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Major Block II
Life Span: 1872-1914
Location: SE Corner W. Madison and LaSalle Streets
Architect: Dixon & Hamilton
Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1872
LA SALLE AND MADISON STREETS, where the Gallup & Hitchcock Building and Major Block are rivals, if not in design, at least in position. Both of the buildings are in the somewhat gloomy, but rich and handsome, Buena Vista stone, and are good types of the class of buildings which we have noticed above. The former is very elaborate, and the Chicagoan who remembers the building formerly occupying the site will scarcely regret the Old Chicago.
Major Block II
This building fronted 136 feet on LaSalle and 66 feet on Madison. It was seven stories high, with one basement, on spread foundations. This was one of the first buildings to be rebuilt after the Fire of 1871. It’s name was changed to Roanoke.
From June 8, 1873 to January 1, 1887 the original Roanoke building served as the Chicago location for the National Weather Service Weather Forecast official climate site. The building is mentioned in Saul Bellow’s More Die of Heartbreak but there it is referred to as a wealthy residence building and not as an office building
Roanoke Building
At the right is the Y.M.C.A. Building which was built in 1893
Major Block II
Robinson Map 1886
Volume 1, Plate 7
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