Andrews Building, Butter’s Auction House, A. G. Spalding Store
Life Span: 1873-1908
Location: 108 Madison Street, Between Clark and Dearborn Streets
Architect: TBD
Inter Ocean, April 24, 1872
Building Permits.
The following building permit was yesterday awarded by the Board of Public Works:
- Andrews & Brath, four-story and basement stone building, 22½x185, No. 108 Madison street.
Chicago Evening Mail, June 1, 1872
We notice that Mr. Andrews is pushing forward his new builsing at 108 East Madison street. He was the first in that square to commence operations, and we have no doubt will be the first to complete them.
Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1877
This is the season of busy preparation in base-ball circles. An excellent evidence of the general interest felt everywhere in the game is gleamed by visiting the Base-Ball Emporium of Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Brother, No. 118 Randolph street. This firm has been hard at work for the past month, making uniforms for some of the foremost clubs of the country,—the Cincinnatis, Louisvilles, Chicagos, Stars of Syracuse, Milwaukees, and St. Pauls, as well as the Acme Dreadnaughts, and other local organizations. The firm is culiarly adapted to the furnishing of uniforms and club outfits, their goods having attained the most eminent reputation wherever introduced. Professionals and amateurs now understand full well the sterling merits of the Spalding League ball, and the various other goods sold here. The Tribune commends the firm to the kind attention of everybody in quest of the best of sporting goods.
Chicago Tribune, February 13, 1881
A. G. Spalding & Bro. are preparing for the summer sporting season. They have removed from 118 Randolph street to larger quarters at 108 Madison street, between Dearborn and Clark streets.
Chicago’s First Half Century 1833-1883, the Inter-Ocean, 1883
A. G. SPALDING & BROTHERS.
The Sporting Headquarters.
No man has done so much to encourage and stimulate out-door sports in Chicago and the West as Mr. A. G. Spalding, the President and Manager of the Chicago Base Ball Club. To him that club owes its organization and success, and he is the patron saint of the base ball fraternity in the West. To him more than to any other man Chicago owes the reputation of its club and the honor of the championship it has carried for so many years. After retiring from the diamond Mr. Spalding opened a store for the sale of baseball supplies and other sporting goods, and his emporium at No. 108 Madison street is now the rendezvous and headquarters of the sportsmen of Chicago and the Northwest
Here is sold at wholesale or retail every appliance or essential known to the sporting world. Here can be found the largest stock of guns in the West, at the lowest prices, and every article that goes to make up the outfit of a well-equipped huntsman or fisherman. The wheelman can find the most complete stock of bicycles and tricycles, and those who cultivate “the poetry of motion” will be charmed by the assortment of skates for parlor, rink, or pond. In base ball goods the Spaldings are the leaders and recognized authority from Maine to California, and they provide the necesaries for every other sort of out-door game or sport.
For business men, clerks, and others whose occupations prevent them from securing a proper amount of healthful exercise they provide “the Home Gymnasium,” which can be set up in a parlor, a library, a bed-room, or an office. Sleds and printing presses, magic lanterns, toy telephones and steam engines, dog collars, whips and blankets, carving-knives, penknives and scissors, dumb-bells and Indian clubs, fencing sticks, boxing gloves, and every invention for the health, pleasure, and profit of mankind can be had at the lowest prices.
Chicago Tribune, October 27, 1884
Jeff Barkley, watchman for A. G. Spalding & Brothers, at No. 108 Madison street, was shaving himself on the second flor of the building a little after 9 o’clock yesterday morning when he smelled fire and saw smoke rising from the first floor through the elevator. He rushed down-stairs and found the cloak-room at the rear in a blaze. Barkley at once gave a still alarm by the private box to Engine 13 and the fire-insurance patrol at 9:19. A minute later an alarm was struck from Box 43, at the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets, and this was followed by a second alarm soon after. The flames spread rapidly and filled the whole building within a few moments. The fire raged until nearly 11 o’clock before it was subdued. The stock was badly damaged. The building at No. 108 Madison street is a four-story brick with stone-front. It belongs to Joseph H. Andrews, and was damaged to the extent of $7,000, and fully insured.
The entire building was occupied by A. G. Spalding & Brother, who carried the largest stock and general retail stock. The second floor contained the general office of the firm and a large stock of bicycles and similar goods. The tghird story was their store-room for the surplus stock. The front portion of the fourth floor was used by George Bernhard & Co., who had a contract to manufacture hunting-suits for the Spaldings. Spalding & Brothers carried a stock of fishing tackle worth $20,000, a stock of bicycles of the same amount, and $40,000 worth of guns and revolvers. The stock of cutlery, base-ball goods, Indian clubs, and other miscellaneous sporting goods the firm estimates at from $50,000 to $60,000, bringing the total stock up to between $130,000 and $140,000.
Other parties had goods of considerable value stored with the firm. George Smith had four hammerless guns on which he had $1,600 insurance. He intended to cancel half this amount Saturday, but neglected to do so. W. C. Hough had $800 worth of guns in the place, which are fully insured.
The head of the firm, Mr. A. G. Spalding, is the President of the Chicago Base-Ball Club. After the fire had been put out he secured a lease of the premises at No. 164 Madison street, where he will reopen today. He at once telegraphed to manufacturers in the East to duplicate his stock, and expects to carry as heavy a line of goods as before. One of the losses is that of all their correspondence with customers throughout the country. The names and addresses of these are lost, and this will be seriously felt.
The adjoining stores of F. M. Atwood, the clothier, and C. Jevne, the grocer, each sustained a loss of $150 by water. Both were fully insured.
While Assistant Chief Fire Marshall Petrie was in the building during the progress of the fire a fireman picked up a double-action Colt’s of 38-calibre, and supposing that itv was not loaded pulled the trigger. The ball whistled very close to the Marshall’s ear.
The cause of the fire is not positively known, but the watchman who discovered it thought it was caused by matches left in a coat in the cloak-room. Another theory is that, as there was a lot of rags about the floor of the closet, it might have been a case of spontaneous combustion.
Members of the firm last night stated the loss would reach about $80,000. The insurance would reach about $110,000 and $120,000, placed in different companies, which, owing to the destruction of the books, could not be given.
Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide, 1889
Each Ball wrapped in tin foil and put up in a separate box as represented in the above illustration, and scaled in accordance with the latest League regulations.
Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1894
Early Removals of Large Firms to Wabash Avenue.
A. G. Spalding & Co. have leased through Van Vlissingen & Ismond the five-story an basement building at Nos. 149 and 151 Wabash avenue. T is owned by a local syndicate and os 40×165 feet in dimensions. It fronts east in the block between he lease runs for ten years at a total rental of between $165,000 and $170,000. The building between Madison and Monroe streets. The sporting goods firm makes the change for the same reason that influenced the Lyon & Healy move. It has outgrown the twenty-foot building on Madison street, where it has been located for thirteen years. The new quarters will allow the retail and wholesale business and some of the lighter manufacturing lines to be carried on in one establishment.
Spalding Advertisements
April 12 & 15, 1894
A. G. Spalding & Co. (Spalding Hall)
149-151 Wabash Ave.
Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1908
In addition to the Morrison hotel property the premises at 155 to 161 Clark street and 114 and 108 Madison street, all held under short term leases, are given as additional security. The assignment of the Morrison leasehold estate runs to the Morrison Hotel and Restaurant company,
Andrews Building
108 Madison
Greeley-Carlson Company’s Atlas of Chicago
1891
Andrews Building
108 Madison
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1906
The A.G. Spalding & Brothers Co. was founded in 1876 when Albert Spalding was a pitcher and the manager of a baseball team in Chicago, the Chicago White Stockings. The company standardized early baseballs and developed the modern baseball bat with the bulge at its apex.
The Spalding League Ball was adopted by the National League and American Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs for the seasons of 1892-1896 and used by the National League since 1880. It was manufactured by A. G. Spalding & Bros., Chicago, New York & Philadelphia and sold for $1.50 in 1896.
Spalding Base Ball Newspaper Advertisement
Chicago Tribune
April 13, 1922
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