.

The Land Owner, One Year After the Fire, 1872

Chicago Tribune, October 8, 1872

Tribune

The present number of The Tribune is issued from its reconstructed building, this one shown in the largest of the three cuts, situated on the southeast corner of Dearborn and Madison streets—72 by 121 feet. The editorial, composing, electrotyping, and press rooms are now sufficiently advanced for occupancy, though not finished. The building will not be completed in all its parts for perhaps a month to come. We shall therefore postpone a complete description of it until it is ready to be inspected by the public. For the present we will observe that it is intended to be really fire-proof this time. The roof is composed wholly of iron, and all the floors are made of English tiles of ornamental patterns, except those of the basement and the composing-rooms—the former being of asphalt, and the latter of artificial marble, both incombustible. The only wood-work entering into the construction of the building is is in the window frames, doors, and water-closets, the burning of all which could in no wise impair the building in other parts. The building will be provided with a passenger-elevator running from the first to the fifth story, and speaking-tables communicating with all the rooms. There are also two sets of iron stairways running from bottom to top—the one in the rear being exclusively for the use of printers and other employes of the Tribune. All the rooms will be heated by steam. The cost of the former Tribune building, exclusive of machinery, was $208,000. It is estimated that $100,000 was saved in the form of interior walls left standing, foundations, excavating, iron beams, columns, and ceilings. The new building cost $165,000 additional. It is one story higher than the former building, and in most respects superior, and especially so as regards the floors and roof. It will challenge comparison with any building in the United States, public or private, for durability and fire-proof qualities.

The architects of the new building are Burling, Adler & Co. The principal contractors were as follows:
The Gindale Stone-Cutting Company, stonework
Carter Bros, mason-work
Union Foundry Company, iron-work and corrugated ceiling
Fire Proof Building Company, iron lath and cement flooring
F. A. Doolittle, Agent for Hargreaves & Craven, Jackfield, Shropshire, England, tile floors
N. R. Warwich, carpenter-work
S. L. Russell, doors and window-casings
E. Atwater & Co., Montreal, plate-glass
S. W. Swift, the glazing
Philadelphia Arch-Iron Company, the roof and cornice
Illinois Paving Company, the paving of the press-room floor
Swiney Bros, the furniture for the counting-room
A. H. Andrews & Co., furniture for the editorial room
Simons & Co., the composing-room furniture
Hayes Bros, No. 203 LaSalle street, the sky-light
R. & J. Lindsey, of No. 75 Fulton street, New York, the type
H. Watts, the plumbing
Wm. Severin, the fitting up of machinery
Charles Letz, the iron stairways
Otis Bros, New York, the elevators
C. Mason & Co., the boilers and tanks
Baker & Smith, the heating apparatus
W. H. Patterson, the gas-fitting
R. Hoe & Co., the presses
Kavanagh & Merriam, the sidewalk
Chicago Paving Company, paving alley

Chicago Tribune, February 15, 1873

There was one period of time when The Tribune Building stood in the fore-front of attention of millions of readers of dispatches from Chicago in flames. A city had burned about it, and it looked out in the morning of Oct. 9, west and south, on a scene of desolation, and, northward, on a sea of fire. Again and again the dispatches announced, “The Tribune Building still stands; “The Tribune Building will be saved.” The fire swept all north of Van Buren street, from the east side of Dearborn west to the river. The Court Hous had gone, the great hotels were in ashes. North of The Tribune the flames had swept eastward, laying in ruins the massive buildings of the closest business heart of the city,—Field & Leiter’s store, and all of the sections south and east to the river. The Tribune Building stood like a mailed warrior, lightly scathed by the rolling volumes of heat and flame that had swept about it. All night long the usual functions of a great journal had gone forward. The whole office force were reporters, and column after column was put in type long after every other printing establishment in the city had gone down in the tornado of fire. When the gas gave out, candles were procured, and the work went on. The staunch building was fire-proof, and so seemed The Tribune workers, who came and went among the streets choked with the fearful melee of that appalling night, or from the top of the building sheltered themselves from the furnace blast of heat, and noted the progress of devastation. Here follows the last “take” set in the old Tribune composing room by the light of the burning city, by John Tippet, who clung to his composing stick, and put these final words in type:

…and the wind raging and the fire burning, and London, and Paris, and Portland outdone, and no Milton, and no Dante on earth to put words together! A group of men on the fourth story of this office all write at once on the spectacle, and hand sheet after sheet of “copy” to the faithful compositors, who have not forsaken their posts.

Then John C. Hutchins, foreman, with perhaps a sensation as of pismires crawling down his back, locked the forms by the great torch of Field & Leiter’s store, and down went the forms to the press. But by this time human courage gave way, or at least the stock on hand in The Tribune office did not last to supply the feed-boys. The first pages were worked off, and a sheet lies before us. The outside last pages were put on the press the steam up, but there the work ended. The fire put a new swath across the city at Taylor street, and swept like a prairie-flame up State street. The stately Palmer House came down like a castle of cards. McVicker’s Theater put on its last spectacular effect, and thus attacked the rear, aided by the treachery of a rear wall, The Tribune Building succumbed. How immediately The Tribune found shelter on Canal street, and through, the bravo but dismal year of the great rebuilding, is occupied its narrow quarters and met its readers daily, our columns have again shown. In another part of this issue, we give The Tribune Building as it stood on the 9th of October, 1871, and we place beside it the presentment of the new Tribune Building, as occupied by us on the succeeding 9th of October, 1872, one year after the fire.

The building was only partially finished on its first occupancy, and it is not until the present time that we find ourselves fully at home in our new quarters, complete in every part, from basement to roof,—the finest and most complete newspaper premises in the world. From the top of the new Tribune Building to-day we look out upon a new city. All the surroundings are fresh and strange. Elegant piles in solid cut stone and graceful forms of iron give us new streets, whose business history has just begun. The business heart of the city, equalized by that of no other city in the world in the uniform character of its structures, is like a fresh ledger page, the trade entries yet to be made. The Tribune of this issue, setting aside the modesty that is on ordinary occasions its mark of greatness, has something to say of itself,—the more justifiable, perhaps, because it has so much to do with the city.

The First of all Tribunes.
we have taken some pains to give the circumstance, often stated before, but not with this present and completeness of presentation, that the name Tribune was first applied to an American newspaper in Chicago. To establish this historical fact, a reporter of The Tribune sat down beside E. G. Ryan, Esq., now and long an honored citizen of Milwaukee, and got from him the initial number of the first of all Tribunes a graphic picture, given elsewhere, of The Chicago of 1840, thirty-three years ago, one year before Horace Greeley gave the world the first copy of the New York Tribune. The Chicago of those days was an obscure prairie village; had within its limits not to exceed 3,500 souls. Even then the reckless speculation were wont to inflate the population, and estimated it at nearly 5,000, or more than a third in excess of the reality. A picture of the town as it looked about that time would astonish our younger citizens. All the business was done within three or four squares of the Chicago River, and extended westward not more than a half mile from its mouth.

The First Tribune Fails..
Notwithstanding a start in life so deliberate and careful, as our reference elsewhere shows, the first of all the Tribunes had an early death. It was published under great disadvantages in a far-off settlement, more remote for that day than any newspaper can be in our age in any part of the domain of the United States, and we have given at some length the picture of its life and times, the better to show the newspaper work of that period.
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The New Tribune.
It is not our purpose to present here the full chain of proprietorship and vicissitudes out of which, from a small beginning in 1847, has grown The Chicago Tribune of to-day. The initial number bears date Thursday, Jan. 10, 1847, and proud as we were its founders, it proved a diminutive affair, In May, 1849, its office in J. H. Gray’s building, on the corner of Clark and Randolph streets, was totally destroyed by fire, and a fortunate insurance of $2,100 “covered the loss.” But the slender plant had taken root in good soil, and though with varying fortunes repeated changes of owners again and again took place, still the enterprise gained strength, rapidly began to accomplish what is the best mission and the highest business good fortune of a public journal, to reflect its own growth the growth of the community it serves. In 1861, the present Tribune Company was incorporated by special act of the Legislature of Illinois, with a capital of $200,000. Since that time the growth of the enterprise has kept pace with the development of Chicago. For fifteen years antecedent to its occupancy of the new Tribune Building in May, 1869, its newspaper premises were in the low, long brick block on Clark street, opposite the Sherman House, and whatever may be its future, these were the most important years of the development of The Tribune. In that period, the struggling prairie town became a city. The West, from a wilderness of country trails and cross-roads, accessible only be tedious teaming, had received its network of railway lines. The country in that period passed through the War of the Rebellion. Long before The Tribune entered into possession of premises of its own, by virtue of its relation to these great events, it had come to stand among the foremost journals in the United States, and had by its own enterprise wrought an entire transformation in the mode and demands of Western journalism. It was a pioneer in the use of the telegraph as an equalizer of distance, and the introduction of the best mechanical appliances of newspaper publication. The introduction of its first great Hoe press was enforced by the large editions of war time, when some imminent phase of news would add from 15,000 to 20,000 to the issue of a single day. The writer well remembers when the publisher of a great Boston newspaper looked with interest through the press-room of The Tribune, and therefrom borrowed the hint of the the utility of the folding-machine.

In May, 1869, The Tribune entered into occupancy of its new fire-proof building, on the southeast corner of Madison and Dearborn streets—a venturesome move, as was declared by many who deemed that it would be years before the extension of business southward would give The Tribune the adequate surroundings of a city newspaper office. But the wisdom of the selection of the new site was speedily demonstrated, and its best realization has been more than ten years ante-dated by the fire. The location is near the intersection of the lines of all street-car service of the city, and central to and in the vicinity of the hotels, depots, public buildings, banks, and other established features of our new heart of business.
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The first Tribune Building had at once a prominent place in the structures of our later growth. It was fire-prooof, solid, and substantial in appearance, and construction. with handsome fronts of Athens stone. It covered the same area as the present structure, but one story has been added to the rebuilt edifice. It was pronounced one of the finest and most perfect examples of fire-proof construction. But then who had imagined of a Chicago fire? It seemed as if there was nothing to burn, where floors, walls, roofs, stairways were in stone, iron, concrete, and masonry. Our reference elsewhere recites its fate in the common ruin, and our cut accompanying shows all that was left of The Tribune Building on the fated 9th of October, 1871..

The New Building.
Our engraver saves us columns of description. The rebuilt Tribune Building stands where stood its predecessor, identical in area, one story higher, but the rich red sandstone of Marquette has replaced the former of white limestone. It has a north front on Madison street of 121 feet, and a west front of 72 on Dearborn. The cut will bring the interior features of the new building to the eye of every reader, and win the credit deserved by the architects, Messrs. Burling & Adler and their co-workers referred to more in detail hereafter.

Let us pass, therefore, at once to a brief review of the interior characteristics and utilities of The Tribune building. And here also we are helped by a sectional view to which our notes are the scarcely-required key.

The interior is wholly fire-proof, there being no combustible material except the lighter features of finish. The floor beams are iron, the floor above being laid in every story in the handsome encaustic tile imported from England for this purpose. These are laid in cement, which is filled in upon the the corrugated iron that forms the ceilings beneath. By a tasteful selection of colors, a beautiful variety is shown in the floors of the rooms and hails, the colors being black, red, yellow, drab, and blue. The sectional outline of these floors in the large diagram is the best explanation of their solidity. They must be seen to appreciate being wrought in rich patterns. Even the lath of the partitions are corrugated sheet iron. It will be seen that The Tribune Building is a most cheerless place for rats.

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Explanation.—AAA

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The Uses of the Building.
In the securing quarters for business, as the first desideratum accessibility to patrons must be observed, and the party building for such purpose immediately accepts two other considerations:
First, how he can best accommodate his own needs
Second, the accommodations he can give to others with a view to revenue.

In the Tribune Building all these points have been admirably met. s the main ideal of the construction, the newspaper premises have been made the best and most spacious in the United States. Nothing in space and equipment has been spared to secure perfection in the departments of newspaper work and newspaper publication. These ends answered, the second requisition of the builder is answered in stores and suites of offices for tenants, that even in this advanced era of fine grade buildings in Chicago are absolutely unsurpassed. In lightness, airiness, accessibility, style of finish, solidity of construction, with vaults, and all modern conveniences, the accommodations in The Tribune Building held for rent, or already occupied, are unequalled in their class in this city or in New York. Let us first speak of the newspaper premises, and we begin at the point where the general public and the business visitor gain their first idea of The Tribune Building.
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The Counting-Room.
The counting-room, or the office proper of The Tribune establishment, is the finest in the country devoted to similar purposes. Its proportions are large, and its appointments handsome and substantial. Access from the street is gained by two entrances, the larger at the truncated corner, and the smaller from Madison street. The outer doors are of black walnut, heavily paneled, richly mounted, and crowned by a semi-circular transom of plate glass. The counting-room is 58×20½, with an alcove at the rear 8×28, the lintel being supported by a single Corinthian column. The floor is a tesselated pavement of English tile, in simple pattern. That which principally attracts the stranger’s eye is the counter which encloses the desks of the office, employes and accountants, and terminates in the rear at the private apartment of the business manager. It is of the most massive description and skillful workmanship. The material used is black walnut, relieved with variously-shaped panels of amboine, a hard and highly-ornamental African wood. It is surmounted by rich panels of plate glass elegantly engraved, a much-admired feature of the office, with openings for business convenience, crowned either with with broken pediments containing urns, or niches supported by scrollwork sustaining ornamental carved work. The advertising clerks have the four openings nearest the door. Then come, successively, the subscription clerks, the cashier and bookkeepers, the collector, and the city circulating manager.

The stairs are iron, the balustrades later. A handsome clock ornaments the pediment of fronting the main entrance. The monogram of The Tribune Company, richly wrought, appears upon the pediment adjoining the cashier’s department, and also upon the plate glass in the door of the private office of the business manager. Light is admitted into the counting-room through six immense plate-glass windows, with semi-circular tops, one of which looks upon Dearborn street, and through the doors, which are largely of glass. Each window is filled with a single plate of French glass ten feet in height by six in width. The counter is from the establishment of D. M. Swiney & Co., by whom the fitting up of the old counting-room was done. The design is artistic, and the details have been wrought out by the most skillful workmen in the West. The casings of the doors and windows, and all subordinate portions of the carpentry, are scarcely less handsome, and equally credible to the workmen.

Within the counter there is a liberal supply of office furniture for the use of the employes—desks, drawers, and all essential paraphernalia. Everything corresponds, in style and finish, with what has been described. The broad desks are of black walnut with bronze trimmings, or mountings of the same material.

The alcove of the counting-room is used for mailing purposes, the galleys being kept in locked cases of black walnut panelled with ash. A dummy in the rear wall takes manuscript of all kinds to the composing-room in the fifth story. Speaking-tubes communicate with the city department, the composing and editorial rooms. The vault is identical with the one in the old Tribune Building, and is in the same place, directly behind the desk of the cashier. It passed through the terrible ordeal of the fire with honor. The superficial area of the vault is 6×8, and its height 10 feet. The old fire and burglar-proof safe, of Hall make, within it, looks as bright and new as if just from the manufactory in Cincinnati. It is arranged with apartments for the different stockholders, and subdivisions for all necessary uses. A stairway in the rear communicates with the folding and press-rooms in the basement. The rear wall of the office is ornamented with a great photographic view of Chicago in 1860, taken from the Court House dome. The contrast between the city of the ante-rebellion era and that of to-day, is marked and striking. In the window of the business manager can still be seen the old Krupp shell, that has become historic. The gas-fixtures partake of the general character of substantial elegance that pervades the counting-room. Among the conveniences of the office is a box for the United States mail, made of black walnut, with glass panels, to correspond with the prevailing style of interior finish. The files of the paper are kept in black walnut cases at the rear of the counting-room.

The relation of a metropolitan newspaper to community as a medium for the interchange of wants and demands is shown in the feature of The Tribune counting-room known as the Letter Box, the business of which in number of mail enclosures exceeds that of many post offices. The “small advertisements” in The Tribune have grown into a business of great importance. The “wants” involve a large correspondence, which requires careful classification to prevent confusion. It not unfrequently happens that two or three lines in The Sunday Tribune, stating the simple fact that a clerk or porter is wanted, brings 500 letters from as many eager, and perhaps hungry, applicants. Not a week passes in which there is not some brief advertisement that evokes at least 300 epistles, showing an infinite variety of chirography and character.

Here are 100 boxes, besides those for the editorial force, and for miscellaneous advertisers. For each letter of the alphabet there are 100 printed tickets—for instance, A1, A2, B1, 2, 3, etc. Each advertiser, who does not prefer to be addressed otherwise, receives a stamped-dated ticket like the following, when his advertisement is taken at the counting-room:
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His letters are addressed accordingly, and all corresponding numbers of whatever letter are put in the same box. The system is found to be the most convenient and admirable, both as regards the clerks in the counting-room and the advertising patrons.

From the counting-room, the visitor, desiring to understand the interior economy of a metropolitan newspaper office, may pass down a private stairway to

The basement, the larger share of the numerous apartments of which are devoted to the different branches of printing and mailing. While in these days the processes are familiar to most of our readers, from observation in smaller printing establishments, the demands of The Tribune editions has made necessary, and the new building affords, an amplitude of space and perfection of arrangement that will be most admired by those familiar with the printer’s art. These numerous rooms, opening one upon the other, are, after all, the adjuncts only of the press-room, which is constructed in the area and covered with a roof at the second story. Here are the great Hoe presses whose monthly-executed work comes daily to The Tribune readers. The Tribune press-room is pronounced the finest and most convenient in the United States, and the eight-cylinder press, now running, and its mate, now being put in readiness, secure The Tribune facilities for rapid issue never before reached in the West. The engine-room, with its worker that never tires nor complains of late hours; the long and noisy phalanx of folding machines, that prepare the sheets for the carriers and mails; the mailing-room; the paper-room, with its huge and rapidly disappearing piles of paper; the waiting-room of the newsboys, are all of them adjacent, and the common scene of a wonderful din and bustle at hours of going to press. And here we may as well answer the question so often asked by our friends,

Where can we see all the machinery at work?

Well, between 3 and 4 o’clock is the best time, but it is open to the little objection of the late or early hours, according to the habits of the reader. It will be understood that the hour is fixed as the latest allowed for the receipt of news with a view to the early trains and morning carrier service. The art of publishing a morning newspaper by daylight has not been discovered. The forms come down an elevator hoist-way from the fifth story, and we may as well take the reader with us to the upper region where the forms are made up, first pausing to note that the form is a heavy sheet of type metal, cast with its mates, four in all, to fit the periphery of the great cylinder of the press. On their outer faces each has a cast of the type of one page of The Tribune. In other words, The Tribune is printed from stereotyped plates, a process now familiar to large newspaper establishments. As we pass to the stair leading to the counting-room, we look in upon the beautiful little upright engine that runs the passenger elevator, which we find waiting for us in the vestibule of the Dearborn street entrance. Once in the elevator, up we go to

The Fifth Story.
As we smoothly aloft, we look out upon floor after floor of the building pronounced the perfection of the builder’s art in all that pertains to stability, durability, and beauty, the halls all lighted and airy, and, like the offices opening thereupon, handsome in their tessellated floors and the rich contrasts of their hard-wood joiner work. We reach the fifth floor, and the editorial rooms are about us, arranged with a view to order, economy of time, and convenience of the numerous staff in the various departments. It is enough to say that our brethren of the press, our most appreciative visitors, declare them perfect, and that they have gained from us new views of what the sanctum may be made. The rooms are on a scale and in the style of the best professional offices in Chicago, and occupy the Dearborn street end of the building and a portion of the Madison street front. The rest of the floor and the largest share is given to

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The Composing Room.
This grand apartment, unbroken by columns, and lighted by full windows on north, south, and east, and a vast dome skylight in the roof, is 68 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 16 feet hight, will accommodate 50 cases for as many compositors, with ample space and verge left for all adjuncts and appliances. From this room the type in forms is sent to the stereotypers for adjusting, and in twenty minutes can be returned to the composing-room and the plate sent down to the press below.

We are not describing processes. These are reasonably familiar to many readers of modern newspapers. It is only our aim to show the results of experience and careful study have brought perfection to all departments of The Tribune in which these processes are realized. The Tribune will have the opportunity three hundred and sixty-five times each year to lay before its readers the proofs of the completeness of these preparations, and here we leave the discussion.

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A Look About Us.
Now step out upon the iron roof of The Tribune Building, and look about you. Five blocks south we note the tall buildings now busy with trade. East, west, and southwest lofty blocks in stone, iron, and brick, the ornamental lines of roofs telling of the character of the facades below. We look up and down Madison and Dearborn, busy with life, showy, and beautiful with new shop fronts. Here, there, and yonder, the tall Mansards of the great hotels, the vast roof of the grand Chamber of Commerce. Far away we look over the buildings of the rapidly-rising North Side. Then turn to the cut we give of the ruined Tribune Building, and remember that one year ago it looked out actually on square miles of the desolate waste where our city had been. Here about us is our new Chicago, nearly as new and strange to us as to the freshly-arrived stranger. It is in such a city and with such friendly-turned pages of its local history that The Tribune, in its new room,s, continues with fresh energies, with gratitude for the marvelous past, and courage for the assured future, the relations it has for twenty-six years sustained to its Chicago patrons and its readers at large.

Tribune

Chicago Tribune, February 15, 1873

THE TRIBUNE BUILDERS.

The Tribune builders should desire no better monument of their skills than The Tribune Building. Who they are, and a few words concerning them, will close our sketch.

Architects—Burling, Adler, & Co.
Mason-Work—Carter Bros
Sidewalks—Kavanagh & Merriam
Cut Stone—A. G. Gindale
Iron work—N. S. Bonton
Carpenters—Warwick & Cassidy
Iron Staircases—F. Letz & Son
Plastering—White & Thomas
Planing-mill Work—S. I. Russell
Iron lath—Fire-Proof Building Co.
Painting and Glazing—S. W. Swift & Co.
Heating Apparatus—Baker, Smith, & Co.
Fire-proof Shutters—American Corrugated Iron Co.
Gas Fixtures—Wm. H. Patterson
Plate Glass—E. Atwater & Co.
Boilers—C. Mason & Co.
Plumbing—Hugh Watt
Sidewalk Lights—Brown Bros.
Roof and Cornice—Philadelphia Architectural
Type—Lindsay Bros., of New York
Passenger Elevator—Otis Bros.
Freight Elevator—Crane Bros.
Hardware—E. Hamilton Hunt
Marble Work—Chicago Marble Manufacturing Co.
Speaking Tubes &c.—Porter & Co.
Editorial Room Furniture—A. H. Andrews & Co.
Tile—F. A. Doolittle
Ornamental Glass—W. H. Wells
Presses and Printing Machinery—R. Hoe & Co.
Folding Machines—Chambers Bros. & Co.
Asphalt Flooring—Chicago Paving Co.
Engines—Murphy & Tarrant
Composing-room Furniture—S. Simmons & Co.
Vault Doors—Beard Bros., St. Louis

Messrs. Burling, Adler & Co.
Said Sir Christopher Wren, in Latin, we believe, “If you seek my monument, look about you.” Edward Burling, the architect of the new as of the old Tribune Building, could spend some hours pointing out his some hundreds of monuments in our new city. A veteran among our architects, he has won high praise for his large share in the “Great Rebuilding,” and his firm is in the tide of success.

W. H. Patterson.
The gasfitting and fixtures of The Tribune Building, introduced by W. H. Patterson, of No. 136 State street, near Madison, comprises all the latest improvements of the art, and are fully in keeping with the rest of the work. Mr. Patterson was old in his line when the great fire reduced all business establishments to a level; but his best part was left in his energy and experience. He was one of the first to open an elegant down-town store, and his business share in the Great Rebuilding has been very large. His own personal supervision insures perfection to all work in his hands.

W. H. Wells.
W. H. Wells, ornamental glass-works, formerly of 96 Fulton street, but now at Nos. 48 and 50 Franklin street, has a manufactory equal in size and facilities for turning out work to any establishment in the United States. He manufactures cut, embossed, ground, and bent glass. This house is well known to the citizens of Chicago from its having furnished a great number of their largest buildings and private residences with ground and ornamental glass. All persons wishing anything in his line of business, or to have their tastes “for the beautiful” gratified, will find the work of W. H. Wells, 48 and 50 Franklin street, to exceed their most sanguine expectations.

Brown Brothers.
Brown Brother, corner of Clinton and Jackson streets, manufacture sidewalk lights, risers, etc., floor and roof lights, vault lights, and coal-hole covers, at the reduced rate of $6.50 per square foot.

These gentlemen are making great preparations for doing an extensive business as soon as the season opens, in connection with many of our best buildings now near completion.

Porter & Co.
Porter & Co., bell hangers, No. 73 Madison street, on the corner of State, furnish and put in place everything in their line of business, such as hotel and home annunciators, with or without electricity, bells, gongs, and speaking-tubes, Yale and other locks, keys, letter-plates, letter-boxes, name-plates, numbers, checks, etc., etc.

The heating apparatus in The Tribune Building was furnished and put up by

Baker, Smith & Co., at 81 and 83 Jackson street, who manufactures the following articles: High and low pressure steam apparatus, non-freezing water apparatus, portable steam and water apparatus, non-explosive steam boilers, railway car warmers, automatic pumping apparatus, ventilating fans and blowers, simplified steam engines for domestic use, &c., together with all the minor items required in connection with heating and ventilation. Their methods of heating include direct and indirect radiation, using both steam and hot water, and the apparatuses are constructed in many different styles and sizes, adapted to use in the smallest private dwellings, even to a single room, for business offices, railroad depots, cars, public institutions, school-houses, &c.; in fact, from the smallest departments top buildings occupying an area of blocks.

The principal points of superiority over other designs for a similar purpose are, absolute safety for a similar purpose are, absolute safety from explosion, perfect security against fire, great economy of fuel, entire freedom from gas, smoke, dust, and noise, the utmost durability, complete ventilation, and, finally, a production of a genial and healthful warmth, more closely analogous to the pure breath of summer than can possibly be obtained by any other system for the creation of artificial heat, and, unlike other artificial heat, neither health nor furniture is in any way or degree impaired by it. An elaborate description of the apparatus would exceed our available space; it is sufficient to say, however, that it combines the result of many years of practical familiarity with the subject of steam-heating, and presents in its prominent features all that is desirable.

F. A. Doolittle.
The beauty and perfections of The Tribune Building is so largely derived from the exquisitely laid English tiles of the floors throughout the entire structure, that they are worth some special mention here, as a feature sure to be largely introduced in the better class of business buildings of our new era. Far more durable than marble, with a warmth and richness of color no marble can give, nothing can equal them. Those introduced into The Tribune Building were manufactured by Messrs. Dunnel, Craven & Co., Salop, England, and imported by F. A. Doolittle, No. 163 Washington street, through William Harrison & Sons, 131 Upper Thomas street, London, England. The tiles are laid in the best hydranlic cement, and are immovable and imperishable once in place. For offices and vestibules, they are absolutely unequalled. We are not surprised to note how rapidly they are extending in favor and adoption. Besides The Tribune Building, Mr. Doolittle will have on his list the Times Building, the Chicago Water Works offices, which are to be notably beautiful, and quite a number of leading banking and private offices. Every visitor admires them, and those who are in their daily use never cease to be delighted with their smoothness and pleasing tone, which latter can be carried, when desired, into the highest ornamental effects. The facilities of Mr. Doolittle are now such that he can add acres of these superb floors to the new features of our city. The original perfection of the tile is, in his charge, well associated with scrupulous care in handling, and no slighted job passes from his hands, and his confidence is that, years hence, The Tribune tiles will be found as smooth and solid as to-day. In this connection, another branch of Mr. Doolittle’s business deserves mention, having especial relation to our reconstruction, particularly in the netter class of homes. He is largely importing the beautiful Gurnkirk or Scottish chimney tops, which have no equals in their feature of exterior finish and utility. It os a noteworthy fact that the world’s best building material and building features are seeking Chicago, and the result will make her shining among the world’s most notable cities, and Mr. Doolittle has taken a handsome share in the movement, as will be seen.

Union Foundry.
The corrugated ceilings, wrought-iron n=beams and girders, vaults and vault-doors, columns, sill-plates, lintels, etc., in The Tribune Building were furnished and put in their places by the Union Foundry Works, on the corner of Fifteenth and Dearborn streets.

S. I. Russell.
S. I. Russell, corner of Fulton and Desplaines streets, manufactures sash, doors, and all kinds of hardwood-finish, namely: walnut, ash, butternut, et., suitable for churches, offices, and residences. The First Congregational and Union Park Churches were fitted up by him; the inside work of these edifices is acknowledged by all competent judges to be as fine specimens of workmanship as can be found in the country. In the business portion of the city, The Tribune Building, the Miller & Fry Block, and numerous others, bear witness of his skill, and show what taste, combined with a thorough knowledge of the business, assisted by long experience, can accomplish toward increasing the comfort and beauty of business blocks.

His specialty is the manufacture of Soaper’s patent hardwood cornices, designed to supersede stucco cornices, being finer in appearance and of a more durable character; also the fine woodwork of railroad depots and buildings. His facilities are for doing any work of this kind are unsurpassed by any manufacturer in the country.

Hugh Watt.
The artisans of Chicago have ever been regarded as an enterprising people, but never was there such a time when heads and hands worked with such zeal and rapidity as since the great conflagration of ’71. Among the most energetic may be classed Hugh Watt, plumber and gas-fitter, No. 100 Harrison street, who, within the last year, has done the plumbing for the following prominent buildings:

The Pacific Hotel, on the corner of Quincy and Clark streets
The Tribune Building, corner of Madison and Dearborn streets
The Chamber of Commerce
Open Board Building
Major Block
Oriental Building
Otis Block, on the corner of Madison and LaSalle
Boyce Block, on State street
Keith Brothers’ Building, on Madison street
The King & Fullerton Building, on the corner of Washington and Dearborn streets
Fullerton Block, on South Water street
McCormick Block, on the corner of Lake street and Wabash avenue
Cone Bros’. Building, on Lake street,
Rosenburgh’s Building, on Lake street
Scholekopff’s Building, on Randolph street
The Singer Building, on the corner of State and Washington streets
Continental Hotel, on the corner of State street and Eldridge court
Farwell’s Government Building, Arcade court
Ballord’s Building, on the corner of Monroe street and Wabash avenue
Albert Crane’s Block, on Monroe street
Roger’s Block, on Dearborn street, and
Roger’s Block on North Clark street
Walter & Rogers’ Block on River street
J. N. Stine’s Building, on the corner of Randolph street and Wabash avenue
McCay’s Block, on the corner of Randolph street and Wabash avenue
The Newberry Block, on North Wells street

Besides a large number of private residences throughout the country and adjoining States. The large amount of work he has done, and is doing, best shows how completely he has won, and still retains, the confidence of the building public.

E. Hamilton Hunt.
Those who have noticed the elegant bronzed door-knobs, locks, hinges, and other hardware fittings with which The Tribune office and building are furnished may be interested in learning that they were obtained at the Builders’ Hardware store of E. Hamilton Hunt, at No. 452 State street, who is well supplied with everything in this line required by builders at reasonable prices. By giving personal attention to every detail of his business he merits, and has received, the confidence of his patrons. Mr. Hunt has been connected with the hardware trade in Chicago nearly seventeen years, and has grown up with the city. Among the more prominent buildings which he has supplied wholly or in part with hardware, he can point to:

The Superior Block, on Clark street, opposite the Court House
The Honore Block,. corner Dearborn and Monroe streets
The Manierre Block, corner of Dearborn and Madison streets
The Hamlin Bros’. Block, on Clark street, opposite the Court House
Aiken’s Theatre
United States Marine Hospital, at Lake View
Hon. C. D. Farwell’s Building, on Washington street, near La Salle Mr. Nelson Ludington’s elegant residence on Calumet avenue
Mr. Murry Nelson’s beautiful house, on Indiana avenue

Marble Work.
The Chicago Marble Manufacturing Company, Nos. 713 and 715 Wabash avenue, is managed by O. Sherman, a gentleman whose ability and extensive experience will qualify him for the position he holds, as the vast amount of marble work turned out by this establishment will testify. Among the large number of buildings furnished with mantels and marble work in a general way may be mentioned the following:

These several hotels requiring over 800 mantels. Their work may also be seen in the leading business establishments of this city, and persons having a taste for the artistic achievement may be gratified by paying a visit to Roddin & Hamilton’s and Matson & Co.’s jewelry stores, Gunther’s celebrated candy store, “Wolford’s,” and Foley’s, on Clark street. The marble-work in all these is well worth a visit of mere curiosity, and certainly a short tour of inspection by all who desire to know the style and taste of this Company’s work.

The palatial residences of Chicago, prominent among which are those of W. F. Coolbaugh, F. Lehmann, Amos T. Hall, O. F. Fuller, Louis Wahl, are indebted to this firm for the features and luxury in this line.

This Company was the first in its branch of business to recover, and get their men to work, after the great conflagration of ’71, and they have continued to make improvements in their buildings and machinery ever since.

Notwithstanding the great demand for their work and the unceasing efforts they have been compelled to make, their facilities are yet such as to enable them to turn out from four to five hundred mantels a month, in addition to which they have not allowed their country trade to suffer, immense as it is, extending to all the principle towns of the Northwest.

The associates of the Chicago Marble Company rank among the oldest and most esteemed citizens of the West, and owe their great success to fair prices, honest work, high excellence of material and workmanship. They did not meet the demands following the fire, with enormous prices for their work, but acted entirely upon the principle they had adopted from the first, to be content with a fair profit, and their work everywhere speaks for them.

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The Chicago Tribune, February 15, 1873

THE FIRST OF THE TRIBUNES.

The central position of The Tribune Building has caused it to be early sought by those who desire only such location for their offices and business. The stores and basements on Dearborn and Madison streets, and the elegant offices, whose plate-glass windows look upon these streets; the several floors, largely equalized by the passenger elevator in use at all hours, are already numerously occupied by tenants, most of them long familiar names in Chicago. A reference to them will be in keeping with our sketch.

W. C. Dow,, who is in charge of the rentals of The Tribune Building, is a gentleman of long-established experience and reputation, both of which qualities stand him in good stead as a competent and thorough representative of real estate interests in Chicago. His office is at No. 1 Nevada Block.
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Haskell Brothers.
The basement store of The Tribune Building, fronting on Madison and Dearborn streets, is occupied by Haskell Brothers, dealers in trunks, valises, traveling bags, and ladies’ satchels. The citizens of Chicago will remember the large trunk store of Messrs. Haskell Brothers under the old Tremont House. This is an old establishment, having been founded in 1865.

Their factory is now located at No. 10 South Peoria street, where a large number of men are constantly employed in the manufacture of trunks and valises of every description.

These gentlemen are now receiving a large stock of goods, which is pronounced by competent judges to be the best in the United States. Their imported English sole-leather trunks are the finest specimens of European manufacture. Persons wishing to procure trunks, valises, merchants’ sample trunks, and ladies’ dress and traveling trunks of the best quality, will find it to their interest to call upon Haskell Brothers, under The Tribune Building, or at 37 West Madison street, under the Sherman House, where they also have a very large establishment.

A. C. Vanderburgh & Co.
The elegant double store, Nos. 141 and 143 Dearborn street, Tribune Building, is occupied by A. C. Vanderburgh & Co., the well-known North Side druggists, pharmacists, importers, and dealers in fine toilet goods.

Their store is elegantly fitted with walnut cases for drugs, proprietary articles, fine perfumes, &c. The counter cases are of metal and plate glass, two of which are of one piece of bent glass each, imported exclusively for them. These are filled with a complete assortment of imported brushes, shell and ivory combs, portmonnaies &c. In the centre of the store there is a handsome counter and mineral-water apparatus, composed of four different varieties of marble, from which they intend to draw every kind of natural and artificial waters, as their customers may desire. They also have a case filled with a general assortment of fine Havana cigars of their own importation.

Their laboratory and prescription department is also fitted up with every convenience for dispensing and putting up prescriptions equal to any establishment in the West.

As Messrs. Vanderburgh & Co. have opened this elegant store on Dearborn street, and have made great preparations for conducting their business in the best possible style, they will be sure to be found by all their former patrons.

They make a specialty of fine colognes, perfumes, and toilet goods, of which they keep a very complete assortment, and invite their former patrons and others to call and examine their stock before purchasing elsewhere.

W. A. Bigler & Co.,
No. 90 Madison street, Tribune Building, is occupied by Wm. . Bigler & Co., dealers in fine watches, diamonds, jewelry, silver and plated-ware. Although this is a new firm, yet it is conducted in the most proper style, Mr. Bigler having served for a number of years with N. Matson & Co. They have spared no cost to make their firm one of the finest in Chicago. All their stock is of the finest quality, and from the elegant manner in which their store is furnished, in which the walls are decorated with paintings, and from the manner in which every department is arranged so as to attract and please those who should chance to call upon them, we judge Mr. Bigler & Co. to be not only competent jewelers, but men of fine artistic taste, who have made it a study to do everything to please and gratify their customers. The cases are all mounted in French plate glass; the side cases are of fine cabinet finish, mounted on plate glass, lined with crimson velvet and elegantly decorated with silver plated ware. Wm. A. Bigler & Co. do not advertise to sell goods at actual cost, but they actually sell goods for less money than the same articles can be purchased elsewhere.

All persons wishing to obtain diamonds, jewelry and silverware of the finest quality, will find it to their interest to call upon Wm. A. Bigley & Co., before purchasing elsewhere.

J. W. D. Kelley & Bro.
No. 88 Madison street, Tribune Building, is occupied by J. W. D. Kelley & Bro. (at 164 Lake street before the fire), dealers in fancy hardware, skates, fine cutlery, base-ball, cricket, sporting, and gymnastic goods; also, sole agents for Torrey’s Patent Weather-Strips, and manufacturers of patent corner wire window-screens.

J. M. Mora & Co.
The south corner of The Tribune Building (No. 86 Madison street), is occupied by J. M. Mora & Co., manufacturers of and wholesale dealers in fine Cuban cigars. This firm have their factory at No. 62 Water street, N.Y., where they employ a large number of men, all Cubans, in the manufacture of their cigars. All of their tobacco, which is of the finest quality, is imported direct from Cuba. The cigars that are manufactured by this firm are in every respect equal to the finest brands of the imported article, and are pronounced the handsomest cigars in the trade, and their jobbing and retail prices are far below those of the importers, the duty on the raw material being so much less than on manufactured cigars. This branch of the firm of J. M. Mora & Co., is conducted by the resident partner, P. H. S. Vandervoort, who for years has been known in Chicago as a perfect gentleman and a man who will deal fairly with his patrons. The consumers pf fine material in this line will find it to their interest to call upon J. M. Mora & Co., No. 86 Madison street, before purchasing elsewhere.

Wright & Tyrrell.
Among the tenants in the first Tribune Building were Messrs. Wright & Tyrrell, Real Estate aqnd Loan Agents, the oldest in their branch of business in the city. The fire-proof qualities of the building, much as they disappointed expectation and experience in the unparalleled test of the great fire, stood this firm at least in good stead. Ten days after the fire, their vault was opened, and, like all the other vaults in the building, gave up its contents unharmed. The contents were, as may be imagined, of immense value, of vast importance, both to our residents and to capitalists abroad. Security to the amount of millions, records of a loan business cover ing the most active and important period of our growth, reaching many millions in amount, were safe, and gave Messrs. Wright & Tyrrell the advantage few of our business men enjoyed of immediate resumption of business without the loss of books and papers, that would have been in their case irreparable. The firm is one that appreciates such an exemption. Careful, methodical, solid, scrupulous in minutest points, they have been spared the serious disaster of a break in their office records, that now cover a period of twenty-five tears’ relation to our local real estate values and securities. There are none in Chicago who have a riper and sounder judgement as to the precise character of this class of securities, and one uniform testimony has followed their transactions as agents—they have never disappointed a principal, while without pique or private bias as to localities, they have made the broad map of Chicago their field of study, and brought untold millions into its development. Their relations with leading capitalists in Europe add in this country are long established, and only to be won by a record like theirs. They loaned nearly four million on Chicago real estate in the season of our Great Rebuilding. Of course they believe in Chicago, and it would be difficult to find two gentlemen who have done more to create and maintain confidence in Chicago abroad more than Messrs. Wright & Tyrrell, who may be found in Room No. 2, second story of the new Tribune Building.

The Charter Oak Life Insurance Company.
Room 1, on the second floor, is occupied by the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Conn. The Charter Oak was organized in 1850. Its assets are $11,000,000. This old and successful institution transacts the Life Insurance business according to all the usual plans, and at much lower rates than other Mutual Companies. It also presents to the public an entirely new plan, known as Deposit Insurance, which is far superior to any Tontine or other system upon which the payment of property is deferred. The attention of the public is called to this as containing features of unequalled excellence. Circulars can be obtained from the Company or any of its agents. Though the premium tables are much lower than those of the other mutual companies, they are not quite so low as those attempted by the Mutual Life, and given up in the recent insurance war in New York.

As this agency is known throughout the Western States to be one of reliability, and of long standing, the citizens of Chicasgo who desire anything in the Life Insurance line will find it to their interest to call on the General Agents, Messrs. Wells & Mason, at No. 1, second floor, Tribune Building, before calling elsewhere.

Gustin, Wallace & Co., a new real estate firm, who pay particular attention to making investment for non-residents and loaning funds on real estate securities. In a part of same office is J. T. Dale, Esq., an attorney-at-law, who devotes special attention to the examination of titles and real estate matters.

A. F. Noble.
Room 2, second floor Tribune Building, is occupied by A. F. Noble, real estate agent. He owns a large tract of land on the east side of the Rock Island Railroad, fronting on the Lake Boulevard and Halsted street, and adjacent to the depot at South Englewood, Mr. Noble is making great improvements on his land in the way of handsome residences, which he proposes to sell on monthly, quarterly, and yearly payments. Houses will be built on plans or specifications furnished by purchasers whenever they may desire. Quite a number of fine residences are already under contract, and will be completed as soon as the weather will admit. Also vacant lots of any size will be sold on the above terms. All persons desiring to purchase lots, or good and handsome houses, at low rates, will save money by calling at Room 2, second floor, Tribune Building.

American Watch Company, Room No. 5, second floor, is occupied by Robbins & Appleton, Western Agents for the sale of the American watches manufactured at Waltham, Mass. Their office is fitted elegantly, and they are prepared to carry on their business in grand style.

L. Curry & Co., Room No. 7, second floor of The Tribune Building, is occupied by The United States Law Association and Collection Union, of which Messrs. Fairchild and Blackman are Directors.

These gentlemen are known to the citizens of Chicago to possess reliability, experience, and ability. The Association they represent comprises a member in each of the counties of the Unites States, the Canadas, and principal cities of Europe. They have unsurpassed facilities for the transaction of business at any point, near or remote. Their list of members comprises some of the ablest and most distinguished lawyers in the country. This institution is of the greatest advantage to our business community in the collection and securing of debts, and in the transaction of all legal business at any point. They refer to a large number of the best houses in the city as their clients and patrons, and the recommendations they have from them establish the fact that they are able, prompt, and reliable.
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Hutchinson & Luff.
Room 20, third floor, is occupied by the law firm of Hutchinson & Luff. They have three of the best arranged and most complete law offices in the city. They do a general law business, practicing in all the Courts, and give special attention to real property law, loans on real estate, and collections. This firm is entitled to, and receives, the confidence of the business community.

J. Gollman.¹
The corner room in the fourth story of The Tribune Building has been transformed into a gem of a studio by Mr. Gollman, and is pronounced by the skilled in art matters perfect in light and arrangement. Mr. Gollman’s skill and reputation in his profession deserve such an adjunct as his studio affords. Since the fire he has passed some time in Europe, and his return to this city has been welcomed by numerous orders. In his hands, are several portraits of well-known citizens, John Crerar, P. A. Hall, Dr. Powell, and members of of the household of some of our best residents. Mr. Gollman’s work is oil, crayon, and pastel is of very high order, as shown by his patronage among those whose taste and means enable them to command the best. For delicacy of finish, skillful handling, and ranked with Mr. Healy, and this is high praise, yet we believe it entirely just.

Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1883

There bas been received the first number of the Inland Architect and Builder, a monthly Journal devoted to the interests of Western architects, builders, house decorators and furnishers. The number is well filled with interesting original matter, and is handsome in typographical appearance. A page is given to illustrating the new Calumet Club Building from a perspective by Club Building from Burnham & Root, the architects. The journal is published by the Inland Publishing Company. Room 17 Tribune Building, and makes a thrifty showing of advertising.

Chicago Tribune, October 10, 1893

The Tribune Building was draped from portal arch to coping in the national colors. In the sunlight this tri-colored bunting set out in bright colors against the background of brown stone. At night the facades of the building on Dearborn and Madison streets were brilliantly outlined with incandescent lights of red, white and blue.

Over the main entrance to the counting room the golden effigy of a giant eagle spread its pinions.The figure was outlined with electric lights, which set out its profile in the glowing colors of freedom. The bird of liberty was the center-piece of The Tribune Building decorations, Under the windows, beginning with the second story, red, white, and blue bunting streamed on either side across the faces of the building. It was caught up at intervals, where it was fastened with rosettes and shields of the Union, set in draped American flags. Successively up to the fifth story this drapery hung. Above the top story the coping was swathed in the tri-color bunting that also floated from the base of the corner flag-staff in a bold sweep on other side to the second story windows where the ends were fastened with shields. The cornices of the building were made to blaze at night with serried rows of red, white, and blue electric lights and the windows were bordered with the same brilliant decorations. Surmounting all, the Stars and Stripes and the colors of Chicago.

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The Tribune Building Decked in Bunting and Ablaze with Electricity on Chicago Day.

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NOTES:

¹ “Julius Gollmann, Tribune Building,” as per 1874 Chicago Directory. Portrait shown is signed by J. Gollmann, 1874.

THE TRIBUNE BUILDERS.

THE FIRST OF THE TRIBUNES.

NOTES:

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