Hoyt Building
Life Span: 1872-1921
Location: SW Corner of N. Michigan and E. Wacker Drive
Architect: Nimmons & Fellows
The site was originally occupied by Fort Dearborn. It is now occupied by the London Guarantee building.
Chicago Tribune, January 21, 1872
Wm. Hoyt has put up a three-story brick building, 25×80, on North Dearborn street, near Kinzie, for wholesale purposes. The ornaments are of Cleveland sandstone. The building is already occupied.
Wm. Hoyt will soon commence work upon a four-story brick building, 55×100, at the corner of Michigan avenue and River street. It is intended for stores and offices. The ornaments of the front will be of drab stone and iron.
Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1874
W. M. HOYT & CO.
This popular and widely-known grocers’ firm is composed of M. M. Hoyt and C. Watrous. They are located at Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 Michigan avenue, corner of River street. They erected the building which they now occupy during the year following the great fire, and the citizen or stranger, after a careful examination of the edifice must arrive at the conclusion that, in its exterior, it is one of the largest, while its interior arrangements are well adapted for wholesale grocery purposes. They make a specialty of staple groceries, and their trade in teas is immense, while in other goods their business is perhaps second to no other house in the West. And, what is more, they do their business at home—that is to say, they employ no traveling salesman, and hence are not compelled to burden consumers with the extra expense that such a system of doing business would involve. And right here The Tribune will say that the wise policy adopted by Hoyt & Co. is an exception to the present custom of doing business in this branch of mercantile commerce. And we will say that their publication of the Grocer’s Criterion, a paper with their price-lists of general stock, has proved a great success, and meets the cordial approval of that class of merchants who desire to buy goods as cheaply as they can be furnished through this economical medium.
The W. M. Hoyt Company Building
Site of Old Fort Dearborn
1874
Commercial and Architectural Chicago
Published by G. W. Orear
W. M. Hoyt Company, wholesale grocers and manufacturers, occupy the large buildings which stand at the junction of River street, Rush street and Michigan avenue, or, in other words, on the site of the historic Fort Dearborn. The location is one of the best possible commercially, as it has streets on three sides, the river just in front, and railway facilities within a stone’s throw, while the great lake steam-
This company is one of the five leading wholesale grocery concerns of Chicago, and its business extends into all the territory that belongs to or that is made the field of the Chicago drummers’ ramifications.
The building stands on an irregular lot at the juncture of River Street and Michigan Avenue. The frontages are 100 feet on River Street, 40 facing the bridge, and nearly 100 on Michigan Avenue. There are 5 stories, with 75 feet of height, and! freight elevator. Wholesale grocer.
William M. Hoyt & Co. was created during the Civil War. Hoyt became a leading grocery wholesaler, with annual sales of close to $1 million by the mid-1870s and nearly $5 million by the early 1890s, when it was among the region’s leading food distributors.
W. Hoyt Building
History of Chicago, Inter Ocean, 1900
W. M. Hoyt Company.
The present firm of W. M. Hoyt Company, wholesale grocers, like most of the successful business enterprises of Chicago, is the outgrowth of a small beginning. In 1857 Mr. W. M. Hoyt, then a lad of twenty, opened a small fruit business, which developed, by progres sive evolutions, until he was able in 1865 to pur chase the business of James A. Whitaker, at 101 South Water street, where he engaged in the wholesale grocery business. At the time of the fire of 1871 Mr. Hoyt’s place of business was located on River street, foot of Wabash avenue, but notwithstanding the loss of his property there, and of his two stores on North Dearborn street, he leased a new location at 63 South Canal street, even while the fire was still raging across the river.
The following year Mr. Hoyt purchased the site of the old Fort Dearborn, Michigan avenue and River street, opposite Rush street bridge, where he erected the present salesroom and warehouse, so admirably adapted to the requirements of the business. In addition to this the company now owns Nos. 6 and 8 River street, directly opposite, in which they have their coffee and spice mills.
The W. M. Hoyt Company was incorporated under the laws of Illinois in 1882, and the business has been conducted in the corporate name since that time. The officers of the company are: W. M. Hoyt, president; R. J. Bennett, vice -president; Arthur G. Bennett, secretary and treasurer; Albert C. Buttolph and Graeme Stewart, managers, and all of these are directors.
As this business house occupies one of the most interesting historic spots in the Northwest, Mr. Hoyt caused to be prepared and set in the wall of the building a memorial tablet, on which is engraved a sketch of the blockhouse of the fort erected on the site in 1816, after the massacre of 1812. On the occasion of the unveiling this tablet in 1881, Hon. John Wentworth delivered an address, eulogizing the enterprise that had erected a great emporium and conducted in it a great business of several millions annually, on the site of a blockhouse, but recently erected for the utmost defense against the savages.
The business of the W. M. Hoyt Company is conducted without traveling men. They buy as closely as possible and discount all bills; sell on short time and require prompt payment. The stability of this house has never been questioned. It is not seriously affected by a monetary stringency or panic, and its prominence among the great business enterprises of the West is a lasting monument to the pluck, industry and energy of the men who created and continue to manage it, and well exemplifies what was written three thousand years ago:
- Seest thou a man (or men) diligent in business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men.
W. M. Hoyt Company
Envelope
1901
Grocers’ Criterion
1904
Wm. Hoyt Building
Robinson Fire Map
1886
W. Hoyt Building, Rand McNally Bird’s Eye Views, 1893
⑦ The Hoyt Building
Stands on an irregular lot at the juncture of River Street and Michigan Avenue. The frontages are 100 feet on River Street, 40 facing the bridge, and nearly 100 on Michigan Avenue. There are 5 stories, with 75 feet of height, and! freight elevator. This building, erected in 1872, occupies the site of Fort Dearborn, and bears a tablet whose inscription is copied at the beginning of our North Side Drive. Wholesale grocer.
W. Hoyt Building
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1906
Chicago Tribune, January 4, 1920
Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1921.
William M. Hoyt, Chicago pioneer, will be honored by the Chicago Historical society tody, his eighty-fourth birthday. A portrait of him, paqinted by Mrs. Marie G. Cameron, will be unveiled.
Mr. Hoyt came to Chicago sixty-eight years ago from New Haven, Vt., his birthplace, and founded the grocery firm of W. M. Hoyt & Co. His building occupied the site of old Fort Dearborn. The building was torn down to make way for the new Michigan avenue bridge, and with it went a memorial tablet of the Fort Dearborn massacre. He is trying to have a new tablet erected at the fort site.
Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt recently celebrated their sixty-first wedding anniversary.
FORT DEARBORN MEMORIAL TABLET.
Chicago Tribune, May 22, 1881
THE TABLET WHICH MARKS THE SITE OF OLD FORT DEARBORN
was unveiled yesterday with appropriate ceremonies in the presence of the First Regiment I. N. G. (350 strong) and about 1,500 citizens. As previously stated in The Tribune, the memento is on the north front of the building at the corner of Front street and Michigan avenue, just opposite Rush street bridge. The idea originated in the Historical Society, and some of its officers having mentioned the subject to Mr. W. M. Hoyt, of the firm which occupies the structure, he fell in with it at once, and had the tablet put in at his own expense, and yesterday it was formerly “presented” to the Historical Society. The fact that it would be was pretty well known, and by half-past 3 o’clock, when the militia were in the ground and massed on Front street, there was a large crowd of spectators in the vicinity who had assembled to take part in the proceedings. A stand had been erected on the corner for the accommodation of the speakers and others. On the front part of it was a model of the old block-house, with an American flag on the staff. The building was set off with two small colored sketches of the fort and flags, every window on both fronts containing one of the latter, and a large flag was pendant from a rope strung across the street. Other structures in the neighborhood were similarly adorned.
The Fort Dearborn Memorial Tablet
The tablet, which is of marble, occupies the whole window space, being fifteen feet high and six feet across. Robert J. Bennett (right) of the W. M. Hoyt & Company in 1881.
W, M. Hoyt Building
Chicago: An Instructive and Entertaining History of a Wonderful City, 1889
The Fort Dearborn Memorial Tablet Erected by W. M. Hoyt on the Site of Fort Dearborn.
Among the many objects of interest in the city which attract the attention of strangers is the marble tablet which occupies a prominent place in the north wall of the large building at the corner of Michigan avenue and River street.
This tablet, which measures 15×6 feet, is known as the Fort Dearborn memorial tablet, from the fact that the building in which it is placed stands upon the site of Fort Dearborn.
The Chicago Historical Society suggested the tablet, and Mr. W. M. Hoyt, of the well-known wholesale grocery house of the W. M. Hoyt company, the largest in the country, had it made and gave the space for it. After the tablet had been placed in position it was unveiled with great ceremony on Saturday afternoon, May 21, 1881, in the presence of a large crowd of people. The following program was successfully carried out:
- 1. The First Regiment of Illinois State Guards, Col. Swain commanding, will march to the ground and form in front of the tablet.
2. Calling to order of the assemblage by the President of the Chicago Historical Society, Hon. Isaac N. Arnold.
3. Presentation of the tablet by R. J. Bennett, of the firm of W. M. Hoyt & Co., to be followed promptly by the unveiling, with appropriate military salutes.
4. Response by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold.
5. Poem by Eugene J. Hall, of Chicago (below).
6. Music—National air.
7. Historical address by Hon. John Wentworth.
8. Military march from the ground.
The issue of The Tribune, which contained the foregoing account of this interesting historical event, was indeed a remarkable one. It was made up of the regular edition, of 20 pages, and an extra of 16, containing the revised New Testament, literatim, et verbatim, et punctuatim. The entire paper was, therefore, made up of 36 pages, of seven columns to a page, or 252 columns.
Originally published in The Chicago Tribune, May 22, 1881, during the Dedication of the Tablet.
THE MEMORIAL OF FORT DEARBORN.
Eugene J. Hall.1
Here, where the savage war-whoop once resounded;
Where council fires burned brightly years ago;
Where the red Indian from his covert bounded,
To scalp his pale-faced foe.
Here, where gray badgers had their haunts and burrows;
Where wild wolves howled and prowled in midnight bands;
Where frontier farmers turned the virgin furrows,
Our splendid city stands.
Here, where brave men and lovely women perished,
Here, where in unknown graves their forms decay,
This marble, that their memory may be cherished,
We consecrate to-day.
No more the farm-boy’s call or lowing cattle,
Frighten the timid wild-fowl from the slough;
The noisy trucks and wagons roll and rattle
O’er miles of pavements now.
Now, are our senses startled and confounded,
By screaming whistle and by clanging bell,
Where Beaubien’s merry fiddle once resounded,
When summer twilight fell.
Here stood the Fort, with palisades about it,
With low, log block-house in those early hours;
The prairie fair extending far without it,
Blooming with fragrant flowers.
About this spot the buildings quickly clustered,
The logs decayed, the palisades went down;
Here the resistless Western spirits mustered
And built this wondrous town.
Here, from the trackless slough, her structures started
And, one by one, in splendor, rose to view.
The white ships went and came, the years departed,
And still she grandly grew.
Till, one wild night, a night each man remembers,
When round her homes the red fire leaped and curled,
The sky was filled with flame and flying embers,
That swept them from the world.
Men said: “Chicago’s bright career is ended,”
As by her smouldering stones they chanced to go,
While the wide world its love and pity blended
To help us in our woe.
O where was ever human goodness greater?
Man’s love for man was never more sublime!
On the eternal scroll of our Creator
‘Tis written for all time.
Chicago lives, and many a lofty steeple
Looks down, to-day, upon this western plain.
The tireless hands of her unconquered people
Have reared her walls again.
Long may she live, and grow its wealth and beauty.
And may her children be in coming years
True to their trust and faithful to their duty
As her brave pioneers!
Chicago Tribune January 20, 1917
The erection of a large billboard over a tablet on the side of the Hoyt building, Michigan Avenue and Rush Street, at the south end of Rush Street bridge, which marks the site of old Fort Dearborn, is causing a wave of protest among members of the Chicago Historical Society and others interested in preserving historical records of Chicago.
The framework for the billboard, which belongs to the Thomas Cusack Company, was erected yesterday and a large advertisement will go up in a few days, it is said. This will temporarily, if not permanently cover the bronze plague unveiled May 21, 1881, as a perpetual record of the old fort, and the massacre on the historic spot on Aug. 12, 1815.
“This society is helpless except to appeal to public sentiment to save the tabloid from being covered by the billboard,” said Miss C. N. McIlvane, librarian of the society. This is the first of Chicago’s notable landmarks and thousands of persons, including many children, have viewed the tablet annually.”
“A sacrilege,” was the expression of Mrs. Cyrus McCormick, Sr. “I am sure the owner of the building should be urged to order the billboard company to remove this portion of the sign that already is up.”
Chicago Tribune January 26, 1917
W. M. Hoyt, donor of the bronze tablet which commemorates the site of old Fort Dearborn, near the Rush street bridge, and the massacre which occurred there Aug. 12, 1812, has written a spirited letter to the Chicago Historical Society from his winter home of Green Cove Springs, Fla., protesting against the enterprise of Thomas Cusack company in hiding the tablet behind an advertising billboard. Writes Mr. Hoyt:
- Such desecration! It must not be. It was donated to the city by me for your care. The city should do its duty and preserve it. See State Attorney Hoyne. He will find a way to stop it. It was bad enough to have the saloon on the site, but this last move shows what some people will do for money when lost to pride and principle. If I were there I would see to it. I know, however, your society has both pride and push and will do what it can to maintain the pride and honor of our city.
Miss C. M. McIlvane, librarian of the Historical Society, declared that there appeared no recourse against the action of the Cudack company, except public opinion and a boycott of any article advertised on the billboard. George Merryweather said the matter will be placed before the Historical Society at its next meeting.
Chicago Tribune January 31, 1917
Thomas Cusack. president of the Thomas Cusack Advertising Company. in the interests of sentiment has not only ruled that the billboard advertisement erected over the Fort Dearborn bronze tablet at the Rush street bridge be torn down, but he undertakes to clean the tarnished bronze (“of which it is very much in need) and electric light it.
Mr. Cusack wants to bring romance into its own. He admits he never knew there was a bronze tablet to commemorate Fort Dearborn, but granting the tradition of the old blockhouse be true, he thinks it should be advertised.
Cancels Contract.
He wrote a letter yesterday to E. J. Lehmann. president of the Fair. and consented to cancel the contract for the Fair advertisement on the billboard covering the Fort Dearborn bronze memorial and said the signboard would be torn, down immediately.
Miss C. M. McIlvaine, secretary of the Chicago Historical Society. expressed her gratification at the action of Mr. Cusack.
“We had only public opinion to appeal to.” she said. “but Mr. Cusack relented without asking its decision.”
The Tribune reported the erection of the sign in the issue of Jan. 20, together with the authorized protest of the Historical society. A few days later W. M. Hoyt. donor of the bronze tablet, wrote his protest from his winter home at Green Spring Cove. Fla. Mur. Lehmanti of the Fair promptly offered to repu- diate the advertisement.
Letter to Lehmann.
Mr. Cusack concurred in the following letter:
- Mr. E. J. Lehtianv, president. the Fair: I am in, receipt of information that you have expressed a desire, in a letter to the Historical Society, that, in event the Cusack company would cancel a contract, you would consent to the sign being removed which now covers the tablet on the old Hoyt buildling at Michigan avenue and South Water street.
I was not aware that the sign bad been placed there until a few days ago. when I was notified by a reporter for The Tribune. as I have been out of the city. Had I known of it before the sign was erected I would not have allowed the sign to at least cover the tablet.
I assure you that our company will be very pleased to cancel the contract. Not only that. but we will clean the tablet ,of which it is very much in need. I understand, and illuminate same as it should be.
We will place your sign on the side of the building, and in event it does not satisfy you there will be very glad to remove it at your option. But, so far as the present contract is concerned, you may be assured it is canceled. It is optional with you to accept it as placed on the side.
Very truly yours.
Thomas Cusack.
NOTES:
1 Illustration from Rand, McNally and co.’s handy guide to Chicago, and World’s Columbian exposition What to see and how to see it, 1892
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