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Robbins Building
Life Span: 1872-About 1940
Location: 11 & 13 Fifth Avenue and 205 & 07 South Water street
Architect: John M. Van Odel
Founded by John Crerar and J. McGregor Adams ca. 1868, Crerar, Adams & Co. was a leading supplier to the railroad industry. In 1889, John Crerar died at the home of his good friends, Norman and Caroline Williams. Crerar had made his fortune as a partner in the firm of Crerar, Adams & Company, the largest railroad supply concern in the Midwest. He also helped finance and promote George Pullman’s new Palace Car Company. Crerar was a lifelong bachelor and had no direct heirs, and made numerous generous bequests, the largest of which was set aside for the creation, construction, and maintenance of the John Crerar Library.
Robbins Building
11 & 13 Fifth Avenue and 205 & 07 South Water street (old)
Southeast Corner Wells and Wacker
The Land Owner, November 1872
Crerar, Adams & Co.
The Land Owner
Crerar, Adams & Co.
1896 Catalog
Robbins Building
Robinson Fire Map
Volume 3, Plate 1
JOHN CRERAR LIBRARY.
The John Crerar Library can really be said to be prospective only, inasmuch as nothing has been done beyond planning. John Crerar died in Chicago, October 19, 1889. His commercial ventures had been successful, and after devising liberal bequests to his relatives, friends, and public charities, he left the remainder of his estate in trust for the establishment of a public library. The amount so left Is estimated at two and one half million dollars. Messrs. Norman Williams and Huntington W. Jackson were appointed by the will executors of the estate, with power to add to their number for the management of the library. The only stipulations in the will restricting the executors in the formation of the library were that it should be In the south division of the city and that trashy novels — particularly French novels — should not be admitted to the shelves. Only a few steps have been taken up to the present time. Having obtained the passage of an act by the General Assembly authorizing the Incorporation of boards of trustees for the management of libraries provided for by will, 11 well-known gentlemen were chosen, who, with the executors, organized under the new law. They have decided that the library shall be for reference only; that it shall be a purely scientific library, and that only the income from the main bequest shall be used for all expenses. This amount is estimated to be about $100,000.
The John Crerar Library
Reading Room 1
Marshall Field Building
About 1898