Morrison Building

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Morrison Building,
Life Span: 1872-1910
Location: Northeast Corner of Clark and Madison streets
Architect: Unknown

Chicago Tribune, February 18, 1872
Plans have been prepared for rebuilding the well-known Morrison buildings on Clark street, between Calhoun place and Madison street. These are to be greatly superior to the old buildings in style and finish. They are arranged, as formerly, for stores and offices, but great improvements have been made in the plan.

Chicago Evening Post, April 19, 1872

E. D. Terry of the Putnam clothing house, No. 217 West Madison street and Nos. 368 and 370 State street, has all his goods manufactured in the East, where labor is 50 per cent cheaper than in the West. He can therefore afford to give the best of goods at the cheapest of rates. His motto is “one price quick sales and small profits.”

Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1872

The Putnam Clothing House
The old and well-known Putnam Clothing House will, about the 15th of this month, occupy the massive store in Morrison’s new block, corner of Clark and Madison streets. Mr. Terry, the popular proprietor of this popular house, finding his present stores much too limited for his already large and rapidly Infcreasing business, has leased the above extensive, which will give him a store covering an area of over 20,000 square feet. The Putnam Clothing House is among the oldest-established in this city, and has always borne an enviable reputation for honorable dealing, for quality of goods, and low prices. Mr. Terry adheres strictly to their excellent system of “one price,” every garment being plainly marked with the price at which it will only be sold. Purchasers of clothing can rely with confidence upon the representations of the above house as regards quality, of good style and price. the grand opening, which wis occur on or about tbe 15th inst., and until then purchase at the stores No. 300 State street and No. 217 Madison street.

Chicago Evening Post, December 20, 1872

THE OLD ONE PRICE STORE.
E. D. Terry the Popular Clothier in New Quarters.
Almost all the old dwellers in Chicago will remember the original one price clothing house established in this city in 1858, and before the fire under the proprietorship of E. D. Terry, at Nos 114 and 118 Randolph street. The store was run upon the strict principle of one price to every customer, and the offer of a reward of $100 was hung upon the outer and inner walls of the establishment to any person who would purchase any article in the store at a less price than was plainly marked upon it. However tempting, it is a sufficient guarantee to the integrity of the house to say that the reward was never claimed. But the fire that swept away so many monuments of established principle took the “Putnam” with it. As soon as the first excitement of the fire was over, Terry was found to be the champion of the same “one price” rule with two large stores, one at No. 370 State street and the other at No. 217 West Madison street, the latter of which is in the full blast of prosperity. The store on State street has been discontinued, and to accommodate his South Side customers, Mr. Terry has moved into the magnificent building at the northeast corner of Clark and Madison streets. The store has two entrances one at Nos 131 and 133 South Clark street, and the other at No. 117 Madison street. Into the store he has put an immense stock of gent’s clothing and furnishing goods of every known grade of style and finish, and of the most fashionable materials. The store is finely lighted and the purchaser is not obliged to buy in the dark. Connected with the establishment is a department exclusively for youths’ and boys’ clothing, where the smallest lad can procure a perfect fit of any desirable quality of goods Every article in the store has the price for which it can be bought plainly marked upon it, and Mr. Terry still holds out his old and ever standing offer of $100 to any person who can buy an article in the establishment at less tian the figures indicate as its price.

Some idea of the stock of goods carried can be obtained from knowing that the aggregate stock in both stores—No. 217 West Madison end Nos. 131 and 133 Clark street—exceed $250,000. Terry claims he can fit to perfection the largest man or the smallest boy, and it is a matter of great doubt if a more elegant and complete stock of clothing and haberdashery can be found in the Northwest.

Terry’s new store is far more spacious than the old one on Randolph street and he has only been acting in accordance with the demands of his large trade in seeking more elegant and roomy accommodations for his customers, who recognize the principle that only an honest and upright dealer can adopt and prosper upon tho invariable one price rule, adopted so many years ago by the establishment.

Inter Ocean, August 9, 1904

OLD MORRISON BUILDING IS TO BE ENTIRELY REMODELED.
H. F. Keebler & Co. have just negotiated one of the largest down town leases closed during the year. They have leased for Charles B. Morrison, trustee for the estate of Ezekiel Morrison, to Herman J. Berghoff, president of the Berghoff Brewing company of Fort Wayne, Ind., the four story and basement building located at the northeast corner at Clark and Madison streets for ten Years at a rental of $210,000 for the term.

The lease dates trom May, 1905, the rental for the first five years being $20,000 per annum and $22,000 per annum for the last five gears. The ground has a frontage of 22 feet on Clark street and 80 feet on Madison street. The improvements consist of an old four story brick building, the store floor and basement of which have been occupied by Dale & Sempill’s drug store and James H. Lomax for the last twenty-eight years. Mr. Berghoff will modernize the building with a new plate glass front, new steam heat and electric light plant, and other improvements at a total cost of about $16,000.

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