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Fourth Presbyterian Church I

Fourth Presbyterian Church I.
Life Span: 1873-1912
Location: Rush and Superior Streets
Architect: O. Neff

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1873

Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1874
Fourth Presbyterian Church—Cor. Rush and Superior.

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Fourth Presbyterian Church—Rush Cor. Superior.

Chicago Tribune, November 12, 1871

Presbyterian.
The Fourth Presbyterian Church has rented the beautiful room called Standard Hall, for a regular morning service. The will be called together the latter part of this month, the pastor being out of the city at present on a begging excursion for a new church.

Chicago Tribune, November 22, 1871

Presbyterian.
Rev. Mr. Swing’s church, the Fourth or North. was a fine brick structure with an amazingly high steeple. It was familiarly known to North Side residents as McCormick chapel, because the McCormick family were its patrons. The pastor is an able divine, but owing to the want of genius in the printers, he had to have his name printed out, because the rascally compositors could never hit on the right patronymic. Here it is Rev. David S-w-i-n-g. This used to be rendered “Ling” and “Ting” and “Jing” and “Sewing,” and fifty other things impossible to reproduce. The reverend gentleman keeps quite a museum composed of his nicknames. Well. Mr. Swing’s church suffered to the extent of at least, $65,000, the insurance of which return barely $15,000. A mission chapel on Erie street, a wooden building valued at $8,000, which belonged to the Second and Fourth churches, was also destroyed, inflicting a still heavier loss on the congregation.

It may be remarked en passant that the Fourth Presbyterian is making strong efforts to rise from its ashes. An appeal has been issued for subscriptions, and the work of rebuilding will commence

Chicago Evening Mail, December 31, 1873

The Fourth Presbyterian.
Prof. Swing’s new church building, the Fourth Presbyterian, is nearly completed, and the congregation will be meeting there instead of in McVicker’s Theater. The new edifice is a plain Gothic structure of white stone, located at the corner of Rush and Superior streets, and will seat 1,000 persons. The Total cost was about $175.000.

The sale and renting of pews occurred last evening. Among those who purchased permanent pews are a number of prominent citizens, at prices ranging from $1,400 to $100. Fifty-five were thus sold, and more than half of the seating accommodation remaining was rented.

The Land Owner, February, 1874

Chicago Tribune, January 4, 1874

Opening of the Fourth Presbyterian Church.
The Fourth Presbyterian Church, recently completed, at the corner of Rush and Superiors streets, is built in the early English style of architecture, and is of Athens stone, rock-faced, with chiseled edges, with dressings of the same material. The plan is a Latin cross, the transepts extending but little beyond the walls of the church. The northern end is terminated by five sides of an octagon, containing the organ. On the southeast corner of the building is the tower, which is to be surmounted by a stone spire, rising 150 feet from the ground to the point, and in which is the principal entrance to the auditorium. There are, besides the principal tower entrance, two porch entrances to the auditorium. The whole width of the nave is 60 feet, and the depth 120 feet. The distance across the transepts is 81 feet by 48 in width.

On entering the vestibule through the tower, there are two entrances to the audience-room. This occupies the entire main story of the building. It has a seating capacity of 1,200. The seats are arranged in semi-circular order facing towards the north. The pulpit is situated on the north side of the edifice. It is raised four steps above the floor of the nave, and back of it is placed the organ, separated from the pulpit by a beautifully constructed and tastefully carved panel-work of a semi-circular shape. At the south end of the nave, is a gallery. The material of which the pulpit, the seats, and the gallery are made is black-walnut. In the finish of the interior, solidity, beauty, and durability have been happily combined. The roof is open clear to the ridge-pole, exposing to view all the timbers. The trefoil windows in the transept have been made to accommodate themselves to the form of the gables. There is no display with ornamentation, but the simple majesty of the interior, leads a charm which greater elaboration would fail to produce.

In the basement of the building, occupying the entire space of the transept, is the Sunday-school room, with two separate entrances from the east side, and connected with two spacious class-rooms by large sash sliding-doors. The pastor’s study is also on this floor, and is entered from the hall to the Sunday-school room. Immediately adjoining the west class-room is a ladies’ parlor. A private entrance on the north side of the church leads to the kitchen. The entire cost of the church with all its appurtenances is about $80,000. It was built after the plans of O. Neff, architect. At the request of the Building Committee, Bauer & Loebuitz, architects of the city, superintended the work, after the church was roofed.

Although this is a model of a convenient church-edifice, it is a matter of some doubt whether it will accommodate all who desire to hear the pastor regularly. The Society deserve great praise for what they have done in this work, but it must be a matter of regret that the accommodations are not on a larger scale. This portion of the city is rapidly filling up, and the time will no doubt soon come when Prof. Swing will find his new church too limited in its capacity.

History of the Church.
The Fourth Presbyterian Church appears on horizon as a double star, both of which were of the first magnitude, to wit, the North Presbyterian and the Westminster Church (Dearborn, corner Ontario), the former being Old and the latter New School. These two churches were consolidated just before the fire, and the name assumed was the “Fourth Church.” The Rev. D. C. Marquis, pastor of the North Church, having received a call to the Central Church, of Baltimore, at the time of the consolidation, Prof. Swing, who was at the same time pastor of the Westminster, received and accepted a call from the newly-united churches. The new Society under his administration consisted of four hundred members, was rapidly growing, and was prosperous in all respects, when the great fire came and swept everything away, leaving with homes only two or three families, residing in the South Division. Under these sad circumstances, however, neither pastor nor people were willing to yield to despondency, but at once rallied Services were announced in Standard Hall, and the house was soon overflowing. McVicker’s Theatre was secured, and this has been filled almost every Sunday for the last fourteen months. The new church edifice on the corner of Rush and Superior streets, was planned and is now complete. The congregation has become of the largest in the country. One of the pleasant episodes in the history of the church is the services held in the theatre. They have been truly spiritual pleasures to the thousands who have attended. At the closing meeting last Sunday, hundreds could not obtain admission, and those who did, will never forget the occasion.

Chicago Tribune, June 7, 1914

The old Fourth Presbyterian church, Superior and Rush streets, will be torn down this week and the stone taken for the building of the Bohemian Hubbard Memorial church, Lawndale avenue, near Twenty-sixth street. of which the Rev. Vaclav Vanek is pastor. The Bohemian church is in affiliation with the Fourth Presbyterian church, which recently moved into its new structure on Lincoln parkway and Chestnut street.

One Year After the Fire—Part V Business Blocks

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ONE YEAR AFTER—THE RESTORATION OF CHICAGO
The Lakeside Monthly, October, 1872
Part I Reconstruction.
Part II Public Works and Buildings
Part III Churches and Schools
Part IV Private Buildings
Part V Business Blocks
Part VI Amusements, Arts, and Science
Part VII Chicago and Its Railways
Part VIII The Year as Seen From the Board of Trade

Lakeside Monthly, October, 1872

BUSINESS BLOCKS.
If one desired to impress a stranger most thoroughly with the magnitude of the work which has been done in Chicago within a year from the period of its desolation, he would be likely first to take him into one ofthe new buildings which have arisen as if by the wand of the enchanter, in that region which last October presented the most grand and universal ruin to be seen on the globe. From a careful examination of one of these fine structures, a person is much better able to make a true estimate of the whole work of regeneration which is already accomplished. He will be at once struck with the breadth and stability of the foundations, the solidity of the walls, and the general appearance as of a structure built to withstand some common enemy. He will see a few buildings which seem more like fortresses than com mercial structures, having vaults en cased in several feet of masonry, and covered with railroad iron at the top, and from turret to foundation compos ed of material which has, combined with all the oxygen it was capable of thousands of years before man made his advent into mundane matters. For the purpose of introducing the reader to a few representative buildings of the New Chicago, he is referred to the illustrations and descriptions which immediately follow. These buildings have not been selected because they were the best, but rather because they represented the various classes of buildings which will compose the regenerated city.

The old Sherman House was the pride of all Chicago people; and when it fell in the general ruin on the ninth of last October, probably no item of the long roll of destruction more thoroughly impressed the people all over the country with the profundity of our disaster, than the words which told that the Sherman House was no more. It was completed in the year 1861.

The reconstructed hotel has reached the completion of its walls. It stands on the same site as its predecessor, and has a frontage of 160 feet on Randolph street by 181½ on Clark street. It rises to the exceptional altitude of seven stories above the basement, and will overtop the greater share of the buildings of the new city. It will contain 275 rooms. The exterior is constructed of a fine dark steel—colored sandstone, from the quarries of Illinois on the Kankakee river. It is built in accordance with the provisions of the will of the late F. C. Sherman, and is to be held in trust for the benefit of the heirs. Its cost will not be less than $600,000, while the land upon which it stands is valued at $400,000. This beautiful structure comprises, in its details, all the most recent improvements in hotel architecture, and is far superi or, in its conveniences and in the ele gance of its workmanship, to the hotel which stood in the same place one year ago.

Within a few days after the great fire, and while the flames in the vast coal yards along the river were still unsubdued, Mr. J. V. Farwell selected a site for a new dry-goods house; and, in stead of choosing a spot in the vicinity of his former store, determined to build on what was but a few days before one of the poorest and most insignificant portions of the city, being no other than the northwest corner of Franklin and Monroe streets. There was little debris to be removed, for as the ground had been occupied by mean wooden structures, all that had once been there was reduced to ashes and smoke. Workmen were immediately set to put ting in the foundations of a new building, and in the chilly days of November this solitary structure was the object of all observers, as its long lines of busy workmen with trowel and plumb, rose steadily in sharp outline against the autumn sky, and far above the gloomy ruins below. Before the advent of winter Mr. Farwell had established his wholesale department in the new building, and had issued circulars to his old customers announcing his readiness and ability to supply their wants once more. It was an era in the fortunes of the city, as everybody then felt. This was but the first step in the diversion of a very large whole sale business to that part of the city. Soon afterward, or nearly at the same period, Messrs. Field, Leiter & Co. commenced to build immediately north on Madison street, and during the summer others have followed, until now both Madison and Monroe streets, from Franklin to Market, are solidly built up with palatial wholesale houses, whose occupants are transacting a business that approaches a hundred millions of dollars in a year. There is no other place within the burnt district where so great a change has been effected as here, and all from following the lead of Mr. Farwell.

The cut which accompanies this represents the original building, together with the additions which have been made since. The entire building, when completed, will have a frontage of 320 feet on Monroe street by 190 feet on Franklin, and will be entirely devoted to the jobbing and retail business of Messrs. Farwell & Co. The figures show that this is one of the very largest wholesale houses in the world. One who would see the interior of this establishment may step upon one of the four steam elevators, and pass around each loft which is appropriated to a special department of business. Going once around each room, he will have walked about a mile and a half, and if he attempt to thread the various aisles, he may go ten miles and not repeat his steps. The employees number from 1000 to 1200, and the sales reach from $12,000,000 to $14,000,000 per annum. The members of the firm are all gentlemen of high standing as citizens, and some of them fill offices of trust in the State and positions of honor in the Church. Chicago is certainly very proud of them, and has good reason to be.

The Grand Pacific Hotel is the largest hotel structure in the world. It was built after plans by W. W. Boyington, architect, by a company chartered by special act of the Legislature in 1869. Its stockholders include the two great railroad companies, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, whose magnificent new passenger house stands at the foot of LaSalle street, one block distant from the Pacific. Several of our largest and most widely known capitalists have joined in the enterprise. At the time of the fire the hotel was within a few months of completion, and was almost totally destroyed. It has been solidly and beautifully rebuilt, and better than be fore in many particulars; and the work of finishing is now going on rapidly. The total cost and value of the building is $1,000,000; the lessees will expend $400,000 in furnishing the hotel. The value of the ground occupied is nearly $800,000; so that the Pacific enterprise represents an invest ment of nearly two and a quarter million dollars. The building occupies an entire block, bounded by Clark, Jackson, LaSalle and Quincy streets, an acre and a half in area. The mate rials of three fronts is fine olive-tinted Ohio sandstone, crowned with Mansards and towers, constructed with iron and slate. The general style of the building is French. It is much admired for its effective simplicity, with a sufficiency of ornamentation to relieve the vast facades, particularly that on the south, which has an extent of 325 feet. The first prominent feature that strikes the observer on entering this splendid structure are the two great central courts, both devoted to the public uses of the house. These are crowned by beautiful domes, and will lack no feature of decoration requisite for effectiveness. Upon these courts open the eight entrances to the hotel, and from these rise the flights of stairs to the floor above. This lower floor has eight elegant stores, to be leased for retail purposes, on Clark street, and twenty-two offices on LaSalle street. The main office is in the east court, with all the best appliances and ele gant fittings worthy of the house. The second floor is reached by the grand staircase—a superb construction, in white marble, in the centre of the house. On this floor are the grand and private parlors, the grand dining-hall, ladies’ ordinary, club diningroom and breakfast-room, the conser vatory, and a fire-proof working de partment, itself as large in area as many entire hotels. To the whole arrangement of the Grand Pacific, and to its access and connection with the other parts of the house, several months’ study were given by H. M. Smith, the founder of the scheme, and secretary of the company, among the leading hotel men of the country, and the best American hotels; and it is pronounced unsurpassed in every desirable feature. The lessees of the Grand Pacific for twenty years are Messrs. George W. Gage, David A. Gage, and John A. Rice, long of the Sherman House, whose reputation is world-wide, and who will furnish the great hotel in sumptuous style. They promise from present appearances to enter upon their new career as hosts early in the spring of 1873.

In the new order of magnificent business architecture which has been so uniformly adhered to in the rebuilding of our city, one of the most prominent and noticeable, both from its admirable location, and its rich, tasteful appearance, is the elegant brown stone structure on the northeast corner of State and Madison streets, an illustration of which is given herewith. As usual, however, in colorless pictures, it fails to convey an adequate idea of the peculiar beauties of the edifice. It is in the Gothic style, the material being the celebrated Oswego brown sandstone, the facade relieved with exquisite ornamentation carved out of the solid stone, the ripe, warm color of which so peculiarly serves to bring out the artistic touches to the finest advantage, and at the same time affords a grateful contrast to the somewhat monotonous hues of the gray and drab stones which have been so largely employed in buildings in its vicinity. The broad high windows contain the heaviest and costliest of plate glass, in panes so large that it was necessary to order their special manufacture in Germany. The building is five stories high besides the basement, with a total street frontage of over two hundred feet—fifty-five feet on State street, and one hundred and sixty on Madison—and running back to a wide alley. This gives windows on three sides, and renders the interior, with its high ceilings and elegant fixtures of walnut and oak, remarkably light and attractive, besides the more important consideration of the advantageous display of goods. A huge clock surmounts the State street facade, its illuminated dial denoting the time at all hours of the day or night. Taking into account the location, the material and size, the admirable harmony in style and proportion, the artistic ornamentation so judiciously employed, and the massive construction, this is generally regarded as the finest store yet built in Chicago.

The history of the occupants of this palace of trade—the well-known whole sale dry-goods firm of Richards, Shaw & Winslow—furnishes a notable illustration of the proverbial pluck and energy of Chicago business men. The individual members of the firm were all severe sufferers by the great fire of October 9th. The respective firms of Fitch, Williams & Co., of which Mr. William H. Kitch was then a member; of Richards, Crumbaugh & Shaw, of which Jonathan Richards and Theodore A. Shaw were members; and of Bowen, Hunt & Winslow, of which Mr. A. H. Winslow was a member—sustained a loss collectively in the destruction of merchandise to the amount of one and one-half millions of dollars, not over one hundred dollars’ worth being saved out of their united stocks. With energy unconquered and undismayed by the appalling calamity, they organized the present firm out of the materials which the fire could not destroy—their experience, capacity, credit, and reputation—and in a short time they had arranged for a fresh start, having hastily constructed a temporary brick building on Michigan avenue. Keeping a sharp look-out for some suitably located building of sufficient size to answer the requirements of their immense business, they secured, early in the spring of the present year, the building just completed and occupied, and the construction of which was pushed forward at as rapid a rate as was possible with a structure of this character.

It would be impossible for the visitor to make a tour through this grand establishment, noting the perfection of the building, and its internal arrangements and conveniences—its six floors crowded to repletion with almost every description of dry goods manufactured in this country or in Europe without experiencing a feeling of in credibility that its proprietors are the same gentlemen who were overtaken by the disaster of October last. Yet such is the fact. It is only one among the legion of business miracles wrought by our princes of trade. With her destinies in the hands of such men, no one need wonder that Chicago should become the novel and the model city of the world.

The several daily newspaper establishments are to be well provided for in rebuilt Chicago. Most of them will have permanent homes compared to which their old ones were, in the language of the great critic Fadladen, “as the flimsy filagree-work of Zamara beside the eternal architecture of Egypt.” The Tribune building, corner of Dearborn and Madison streets, to be re-occupied on the anniversary of the fire, is built one story higher than the one destroyed, in the same general style of architecture, but of different material—red sandstone being used for the new building. The Times is putting up a handsome and well-planned building for its own use, on the corner of Washington street and Fifth avenue—a much finer office than it had before the fire, and an effective contrast to the barracks in which it has been quartered since. The Inter-Ocean occupies its own building on Congress street, where it has been since January—having been the first of the dailies to get into permanent quarters. The Staats-Zeitung has a fine building nearly completed, on the corner of Washington street and Fifth avenue.

The new Journal Building, Nos. 159 and 161 Dearborn street, on the east side of the thoroughfare, between Madison and Monroe streets, is to be, when complete, one of the most substantial and elegant structures in the city. It is to be built of brick, five stories and basement, with a handsome Buena Vista cut-stone front The general architectural style is Franco-Italian, with some slight modifications tending to heighten the general effect. Extending to a height of three stories, the front will present a projecting portico in three divisions, formed of mas sive iron columns for the first story, two on each side of the main entrance, moulded with Corinthian capitals, highly ornamented and projecting a proper distance from heavy pilasters, forming the guards to the entrance. These columns will be capped with heavy carved stone, forming the base from which spring the columns of the second story. These columns, which will be fluted Doric, are of stone, with tastefully shaped capitals, on the top of which will rest a stone balcony, projecting about six feet from the build ing, supported also by carved consols constructed in ornamental work. Then comes the third tier of columns, Corinthian again, on the top of which is a pediment resting on modillion blocks of stone, and tastefully constructed, altogether adding greatly to the beauty of the building. The first story will be wholly of iron and plate glass, there being three French plate windows, six feet by thirteen in size. The extreme top of the front will be finished with a galvanized iron ornamental cornice, bearing in the centre of a shieldshaped ground the name Evening Journal above the date 1844, and below this, in the stone, the date 1872, in raised figures. The interior of the building will be fitted up in the most approved style for the accommodation of a great daily newspaper.

One of the notable institutions of Chicago is the Fidelity Safe Depository, the object of which is to furnish to the public a place where money and other valuables in small compass may be deposited, with as nearly an absolute certainty of their safe-keeping as it is possible to attain. Of course the value of such an institution depends upon the known safety of its vaults; and the “crucial test” of those of the Fidelity Safe Depository was applied literally last October. At the time of the fire, property representing millions of dollars was here deposited; and of course the anxiety of depositors was great. Whilst the flames were still raging in other portions of the city, and the fallen walls about the Depository were still hot and smoking, its vaults were opened and found to be perfectly unharmed, the interior temperature not in the least affected by the intense heat without. A sign was improvised by the President, Thomas B. Bryan, and posted conspicuously upon the ruins, thus:

Vaults and contents all safe. Renters and depositors are requested to call and receive their moneys and other treasures in perfect preservation.

Business was immediately resumed on tables made of burnt bricks; and millions of property were thus handed over, to the inex pressible joy and relief of the owners. The Fidelity enjoys the merited reputation of having been the first institution to resume business in the burnt district; and it has conducted and continued its business in the same office without interruption, the new walls being constructed around and over the first story and basement, which survived the fire.

The new Fidelity Savings Bank and Safe Depository Building, shown in the cut, is located at Nos. 143, 145, and 147 Randolph street, immediately adjoining the Sherman House on the west, with the style of which structure it nearly corresponds, being built of the Missouri stone. In the former Depository Building, which had been completed but a short time before the fire, there were eight vaults (still preserved), the metal-work of one of which cost $22,000; and one to cost $40,000 is being constructed for the new building. No instance of loss by one of these Depositories has yet been recorded.

A Savings Bank is added to the Depository, of which Hon. John C. Haines, formerly of the State Savings Institution, is President, and Hon. Thomas B. Bryan, the projector and founder of the Fidelity Safe Deposi tory, is Vice-President.

The offices of the Guarantee and Investment Association and ofthe Mutual Trust Society, Thos. B. Bryan, President, are in the same building—the object of said institutions being the investment of capital in our great and growing city.

Of the half dozen buildings that partially or wholly withstood the fury of the great conflagration, the Republic Life Insurance building, here shown, was one. When the fury of the flames had passed by, and the smoke had partly cleared away, the Nixon building, on the northeast corner of Monroe and La Salle streets, and next to it the Republic Life Insurance building, stood like battered fortresses, the former intact, while the latter, though scorched within and without, everything within it being reduced to ashes, had its walls remaining almost entire. Workmen were set about repairing it, and early in the spring it was completely restored. It has the same general appearance as before. It is largely occupied by the United States Government, for the accommodation of its business in this city. The building is owned by the Republic Life Insurance Company, which derives a large revenue from the rentals. The Life Insurance company occupy rooms on the second floor. The remainder of the building is occupied as offices, and from the fact that each story is almost equally accessible by means of a steam elevator, the upper stories are nearly as convenient as the lower ones. Mr. J. V. Farwell is President of the Republic Life, and Hon. W. F. Coolbaugh, Treasurer. The company have a capital of $5,000,000, with $1,000,000 paid up, and is one of the most popular life insurance corporations of its kind in the West.

The Inter-Oceanic Building, the property of Hon. J. Y. Scammon, occupies 105 feet on Wabash avenue, between Harrison and Congress streets. It is five stories high, and contains a central building and two wings. The rear portion of the north wing is to contain, in the basement, the large eight-cylinder press which Messrs. Hoe & Co. are constructing for the Inter-Ocean newspaper. The building is built of Milwaukee brick, with white trimmings for the doors and windows, and presents a very imposing appearance on this wide and beautiful avenue.

Few will forgot in the early days of last winter the pride with which they saw the topmost brick laid upon the walls of a fine five-story building on Randolph street, near La Salle. It was the first structure of its kind in that part of the city, and was the forerun ner of all the stately palaces that have risen on that thoroughfare since. Here was laid the first stone sidewalk after the great fire, and the building itself was completed in 80 days. If the “Phoenix,” about which so much has been said and sung, really has a home in Chicago, this must be one of its haunts, and Heath & Milligan must be its alias. This firm had completed a very fine building on this site in 1870, which was shortly afterward destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt and occupied in ninety days, but only to go down in the sweep of the great conflagration. Though rebuilt with such rapidity, the structure is one of the most substantial in the city. In going through the building, one marvels at its completeness and strength; its large fire-proof vaults in the basement under the sidewalk; the boiler-rooms in the rear; the two beautiful engines on the first floor; the elaborate machinery in the third and fourth stories; and the perfect cleanliness and order prevailing everywhere. They are the accompaniments of a large paint-mill, capable of grinding sixteen tons a day, a putty-mill turning out two tons a day, twenty color-mills, making each 200 pounds a day. In the rear is a building 40×60 feet, the basement having stalls for horses, the first floor used for the wagons of the firm, and the upper story for a paint-shop.

This is one of the establishments ot Chicago peculiarly worth visiting. It has a history worth recording, as, from a small beginning, it has, in eighteen years, become the only establishment in the world combining so much under one roof. The store is 30 feet, 6 inches in front, by 165 feet deep, and five stories in height, with a corrugated iron roof. The customers are invited to a parlor in the second story, from which they enter into another large room filled with samples, neatly ar ranged, of everything in the store, from which they make their selections and order their goods. The business is very large, and reaches the whole Northwest.

The Boone block, on La Salle street, between Madison and Washington streets, has a frontage of 55 feet by 93 feet in depth. It is four stories high above the basement, and cost $65,000. It was commenced immediately after the fire, and was one of the first blocks built from the foundation after that event. The rapid completion of this building was due to the wisdom and foresight of the man agers of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, whose offices occupy a part of the building—the company, with Dr. L. D. Boone, being interested in the property. Dr. Boone, who has been a citizen of Chicago for thirty-six years, has the charge of the financial depart ment of this company. The action of this company in Chicago is worthy of notice. It has invest ed about two and a half millions of its assets in loans upon real estate in this city, thus adding to the prosperity of the city from which it draws a liberal support. Several other companies follow this example, but the fact that this company has always followed this wise and just course, entitles it to its full meed of credit. Mr. L. C. Clark, the general manager of the Policy Department for Illinois and Iowa, has also an office in this building.

This street from Washington to Monroe street is, at present, the financial centre of the city, and is likely to contain for some time a great share of the banking, insurance and law offices of the city. The Chamber of Commerce, situated on an adjacent corner, must tend to draw about it the more import ant financial institutions of the city. The Boone block is, in appearance, about the same as before the fire, but its interior is much improved, having twenty of the finest vaults in the city. It is occupied exclusively for offices, the basement being occupied by the Chicago Savings Institution and Adolph Loch & Bro., brokers; and the first floor by the International Bank, the Cook County National Bank, the Mechanics’ Institute, and Wm. Hansbrough, the superintendent of the building. In the second story we find the offices of the Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, the office of the Canada Southern Rail Road Company, and the Hartford Life Insurance Company. The third story is occu pied entirely by law firms; and the fourth is occupied by the Law Department of the University of Chicago, and every other room is occupied by archi tects and contractors.

Among all the notable men of Chicago who aspire to write their names in enduring stone, high up on the rising palaces of this eventful year 1872,

His block on State street is hardly equalled for the beauty and elegance of its exterior; and he is erecting, on the southwest corner of Wabash avenue and Washington street, the building of which an engraving is shown on this page. It will be ready for occupancy in February next, and will then be surrounded on all sides by first class improvements. Mr. Page occupied the ground as his private residence only a few years ago, and he has shot quails from his back door; yet now he is only in the prime of life.

The building is to be occupied by D. B. Fisk & Co., importers and jobbers of millinery and ladies’ furnishing goods. Mr. Fisk commenced business in Chicago in 1853, and is now among the great merchants of the city. The sales of his house for half a day now amount to more than the entire business of the first year. The great fire destroyed their entire stock last fall; but they immediately ordered new goods, and the sales of the present year have exceeded those of the past. The store is sixty-two feet in width, by one hundred and fifty-one in depth, and five stories high, with a basement eighty-two by one hundred and ninety feet in size. An oval court intersects the building from the basement to the top, through which an observer may see the business of the various depart ments represented upon the several floors. Two steam elevators will pass the customers and visitors from story to story.

Among the men who have the utmost faith in the future of Chicago, is the Hon. J. Y. Scammon; and when men talked, early last winter, of building cheap brick structures, Mr. Scammon was one of the first to lay the foundations of some of the most elegant and substantial structures of the New Chicago. The old Marine Bank building, at the corner of Lake and Clark streets, was the first fine bank building erected in Chicago. It was built of Vermont marble, and was four stories high above the basement. It occupied 72 feet on LaSalle street and 60 feet on Lake. The west portion was occupied by the Marine Company, and the east portion by the Mechanics National Bank. The new building, of which we give a representation, is 20 feet larger on Lake street than the old one, built of the same material, but of an improved design, and will be one of the finest and most substantial bank buildings in the city. The west half will be occupied by the Marine Company, an institution with half a million of capital, which confines its business mainly to foreign exchange, letters of credit and trust, and savings business. The east portion, with forty feet front, and extending nearly the depth of the lot, belongs to, and will be occupied by, the Mechanics National Bank. The interior arrangements of both banks are very convenient, and the abundance of vaults will give room enough to preserve, as the old bank building did, everything there should be occasion to put in them. The Mechanics National Bank has become one of the most prosperous of all the banks in the city. Its surplus funds amount to nearly as much as its capital—capital and surplus being between four and five hundred thousand dollars.

Lake street, before the fire, was the centre of the wholesale trade of Chicago. Along the eastern end of the street, the solid, massive fronts con fmed the reverberating echoes of thousands of heavily-loaded trucks, which conveyed to the railroad depots the goods that were destined to all parts of the Northwest. The stately structures cast their shadows, even in the longest days of summer, across the street, and projected them partly upward on the opposite fronts. But the growing tiade of the city demanded broader and more commodious buildings than these, fine as they were; and the owners of property on Lake street looked with something of alarm at the gradual withdrawal of the whole sale business to other streets. The fire levelled all that was most improved, as well as the old structures; and the Lake street property owners are again on an equality with their neighbors. With the sagacity which is never lack ing to Chicago business men, they have clubbed together and rebuilt much broader stores, with higher rooms, such as are adapted in every particular to the wants of the whole sale trade of the city; and now the business which threatened to leave this thoroughfare altogether within a few years, will be attracted back again, without a doubt, since the street is al ready far on the road to perfect reconstruction.

The building shown in the above cut is situated on the corner of Lake street and Wabash avenue. It is of pressed brick, with heavy sandstone trimmings, and was built expressly for the trade which it now accommodates. It is heated by steam, and has three elevators, which are operated by steam engines. The building is 48 feet wide by 140 in depth, and five stories in height. Being in the corner, the basement occupies not only the site of the building, but the sidewalk space on both streets; and it consequently is 72 feet in width by 150 in depth. The building belongs to J. H. Reed, Esq., and has been leased to Hibbard & Spencer for a term of years. These gentlemen commenced business as hardware, cutlery, and tin merchants, under the title of Tuttle, Hibbard & Co., in 1855, and were sufferers in the great South Water street fire of 1856, which was known as the great fire of Chicago, until the greater one came. After this fire they removed their business to their present corner, and in the next year removed to the corner of State and Lake streets. In 1860 Hibbard & Spencer bought out the other members of the firm, and immediately commenced building the stores which they occupied before the fire, 92 and 94 Michigan avenue. On the Saturday night before the great fire, they had finished an additional story to their building, had it cleaned, and were moving their goods into it. This firm was among the fortunate ones who could pay their indebtedness in full. In about twenty days they had completed a store on the park front at a cost of $10,000, two of their firm were stationed in New York to forward goods and fill orders, and they were at once in the midst of a heavy business. The contract for the present building was made in December, this firm having leased it before it was contracted; and it was finished and occupied in July last. Their business of this year has exceeded that of the preceding, al though their usual sales were very large; and their position among the largest leading houses of the country is everywhere conceded.

The Wright Block is another building which stands upon a well-known locality on Lake street, occupying the ground where Potter Palmer’s and Field & Leiter’s old store stood. It is constructed with a front of Philadelphia pressed brick, with sandstone trimmings, and is five stories in height above the basement. The frontage is fifty feet, and the depth one hundred and fifty feet. It is heated with steam, and every story is made accessible by a good steam elevator. This is another locality which has suffered twice from conflagrations. It may therefore be supposed that, by the doctrine of chances, the present building is destined to stand for some time. The building has been reconstructed upon a radically improved plan, and promises to attract to itself once more the popularity which has for many years attached to this locality.

The Doane Building is another fine Lake street structure, and one of which the people of Chicago may be proud. It occupies the site of the old Burch Block, on the southwest corner of Lake street and Wabash avenue. This ia a site made historic by the great fire of 1868, which destroyed about three million dollars’ worth of property on Lake street. Mr. J. W. Doane secured a long lease of the ground last winter, and in March commenced the construction of the present building. It is built of St. Louis brick, with trimmings of Milwaukee brick and sandstone. Its fronts are 115 feet on Lake street, and 170 feet on Wabash avenue, and it is divided into four stories, fronting on Wabash avenue. It is heated by steam, and each store has an elevator and fire-proof vaults. The building was constructed from the start, so as to accommodate the wholesale grocery business. The location of the largest jobbing grocers in this building and in its immediate neighborhood, will undoubtedly hold the great mass of the trade in this vicinity for many years to come.

Messrs. J. W. Doane & Co. occupy the south end of the block, as their many friends and patrons throughout every portion of the Northwest have already learned. The next store is occupied by Messrs. Bliss, Moore & Co., importers and jobbers of groceries. They were located, before the fire, at the corner of Michigan avenue and South Water street. The firm is made up of parties who hare been as sociated, from time to time, with some of the oldest houses in the city.

Next come the firm of Brown & Bohner (late Eaton & Brown, of 71 Randolph street), jobbers of lamp goods, glassware, etc. They occupy the first and fifth floors.

The corner on Lake street and Michigan avenue is occupied by Messrs. Franklin McVeagh & Co., wholesale grocers, who before the fire did busi ness at 36 and 38 River street.

The floors above Brown & Bohner are occupied by S. B. Parkhurst, whole sale dealer in crockery and glassware. Though a sufferer by fire twice within two years, he is fairly on his feet again, and has increased his volume of trade beyond any previous time.

An institution which everybody who has been in Chicago will recognize, is the First National Bank building. When first erected, this building was an experiment in Chicago, being intended to be fire-proof. It was built entirely of iron and stone, no wood being used in the structure; and was considered as incombustible as a rock. And so it was—almost. As the President well expressed it, nothing but a deluge could have overthrown it; but the deluge came, and the rocks were scarred, and the iron twisted, and a considerable portion of the wall fell. But the building, after all, stood it nobly; and the best evidence of this is the fact that the whole is now completely restored, at an expense of forty per cent. of the original cost of the building. The safes and vaults were unharmed. Not a taint of fire reached the inner vault of the safe depository, where trunks and boxes of valuables were ranged on wooden shelves, and now remain as before; not a security or valuable was lost. On the first day of January, the bank again moved in to the building, and there continued the business which had never been in terrupted after the week of the fire. This bank—of which S. M. Nickerson, Esq., is President, and L. J. Gage, Esq., is Cashier—is one of the favorite institutions of the city and state; its business having always been so conducted as to command the confidence of the people in and out of Chicago. Its capital of $1,000,000 has a surplus of $400,000, and its deposits run from three to four millions. To its two former safes, divided into many compartments, the bank last week added a third, with larger compartments; and is thus able to accommodate a large number of customers with a depository for valuable papers and money. The large inner vault is filled with the more bulky valuables. The depository is entirely separate from the bank vaults, which are different in the main office; and the different safes are rented to persons who, in the presence of a janitor, open and close their own safes—but the whole is controlled by the bank.

The building here represented is an other of those which were among the first to be completed in the early spring. In excavating for the foundations last winter, the workmen were obliged to drill through solid masses of type metal, the remains of the stock which was contained in the building when the fire came. It is a very substantial brick structure, forty-five feet front by eighty feet deep, and is so built that it will not be likely to fall a second time a prey to the destructive element of fire. It is rebuilt by the same parties who occupied it before the fire, and for the same purposes. Indeed, one of the curious things about rebuilt Chicago, is the fact that although so many persons lost their all except the land which they owned, yet in almost all cases they have found means to rebuild and to start in business again. The building is situated on the north side of Monroe street, between La Salle and Clark streets, and is particularly designated as Nos. 139 and 141. It was occupied bv Messrs. Marder, Luse & Co., as a type foundry, the business having been established in Chicago in 1855, as the Chicago Type Foundry. In 1863 it was purchased by Messrs. Scofield, Marder & Co., from which arose the present firm of Marder, Luse & Co. The business had been established so long that the building had become filled with specimens of type of all kinds, from the newest and most popular to the old and abandoned styles of years ago. The fire transformed the immense bulk of material into an am orphous mass of metal, out of which there have been cast some of the most beautiful and certainly some of the latest styles of type to be found in this country. Al ready these gentlemen have established a business which ranks in importance with that of any other house in America. Their extensive and intricate machinery for all the branches of type-casting, electrotyping, etc., is of the most approved and thorough construction; and their facilities for manufacturing and handling all goods in their line, are even better than before the fire.

The disciples of Faust can find m this establishment everything which the most cunning printer could conceive of, from the beautifully turned lines of an agate capital to the intricate and almost automatic printing machinery of a Potter, Hoe, or Bullock press.

This building was erected by Mr. E. S. Pike, at the southwest corner of State and Monroe streets—a choice locality for good blocks. The accompanying illustration gives a good idea of the beauty and elegance of this structure—which is considered one of the finest in the city. It is built of marble, five stories in height, with a frontage of 80 feet on State street, and 120 feet on Monroe street. Steam elevators will be used in this building, rendering every floor alike accessible and desirable for business purposes.

The corner store of this marble palace will be occupied by Messrs. N. Matson & Co., one of the largest wholesale and retail jewelry firms in the Northwest. The store is being fitted up especially for their use, and will be soon completed and occupied. This firm was established here about ten years ago. Before the fire, Messrs. Matson & Co. were located at No. 117 Lake street. Since that event, they have been at 481 Wabash avenue; and when they occupy their new quarters they will have, one of the most beautiful and complete jewelry establishments in the country.

Messrs. A. H. Andrews it Co., manufacturers of and dealers in school and church furniture, office desks and chairs, etc., will occupy four stories of this building. Messrs. Andrews & Co. are among the most extensive manufacturers of their line of goods in the country; and will have in their new quarters ample space and facilities for their large and growing business.

The Ballard block, erected by A. Ballard, Esq., for Edward Ely, is located at the corner of Wabash avenue and Monroe street—immediately adjoining Potter Palmer’s great hotel. It will have a front of 53 feet on Wabash avenue, by 26 feet on Monroe street. The fronts will be en tirely of iron, of very elaborate design and workmanship; and the building will be one of the most ornamental and noticeable structures in the city. It will be five stories in height; the stores and main entrances are on Wabash avenue, and the entrance to the upper stories is on Monroe street. All the windows in the building are to be of the finest plate glass; and the stairs and inside finish entirely of black walnut.

Mr. Edward Ely, the popular merchant tailor of Chicago, will occupy the entire second floor of this building. Mr. Ely is the acknowledged leader of fashion, in his line of business, in the city; and is one of our pioneer business men—having been engaged in business here for the past twenty years. In his new quarters, he will have one of the most complete and elegant establishments in the country.

As stated elsewhere in this number, all the prominent hotels which were destroyed by the fire are rebuilt, or shortly to be rebuilt, in better style than before, and with increased accommodations. But the large growth in the population of the city has rendered necessary still further additions to the number. Among the new hotels of the better class, the most prominent is the Gardner House—a cut of which appears herewith. This building was commenced November first, immediately after the fire, by Mr. F. B. Gardner, and is now completed, and will be opened to the public by the proprietors—Messrs. Gardner & Gould—in a short time. It is six stories high, built of brick, with ornamental stone trimmings, and presents an exceedingly pleasing and striking appearance. The location is unsurpassed by that of any hotel in the city—being on Michigan avenue (corner of Jackson street), immediately fronting and overlooking the blue waters of Lake Michigan. It contains two hundred and fifty rooms, and has been fitted up in the best and most approved manner. The Gardner House will undoubtedly become a great favorite with the traveling public.

A city which owes so much to the mechanic arts, is not likely to forget those who have practised these arts so successfully in the work of rebuilding. During the summer that has just elapsed, no one could pass one of our large iron-working establishments with out feeling that he might be in the vi cinity of a vast arsenal or a place for the manufacture of cannon. For several months, indeed, all the iron found ers of the city have turned their surplus resources into the the work of moulding massive iron columns for the business blocks in process of construction in the South Division; and fortunate it is for the city that these great factories generally were so situated as to be out side the region covered by the great conflagration.

Among the great manufacturing establishments to which the city is m> much indebted for the wonderful progress made in its rebuilding, none is more worthy of especial mention than that of the Crane Brothers Manufacturing Company, the principal of whose new and extensive works are shown in the next cut. That portion of these works in operation at the time of the fire, was, fortunately for them and for the city, not included in the general wreck; and during the long months that have intervened since last October, here, amid dust and smoke, and the clank of machinery, have been fashioned, by patient labor and indomitable energy and discriminating skill, much of the material that has already found a permanent place in the structures of the rebuilt city. Since the fire, extensive additions and improvements have been completed; and now, in completeness and comprehensiveness, these works are not excelled in the United States. The buildings ate very large, and accommodate the workers in brass and iron in almost all branches, from those who construct a steam-pipe to the skilful hands that put together the most powerful steam engine. They consist of three separate blocks, situated apart from each other, in which the work is divided into twelve departments, each presided over by a special superintendent. In one of these, the work consists in the manufacture of steam engines, steam pumps, steam elevators for mines and blast furnaces, and the brass goods needed for these machines, and for steam-and gas-fitters. In another are manufactured steam heating and ventilating apparatus, gasand steam-fittings, etc. And still an other is devoted entirely to the making of wrought iron pipes.

This company are furnishing the majority of the steam passenger and freight elevators, as well as a great proportion of the steam warming apparatus, which are being so extensively used in hotels and stores in our rebuilt city. Their business extends over the whole country, from Montreal to San Francisco, and through the Southwest.

The enterprise was inaugurated in 1855. with the partnership of R. T. Crane & Bro. In 1865 it was incorporated as the Northwestern Manufacturing Company; and on August 1st, 1872, this title was exchanged, by a vote of the stockholders, for that of The Crane Brothers Manufacturing Company, in compliment to the originators. The change of name does not in any sense alter the status of the company. The capital stock is now placed at one million dollars. The officers of the company are R. T. Crane, President; C. S. Crane, Vice-President; S. W. Adams, Secretary; George S. Redfield, Treasurer.

VVabash avenue was one of the first streets to recover its buildings; and one of the very first to loom above the surrounding ruins was that situated on the east side of Wabash avenue, on lots Nos. 335 and 337. There are more costly buildings in this city, but none more substantial ; and it was one of the very first really fine buildings built since the fire, The foundations were laid last fall, and the building was finished early in the spring. Its walls are unusually thick, and its front is of iron. Situated as it is near the southern boundaries of the fire, it is at present, and must so remain for all time, a prominent and central business locality; and besides, it is situated on the broadest business thoroughfare in the city, which promises to be for Chicago very much what Broadway is for New York.

Messrs. Biggs, Spencer & Co., who occupy No. 335 as dealers in Guns and Cutlery, were formerly located on Lake street. The gentlemen who compose this firm are among the fortunate men of Chicago. A few days after the fire many Chicago firms announced their ability to pay one hundred cents on the dollar of all their liabilities, and this firm was one of the number. This announcement lifted a corner of the pall which was settling on the public mind in that day of gloom. Their orders were all promptly filled without interruption, and in three months they were buying so extensively of their special goods that one invoice was kindly divided to accommodate a New York wholesale house, who could ob tain the goods in no other way.

No. 337 is occupied by Abram French & Co., with a large stock of china, glass, and silver-plated ware, and cutlery. This firm makes a specialty of elegant Bohemian and other rare goods. It is a new house in Chicago, being a Boston firm, and the same in name that existed in Boston in 1822. It is now continued in the same name, with some junior members added. After fifty years it adds a house in Chicago as the great distributing centre of the country; and the young and energetic members of the firm in this city declare their expectation of eclipsing the Boston firm.

The building shown in this engraving is a plain, substantial structure, situated on the northwest corner of State and Monroe streets. It is built of Athens limestone or marble, the material which, before the great fire, com posed, almost universally, the fronts of the best buildings. The four corners ot which this is one, will compose one of the most important business centres of the city, having on the diagonally opposite coiner the vast pile which is to constitute Potter Palmer’s great hotel, while on the corner next south is the elegant and palatial block of E. S. Pike, which will be second to no building of its size in the city. The building is owned by Judge L. B. Otis. The whole of the upper floors, having a frontage of 50 feet on State by 120 on Monroe, with one of the stores on the first floor, having fronts on both streets, will be occupied by Messrs. Lyon & Healy, music dealers. These gentlemen commenced business in 1864, on the southwest corner of Clark and Washington streets. On the first of January, 1870, they removed to the southeast corner of Washington street and Wabash avenue, where they became the victims of the fire which destroyed the Drake & Thatcher Block, in September, 1870. By this disaster all their stock was swept out of existence. The next day they reestablished themselves at No. 150 Clark street, where the great conflagration overtook them. Since that event they have occupied the Christian Church, on the southeast corner of Sixteenth street and Wabash avenue. On the anniversary of the fire, these gentlemen resume their business in the block above described. The Burdett organ-factory, in the North Division, which was an establishment under the patronage of this firm, was destroyed, but has since been rebuilt. Messrs. Lyon & Healy represent the Boston house of Oliver Ditson & Co., and supply the Western trade very largely, even as far as the Pacific coast.

Messrs. Smith & Nixon, who occupy rooms in the same building, are the agents of the Steinway piano.

We have presented, in the preceding pages, a few specimens of what Chicago has accomplished in the past year in the way of rebuilding her business property. But no number or quality of illustrations could give any adequate idea of the almost miracles that have been wrought by our business men. It was to be expected after the fire that the greatest energy and activity would show themselves in restoring the burnt business blocks, as the business com munity naturally felt that the first necessity after the fire was for places in which to transact their business: homes and social comforts were secondary considerations. But few there were, even among the most sanguine, who anticipated anything like the universal activity that has been shown in this direction. It is probably safe to say that there is hardly a single lot in the business portion of the burnt district, the owner of which has not al ready erected a building upon it, or is not preparing to do so in the near future. Our own citizens find it impossible to keep themselves acquainted with the new buildings that are con stantly being erected. In going through the principal streets, one is startled at the changes which are being made here a massive warehouse, where but yesterday it seems there was only a mass of broken walls and rubbish; there a stately business palace, where only a few weeks ago workmen were excavating and laying foundation walls. As beautiful and substantial structures as are on the continent, rear them selves it seems almost in anight; and to enumerate and describe them all would be to make a directory instead of a magazine. Enough of illustration and description have been given in this article to give an idea of the extent and character of the work; and it is not difficult to believe that the same tremendous energy and enthusiasm which have so far characterized this, the most important phase of Chicago’s Restoration, will not be long in completing the work of giving to the city more beautiful, substantial, and extensive business edifices than those which were engulfed one year ago in a sea of fire.

Wabash Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church

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Pre-Fire Churches of Chicago

Wabash Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, Post Office
Life Span: 1858-1874
Location: Northwest corner of Wabash avenue and Harrison street
Architect: Boyington and Wheelock

D. B. Cooke & Co.’s City Directory for the Year 1859-60

Wabash Avenue M. E. Church

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Wabash Avenue—Corner Harrison street, C. H. Fowler, State street, corner Hubbard court.

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1874
Wabash Avenue Church—Cor. Fourteenth st. and Wabash ave.

Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1858

Now that the beautiful sanctuary of the Wabash Avenue Episcopal Society has reached completion—a completion at once wonderfully happy in its success, and remarkable in having been carried steadily forward through a season disastrous to many, and placing a heavy drag upon enterprises, public and private, it will interest a large share of our readers if we refer to it in more detail than we have yet done.

It is a noble edifice, among the edifices of its class present and prospective in our city, and of these, that to which we are about to refer will occupy no inferior place, in either respect of style, finish, and perfect adaptation to the purposes for which it was designed. A few words by way of preface will fittingly introduce the subject by giving a brief outline of the history of the Society who have erected it.

Six years since, in 1851, a colony from the Clark Street Methodist Episcopal Church found a location in a new field in what was then our southern suburb. They opened a new place of worship on Harrison street, and became known as the State Street Methodist Episcopal Society. They enrolled at the outset, twenty-one members in their church organization. By a wise forethought they availed themselves of a canal sale, and made a most fortunate purchase of the corner lot eighty feet fronting on State street, for the sum of $1,325, a property now worth $25,000. On the rear of this lot their wooden structure of plain exterior, but comfortable and convenient, was erected fronting on Harrison street, the State street front having been favorably leased for business purposes, thus yielding them annually a handsome income, and securing for them pecuniary prosperity as an organization.

The Church has received successfully the pastoral ministrations of Rev. F. A. Reed. Rev. W. B. Slaughter, and their present pastor, Rev. Dr. Ryan, under all of whom it has enjoyed a steady and permanent growth. When the question came up of the erection of a new place of worship, State street had so changed, and became so prominent a business thoroughfare, that the trustees were glad to effect a most favorable exchange of property, by which they came in possession of a lot on the corner of Harrison and Wabash avenue, of the same size as their former State street property, by an exchange of foot for foot.

Upon this lot they have reared a beautiful and costly church edifice, seventy-seven feet front by one hundred and four in depth, with a block of dwellings in the rear, one of which, adjoining the church is designed for the patronage. The material is the Athens stone, with bush-hammered dressing. The style of architecture is early English gothic, it has no main tower, but two graceful turrets, one on each of the front corners, which, together with the heavy buttresses and large central window and the superior dressed stonework of which the walls are furnished, gives a most substantial and imposing exterior.

Beneath the audience room which is of the full area of the church, is a fine lofty basement enter by arch entrances. This basement gives four well arranged class-rooms, a lecture and conference room eighty-two by sixty-two feet in dimensions. This lecture room is one of the finest in every respect we have ever entered. With an eye to convenience for the purposes of the Sabbath School, a share of the seats have been fitted with revolving backs. Every other appliance to insure the success of this room for its general purpose seems to have been to a high degree secured. Just adjoining the lecture room is a charming little apartment fitted up with seats arranged on an inclined plane for infant scholars, and singing classes, and this room must have received the attention of those well qualified to judge of what the little folks require. The tiny seats are graded from the front to the rear with a regard for childish comfort and health which only in our own age architects have thought creditable and worthy of attention. A side entrance on Harrison street leads to the lecture room, to class rooms, and to the Pastor’s study/ In this latter are speaking tubes connecting it with the living room of the family in their patronage adjoining, a convenience the lady of the house, and in her behalf, all others will appreciate.

The height of the basement story is twelve feet. The main audience room is reached by two commodious and easy flights of stairs springing from either end of the basement vestibule. The size of the main audience room is sixty-two by eighty-four feet in area, and forty-five feet high to the center of the vaulted ceiling. The style and finish of the interior is exceedingly tasteful and appropriate, unlike in its details to that of any other of our cuty churches, and in being a novelty, a happy one which will at once find warm admirers.

The shades and tints of the internal coloring and decoration are harmonious as a whole, and severally appropriate and pleasing.

The general order and arrangement chosen, may be described as the locating of the pulpit at the rear end of the church, opposite the entrance of which portion of the audience room the desk and its appurtenances and ornaments, form a central and solely prominent feature. The organ and choir occupy the gallery over the entrance. This gallery, as well as the side galleries, is commodious, convenient of access, and in arrangement.

The lights are from the sides, the corridors being of richly stained glass, presenting different patterns and colorings. The main central windows, over the organ loft, is exceedingly rich and tasteful, and of the light, as a whole, it may be remarked that it is pleasingly adapted both in strength and tone, to the general characteristics of the interior.

The subject of acoustics has not been overlooked in the proportions and details of this church. As in other churches designed by the same architect, this subject is particular is one of the important points, and never proves a failure. To an architect it is a very requisite to understand the principles of construction so as to prevent a jargon of sound, which too frequently happens in some of our most costly churches. There is no danger of producing an echo in an ordinary church, but a much worse fault arises when a congregation is seated in a church and not permitted to hear the speaker distinctly in but a small portion of the house, but on the contrary a confused, rumbling sound is produced.

The designs for all various parts of this building have been carefully and very judiciously arranged and proportioned by the architect, under whose immediate supervision the whole work has been executed, the trustees and pastor co-operating.

The work of the carpenters deserves especial and honorable mention. The pews are all pannelled and richly moulded, the piers are rich and chaste, the shape and proportion of the pews are easy and graceful. The pews on each side of the leading pews, are set at angles, which face the pulpit. The pulpit and altar are well arranged, and finely proportioned to the house. The side galleries are but two seats wide, and are self-supporting from the walls, The gallery fronts are finished with gothic arch and tracery work, gibing the gallery front a light and airy appearance, and in connection with other details of finish, adding greatly to the appearance of the audience room. This style of galleries avoids the heavy moulded ribs and purlins, the ribs springing from large spandrel brackets, resting on heavy but gracefully carved corbels, securely attached to the walls. At then intersection of the main ribs and the ridge purlin, are richly carved bosses.

At the sides of the church intersecting the ceiling and the perpendicular clear-story, are elaborately wrought and moulded cornices and pannelled tracey work in stucco. The ribs and purlins of the ceiling form pannels about 8×12 feet, which are painted in fresco, giving a grand relief to what otherwise appear rather plain. There is a pannel in the rear of the pulpit, by the art of the fresco-painter very tastefully worked into a recess. The walls of the main room are finished with plastering left with a sand surface, and of the natural color of the sand, blocked off into masonry, while the wood and ornamental work is all painted and grained in imitation of oak.

The corner stone of the building was laid in the month of June, 1857. The entire cost of the building when completed, exclusive of the two dwellings in the rear, which are first class three-story structures, in Milwaukee brick, will be $60,000.

Chicago Illustrated, February 1866

On the north-west corner of Wabash avenue and Harrison street stands this stately and imposing edifice. It was completed in 1857. The style is Gothic, with old English detail. The fronts are of brisk-hammered stone, with fine cut stone trimmings and cornices. Two turrets, with projecting buttresses at the sides and angles, complete the exterior finish. The dimensions of the building are as follows: depth on Harrison street one hundred feet, breadth on Wabash avenue sixty five feet, height of walls, forty-two feet, height to the apex of the roof seventy-five feet, height of the corner turrets one hundred feet. The interior of the church is handsomely finished. The basement is divided into a lecture and Sabbath-school room, forty by sixty-two feet, several class rooms, and the pastor’s library room. The heating apparatus is also in the basement. These several rooms are neatly and comfortably furnished.

The main audience room occupies the full size of the interior of the building—sixty-two by ninety feet in the clear, including the vestibule. The church is furnished with self-supporting galleries on the sides, and with a spacious choir and organ gallery over the vestibule; the view in the church is therefore unobstructed by columns. The height of the ceiling is forty-five feet. This audience room, including the galleries, will seat nine hundred persons. The interior finish is quite ornate, with open timber-work in the roof, forming a ceiling divided into sections and panels, which spring from corbels on the walls, terminating with richly carved pendants at the vaulted portion of the ceiling. Various fine specimens of Gothic carving adorn the spandrels and panels. The timbered work of the roof, and the pulpit and pews, are grained in imitation oak, and the walls are stuccoed. These carvings were designed by the architect. The windows are of stained glass, and the choir gallery is finished in Gothic style. The organ, which is a very fine one, was built by Mr, William A. Johnson, of Westfield, Massachusetts, and was put into the church at a cost of three thousand five hundred dollars.

The church has had its financial troubles. It was completed just before the panic of 1957, and the debt oppressively felt for a long time. The church in April, 1857, numbered fifty-seven members; several of these have passed away, but the smaller number has largely increased. The first Board of Trustees were Messrs. George C. Cook, E. G. Reynolds, Daniel Goss, W. B. Philips, H. W. Clark, W. M. Doughty, Lott Frost, and C. H. Abbott. The Building Committee were Messrs. George C. Cook and Danial Goss. The design of the building was furnished by Boyington and Wheelock, but it was erected under the superintendency of W. W. Boyington, architect of Chicago. The whole cost of the building was sixty-five thousand dollars. The present Board of Trustees consists of Messrs, George C. Cook, Orrington Lunt, Daniel Goss, W. B. Philips, C. B. Heartt, L. Richards. Ralph Connable, S. P. Lunt, and W. H. Rand.

The first pastor was the Rev. William M. D. Ryan, who had previously been pastor of a congregation in the city. Through his exertions a subscription was made of about half the cost of the building. Before the building was ready for occupancy the financial disaster had fallen upon the country, and a large portion of this subscription was never realized. The debt due upon the church, when completed, was about forty thousand dollars. Dr. Ryan was succeeded in the pastorate by the Rev. Mr. Krebs, of Baltimore, who remained one year, and left in 1860. In that year the Rev. Henry Cox was appointed pastor, and remained two years. During his time the debt, which had increased, was somewhat reduced. In 1862 the Rev. Robert Collier was appointed to this church. In the mean time the membership had steadily increased, and under the management and liberality of such men as John V. Farwell, George C. Cook, Orrington Lunt, John F. Carter, and others, the whole debt was discharged. Mr. Collier was succeeded, in 1865, by the Rev. R. M. Hatfield, the present eloquent and much loved pastor. The congregation have been fortunate in the choice of the several gentlemen who have been pastors from the first organization to the present day. They have all been active, earnest, and able men, and have contributed to increase and foster that unity which has marked the affairs of the church, both spiritual and temporal, during all that time.

James W. Sheehan, Esq.,
February 1866

Chicago Tribune, October 14, 1871

CHICAGO RISING AGAIN.
It is stated that our Senators announce their intention to insist on a three million dollar building on the old site of the Custom House and Post Office. In the meantime a force of one hundred men is at work on the Wabash Avenue Methodist Church, fitting it up for use as a Post Office; the other government buildings will be located there or in the neighborhood.

Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1871

The use of churches for postal purposes is not new in the history of our government. The most notable instance of this character is in New York, where the old Dutch Church, on Nassau street, has served as a Post Office for nearly twenty-five years. The epistolary business of the great metropolis is somewhat confined within this diminutive shell, but it will manage to creep on until the new building in the City Hall Park is completed. The postal business of Chicago is second only to that of New York. Even in the on Dearborn street it was considerably hampered by limited quarters. In Burlington Hall, whither the Post Office was moved after the fire, to the disagreeable apace and inconvenient appointments was added the disadvantage of remoteness from the centres of trade and population. Another removal, and a change which will be decidedly for the better, is not far in the future.

Our readers have already been informed that the new Post Office is to be the Methodist church at the corner of Harrison street and Wabash avenue. As this sacred edifice will now have all the prominence of buildings devoted to such uses, and as that prominence is likely to continue for the next four years, a few words in regard to it will possess, perhaps, an ephemeral interest. Our city is yet too young to have historical buildings. The ecclesiastical Post Office in New York dates back to Colonial times. Our new Post Office has had only a brief existence of fifteen years. But as Chicago, like Byron, is old in deeds, not years, that period of time is not to be regarded as utterly contemptible. There are few things seemingly more incongruous than the putting of sacred things to base uses; the invasion of the chancel by secular business; the apparent profanation of the altar by offerings to Mammon; the perfuming of holy air with cigar smoke instead of the wonted frankincense. Itv seems strange that from the sanctuary whence emanated only messages of grace, there should issue coarse epistles in regard tom pork, grain, and vegetables, and all the vulgar wants in common life. The babble of clerks re-echoes noisily among grained arches, through which lately trembled the voice of a prayer, or swelled the songs of praise. The odor of sanctity is gone. The hush of peace that prevailed through the long silent week days is rudely broken. The crowds that stream under the Gothic archway are widely in contrast with the well-ordered lines of well-dressed people who passed through the same portal in days that will not return. The maiden who in quiet Sabbaths in the past entered meekly to worship, now comes as a love-lorn damsel inquiring for love-letters. The pious elder who presided at class meeting with lengthened visage and unctuous manner, comes to the scene of his former religious musings with other looks upon his face, and other thoughts in his heart. The contrasts between the secular now and the religious then are strongly defined, and too numerous for the limits of an article like the present. The suggestions of the subject are almost as infinite as the letters that radiate from this great epistolary centre.

The church edifice is not a showy one, having been built before the era of ecclesiastical magnificence in Chicago had fairly commenced. It is of the drap Ohio sandstone, ornamented on the exterior with a few unpretending turrets. The style is Gothic, with such wilful admixtures as are common in modern architecture. The interior is a little more ornate. There is some elegant carving, the paint is fresh, and the frescoing of the walls and panels of this ribbed roof still of bright, cheerful colors. The handsome stained windows will be removed, and white glass out in their places. The top of the large window in front, which is of chaste and beautiful design, will remain as most suggestive of the former history of the building. The entrance doors will not be altered, except that a storm door will be placed just within.

The main entrance is nearly on a level with the Sunday School room. Passing in from the street, the visitor will see directly in front of him the retail stamp department placed directly in the passage leading to the Sunday School room. At the right, in one of the small class-rooms, will be located the registry department. The cashiers and accountants will be placed in the class-room at the left, leaving tolerably commodious quarters. Back of these, the lecture or Sunday School room, will be the distributing department, which will have nearly all its former facilities. There will be five distributing cases here, of the usual semi-circular patterns, four for newspapers, and the other for letters. About the walls are the pigeon-holes for tags, arranged neatly and in order. The room is frescoed. but the work is not recent, and the low windows are set with stained glass with dull colors, and an inexpensive kind. This department will be quite as light and cheerful as the rooms devoted to this portion of the postal service usually are.

The department in the rear, at the right, formerly the largest class room of the church, will be used for the opening of the mails. It is not conveniently located for the purpose, the pouches having to be taken from the wagons on Harrison street and carried the entire width of the building before they can be opened. This arrangement, nevertheless, will have to answer for the present. At the rear of the distributing department, on the left, was the pastor’s study. This will be used for the cancellation of stamps on newspapers.

The vestibule of the auditorium is reached from the entrance by two flights of stairs. The partition will be removed, throwing the vestibule and auditorium together, thus materially increasing the space. Just within this partition, as it now stands, is a semi-circular counter, where the private boxes and drawers will be limited in number to four hundred, it being the design of the Post Office Department to discourage this mode of delivery as much as possible, the the carrier system being now deemed so perfect. A little to the left of the centre will be the wholesale stamp department. At the extreme left will be the room of the Assistant Postmaster, that of the Postmaster being directky behind it. The general delivery will be conveniently located. The top of the counter will be of black walnut, highly polished. The gallery, which will be appropriated to the uses of the carriers, of whom there are one hundred and ten—the old number. The front of the gallery will be topped with black walnut, upon which will be placed their cases, extending the entire length. Another row of cases will extend the entire length. Another row of cases will extend around the gallery, next to the wall, used for the same purposes. The general receptacle for carriers’ matter will be above the main entrance. The galleries will be reached as formerly, and also by additional stair-cases rising from the place once occupied by the pulpit. With the new windows of white glass, the principal department will be light and airy and cheerful.

To increase the space, which will be at the best be somewhat limited, a new building of two stories and a basement is to be erected in the rear, extending back to the alley. The basement will be used for coal, water closets, etc. The first story will be a receiving room, and the second will be given up to the Special Agent and his assistants, and to the railroad clerks. Upon completion of this addition, postal matters will be discharged from the alley in the rear. From the first to the second story it will be raised by means of an elevator, where it will be taken and distributed to the carriers and to the prvate boxes.

The building will not be open ton the public for two weeks. A further change is not likely to occur before the year 1876, as the new government buildings cannot possibly be completed until that year.

1874 Chicago fire

Chicago Tribune, July 15, 1874

The above cut gives the boundaries of Tuesday evening’s fire, and also of the fire of October, 1871, so far as the West and South Sides are concerned. The heavy dots give the outline of the first fire; the dots and dashes, of the second. The engraving will enable the outside world how small the disaster was as compared to the great conflagration of 1871. The numbers designate the following places: 3. Union Deport. 4. Sherman House. 5. Court House Square. 6. Chamber of Commerce. 7. Fort Wayne Depot. 8. Clifton House. 9. Palmer House. 10. Grand Pacific. 11. New Custom-House. 13. Matteson House. 14, St. James Hotel. 15. Rock Island Depot. 16. Wood’s Hotel. 17. Continental Hotel. 18. Adelphi. 19. Post-Office Building. 20. Jones School. 21. Michigan-Avenue Hotel.

Chicago Tribune, August 11, 1874

THE NEW POST-OFFICE.
That the recent South Side fire was in some respects a blessing to the city has been clearly shown since its occurrence. One of the great advantages arising from it will be the removal of the Post-Office from the tumble-down ecclesiastical edifice on Wabash avenue, which it occupied after the great fire of 1871, to its future site in the Honore Hotel building, where it will remain until the completion of the new Government building. This building, commonly known heretofore as Honore’s white elephant, has been standing on Dearborn street, corner of Adams, a very handsome, but and altogether unproductive, mass of stone and mortar, and its utilization by Uncle Sam will be for some years yet a source of perennial joy and profit to the man with the monotonous initials and the acutely-accentuated letter at the end of his name. Yesterday afternoon a Tribune reporter called at the building in question, in order to find out what progress had been made in the fiting-up of the hotel as the new Post-Office. He found the lower floors of the northern three-quarters in the hands of

A small army of carpenters, joiners, plasterers, bricklayers, and calciminers, all working away in a very energetic manner. After viewing their operations for a few minutes the reporter hunted up Mr. C. S. Squires, the Assistant Postmaster, whom he found superintending matters in the upper part of the building. This gentleman was evidently well pleased at the idea of their new premises being examined and written up in The Tribune, and at once set to work explaining to the reporter the way in which the building bad been altered and portioned off. The alterations did not amount to much, the most extensive being the building of brick division-wall between that portion of the hotel to be occupied by the Post-Office and that still left vacant, and the making of a few necessary lath-and-plaster partitions here and there.

It was found that the rooms to be occupied by the Post-Office were situated on the basement and first and second floors on the north side of the main building, and the basement and first, second, and third floors on the north side of the addition across the open court. The first room entered was that to be occupied by the Assistant Postmaster, Mr. C. S. Squires, and his Secretary, W. E. Patton, which is the .first room north of the main stair-landing on the second floor the main building. This roo measures= about 38×18 feet. Next to this room and further north is the room intended for the Postmaster, Gen. McArthur, which measures about 38×12 feet. The room north of this will be occupied by Cashier John McArthur, Jr., and Accountant James E. Brady, and is of the same dimensions as that of the Assistant Postmaster. The room to the north of this is a large one, and is intended for occupation by James E. White, Superintendent of the railway mail service. This room measures 38×31 feet; a corner of it is portioned off for the accommodation of postal clerks we a checking room.

Across the hall to the west the most northerly room will be occupied by Local Agent. J. M. Hubbard and assistants. A small room to the south of this is intended to be need as a stationery and supply store for the accountant. Another small room is intended for occupation by Special Agents U. R. Hawley and J. S. Elwell.

The large dining-room on the second floor of the addition to the hotel west of the open court is to be occupied by J. M. Hubbard, Superintendent of the city distribution and carriers’ department. The public entrance to this will be through the main entrance, on Dearborn street, while the entrance for carriers and clerks will be from the alley.

The most northerly store on the first flat of the building is being fitted up for use of P. M. Clowery, Superintendent, and the staff of the general and box-delivery department, and the wholesale and retail stamp department under Fred Groth, Superintendent, the former occupying the north and the latter the south side of the room, which is a large one, measuring 65×35 feet.

The next store south, which is of equal size, is being prepared for occupancy by Capt. W. Gregg, Superintendent, and the staff of the money-order department. The third store south, which is next to the the main entrance, is to be occupied by W. D. Rawlins, Superintendent, and the staff of the letter-registering department.

The Mailing Department, under tbe superintendence of Capt. M. J. Mc.Grath, will be in a room on the first floor, at the end of the main entrance. Here will be received all letter mails, and the receptacle will consist of four holes, which will be intended respectively for foreign parts, the city, and Eastern and Western States, and marked accordingly.

The mailing of all prepaid transient printed matter, articles and samples of merchandise, etc., will be done through a shoot into the basement on the right of the main cutrance to the building. Newspapers for city distribution will be received by the watchman at the door of the entrance on the alley to the north of the building, and messengers calling for newspaper exchanges will be supplied at the same door.

The basement of the main building will be used as the room for newspaper distribution, the other basement, underneath the mailing-room, will be used for the stalling and dispatching of paper mails. In the open court there will be a large elevator, capable of hoisting 4,000 pounds, which will be employed in hoisting the papers up to the mail wagons in the alley. For the reception of railroad paper mails two shoots have been placed in the main building in the north alley, while city matter of a like character will be received in an iron shoot at the corner of the north alley and the open court.

The room just back of the mail deposit room is to be occupied by the Superintendent of Mails, the entrance to it being on the south side from the main entrance to the building. The large dining-room to the west of this is to be occupied for letter distribution, and also for the receiving and distributing of the letter mail, two doors in this room opening up on the northern alley, that to the east being used for receiving; and that to the west for dispatching mails. This is a large room, measuring 86×33 feet.

The only room left undescribed is that on the third floor of the building, across the alley. This room will be divided into and fitted up as sleeping-apartments for the railway postal-clerks and route-agents.

There is apparently no attempt at ornamentation in the building, the work that is put in being substantial and strong, rather than ornate, even in the rooms which are intended for the public use. The necessity to hurry up work so as to remove the Post-Office from its present cramped quarters at the corner of Washington and Halsted streets is being fully appreciated, and anybody going through the new building at present has to pick up hus steps, if he does not, want to get plastered into one of the walls or get his No. 13 boots nailed to the floor by one of the carpentering brigade. It is probable that the building will be ready for occupation in a week or ten days more at most.

Plymouth Congregational Church

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Pre-Fire Churches of Chicago

Plymouth Congregational Church, St. Mary’s R.C. Church, Old St. Mary’s Church
Life Span: 1867-1970
Location: South-East corner of Eldridge Court (9th Street) and Wabash Avenue
Architect: Gurdon P. Randall

Bailey’s Chicago City Directory for 1867

Providence

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Plymouth Congregational Church, Wabash av. se. cor. Eldridge ct.

Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1865

Yesterday wan the occasion of a ceremony most interesting to the society of Plymouth Congregational Church and thelr friende among the religious community. A very good and satisfactory mile-stone of church progress 18 a corner stone of its new and adequate place of worship. In this instance the last term Is applicable to the enterprise «tone material portion 1s just initiated. The new church structure, whose corner stone was laid with highly interesting and appropriate exercises yesterday afternoon, will be adequate to the demands of Plymouth, and to the present age of church building in this city. The site bas been well chosen on our street of churches, Wabash avenue, on the corner of Eldridge Court, far enough south to be surrounded by and the best resident portion of our city, without danger of being disturbed by the vicinity of tall business blocks for at least twenty years. It will not do to predicate more than that upon the growth of our business center southward. Some of the churches that had thought themselves far enough from trade are being strongly elbowed by wholesale groceries and liquors, and the tendency will grow yearly. This fact has indeed modified a former view of the Plymouth Church committee, who have sold their first selected site on Jackson street for the certainly more eligible one for church purposes, whereon their building enterprise is now auspiciously begun.

Plymouth Church was an offshoot from the First Presbyterian Church, then worshipping on the corner of South Clark and Washington streets, in 1851. The cause of the division was radicalism, the new church taking a decided anti-slavery stand, and combining, under the Congregational charter, to stand in perpetual protest against Human Oppression, It is but just to add that for years past, such has been the change in the position of our religious community, that it would be hard to decide which has been foremost, the parent church or its offspring, in the work of aiding Liberty. Plymouth Church for several years occupied a house of worship on Madison street, fronting north on Dearborn, before the latter street was extended by the location of the Post Office. On this Chur change being decreed, it joined with its church building the march of churches southward, and committed the mistake of turning into Edina place. The experience of all churches shows that it will not do for religious enterprises entirely to forego skill in selecting sites—a mistake never made by the children of evil, who well know that their lures must derive success from happy location. On Edina place, now Third avenue, Plymouth Church has waited to see other church enterprises far outstrip it in prosperity. The mistake is well remedied now in the new structure soon to be their home.

It will be handsome among handsome city churches, commodious beyond any church in the city, giving the largest area in the audience room without gallery or column to break the space. Its style will be of Norman class. Its material is the rock-faced Athens marble. It will give the entire upper floor to the main audience room, with a lofty basement devoted to the adjunct rooms which city churches find indispensable. The plan of the whole building does great credit to the architect Mr. G. P. Randall, well known as an architect of churches. The cost of the structure will be $80,000. It is the design to furnish and occupy the lower portion for purposes of worship the comin winter.

The lot on which the building is being erected is 84 by 120 feet, and the extreme projections of the transepts, buttresses and towers reach nearly or quite to the line of the lot each way. This building will have a basement which will occupy the lower story, it being entirely above ground and 13 feet in the clear. In it there will be a pastor’s study, 17 by 22; a parlor adjacent to it, 24 by 39 feet; a general lecture room, 40 by 60; and infant class room, 26 by 26 feet; a Bible class room, 19 by 20 feet; besides a coal room, janitor’s room, water closets, cloak and book rooms, & c. In addition to these rooms there will be the corridors, and in front the main vestibule and stairways to the story above. From the pastor’s study there will be a private stairway leading to the pulpit above.

The principal story of this floor is in one large room, or auditorium, broken on its sides only by the transepts; and in rear by a recess back of the pulpit.

It will be lighted from the side windows mainly, and will have what might be called a flat ceiling, though not strictly so, portions of it being covered, and moderately ornamented by ribs springing from corbels on the walls, and carrying pendents in the ceiling. The ceiling and walls will be frescoed.

This room will seat, exclusive of orchestra, 991, or, in round numbers, it has 1,000 sittings, and in this respect may take rank with the largest Protestant churches in the city.

The building will be of stone on the sides next the streets, and brick in the rear. It was originally designed with a large tower on the corner, but this was omitted on account of its expense. There will, however, be two small towers in the front, between which will be a large bold main entrance doorway, and several windows, and outside of which will be two smaller doors for ingress and egress auxiliary to the main door, and also as entrances to the basement. The foundations have already been laid “broad and deep,” the lower bed being of concrete from there to ten feet wide and two deep, thoroughly cemented into one solid mass, which in a few months will be almost as hard as the stone itself.

The exercises yesterday were simple and impressive. The pastor officiated introducing the several clergymen Rev. Dr. Humphrey, Rev. Prof. Fisk, Rev. Mr. Roy, former pastor of the church, and Dr. Patton. The box containing the usual memorial collection was duly deposited beneath the massive stone. Plymouth Church has as excellent and efficient pastor in Re, H. D. Kitchell, D.D., whose loss to a prominent congregation in Detroit was a good and notable acquisition to the pulpit talent of this city. Under his charge, with those who are associates in the work, the future of Plymouth Church is little doubtful. It will take the place among th prominent representatives of congregationalism in the West.

Chicago Tribune, December 29 1865

Plymouth Congregational Church.—This Church is now in course of erection on the southeast corner of Wabash avenue and Eldridge court, and will probably be fully completed this year. It has a front of 72 feet, by 113 in length, and when completed will cost over $70,000. It has a deep and commodious basement, with principal story above. The front is of stone on both streets, with transepts on each side, both in the front and rear. The sides next the streets are built of stone and the rear of brick. On the front are two small towers, rising to an elevation of 112 feet above the pavement, and terminating with spirelets, which are to be bullt of stone to their full height. Between these towers there is a large massive doorway, projecting considerably in advance of the main wall, the crown of which is to be surmounted with a large stone finial. Outside of the towers, also in front, there are two doors, both of which, as well as the one in the centre, open into the main vestibule, and communicate with the basement and stairs to the main story.

The bold projection of the central doorway, the massive buttresses, and transepts on the sides, are all surmounted with gables, the apices of which together with those in front are to terminate with elegantly wrought stove finials. Internally. the basement will contain a lecture room about 40 by 60, with Sunday School rooms adjacent; and on Eldridge Court, a pastor’s study, of ample dimensions, and connecting by folding doors, with a parlor 24 by 40, with closets, cloak rooms, and all the modern conveniences. On the principal floor is the main auditorium, a room 68 by 88, with transepts on each side, and organ gallery in front. The ceiling is to spring from the walls by fan grains, and is to have longitudinal and transverse ribs, with pendants at the joinings; and the whole will be elegantly frescoed. The church will comfortably seat one thousand people. G. P. Randall is the architect.

Chicago Illustrated, August, 1866

THIS STATELY EDIFICE was not quite completed in its interior when this view was taken. It is located at the South-East corner of Eldridge Court and Wabash Avenue. The side and front upon the streets are stone “rock” finish. The other walls are of brick. The style of architecture is the Norman and Romanesque blended. The building is 84 feet wide, with transepts, and 120 feet deep. The basement is 13 feet high, and will be arranged and divided into class and lecture rooms, and other offices. The main story is 36 feet high. This auditorium will seat one thousand persons—a large gallery, for the organ and the choir, will face the pulpit. The basement of the church is the only part now finished, and is occupied.

The cost of this edifice, when completed, will be nearly $100,000. G. P. Randall, Esq., of Chicago, is the Architect.

The building is owned by the Plymouth Congregational Church, of Chicago, a society of some years’ official organization, and one prosperous in all the essentials of an active ecclesiastical body. The Rev. Lewis Watson is the pastor, and this church will be dedicated this spring.

James W. Sheahan, Esq.,
August 1866

Chicago Evening Post, October 12, 1867

THE PLYMOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
Description of the New Edifice—The Dedicatory Exercises To-morrow.
The Plymouth Congregational Church, located on the corner of Eldridge court and Wabash avenue, will be dedicated on Sunday morning, the services commencing at half-past ten o’clock. The sermon will be preached by Rev. L. B. Matson, the pastor of the congregation. Rev. Wil1lam A. Bartlett, of Brooklyn, N. Y., will officiate at the evening service.

The following is a description of the building:

The building is 72 by 110 feet on the ground, ex clusive of the projections of transepts, buttresses turrete, etc., and presents a front and side to the streets, it being built on a corner.

The street sides of the building, indeed all that is prominently seen of it, are built of rock face stone, laid in courses, with massive buttresses, turrets, doorways and other finishings, which together give it an appearance of stability—a qualification which it possesses in an eminent degree, showing no signs of defect in its construction.

It has no bell tower, but in front two small towers or turrets rising to a height of about 110 feet, and are built of stone from base to finials.

The roof is covered with slate. The style of architecture is in the round gothic.

Internally, the basement, the floor of which is one foot above the ground, is thirteen feet high, and has a vestibule in front, in length the whole with of the building, and sixteen feet deep. rear of this is a lecture-room, 40 by 60 feet; infant class room, 25½ by 27 feet: Bible class room, 18½ by 27 feet; a janitor’s room or kitchen, 11 by 19 feet; pastor’s study 21½ by 17 feet; a parlor for social gatherings, 24 by 39 feet; cloak rooms, water closets, coal room, etc. The lecture and infant class rooms are entered direct from the front vestibule, and all except the latter from a side vestibule, or entrance from the side street. The pastor’s study and the parlor ??? connected by sliding doors, and the lecture, infant and Bible class rooms by folding glass doors, so that they may be used together, as they have been the past year for the regular services of the church or separately, and for their legitimate purposes, as they will be hereafter.

On the second floor is the main auditorium, which is 68½ by 90 feet, with transepts
on each side 4 feet deep, and an organ gallery in front, 19 by 45 feet This room is about 36 feet high, is abundantly lighted by day through the stained glass windows on three sides, and at night by gas, aided by Frink’s patent reflectors in the ceiling.

The arrangement is such that there is a superabundance of light both night and day.

The building was originally designed to have side galleries from the front back to the transepts, but these have been omitted for the present.

The pulpit is elevated on a platform about three feet above the main floor, and consists of a lecture-like desk of an octagonal form, about two feet
cross, and standing on a pedestal or octagonal shaft, some six or seven inches in diameter with an appropriate base. The pulpit platform is of ample dimensions, and with stairs at each end, and massive newel posts constructed by characteristic rail running
the entire length of the front of the platform, the whole neatly finished with panel work in front. The furniture for the pulpit consists of three elegant chairs, and a communion table in front, designed in accordance with the architecture of the building, and costing some $600, and all from the manufactory of F. Porter Thayer of this city.
The pews are built in a curvilinear form radiating from a point near the pulpit, so that every sitter in the room will face in that direction. The pews are built of black walnut with butternut panels in the backs, and the seats.

The pews and pulpit are mainly finished with black walnut; the latter, with the pulpit furniture, is relieved by trimmings of ebony. The walls are wainscoted to the windows, and grained in imitation of oak and black walnut.

The ceiling of the room is flat, divided longitudinally into three principal divisions, the middle part being some four or five feet higher than the sider, all having their apparent support from massive timber brackets springing from the walls, with beam pendants, etc. The beams cross each other at right angles, and divide the ceiling into compartments, within which in the centre division are set the lights and reflectors that light the room by night. The walls and ceiling are richly and elegantly frescoed, and when illuminated by the wall or bracket lights, as well as those from the celling, produce a very fine effect.

But one of the finest features in the details of this superb building is its spacious vestibules, and easy and elegant stairways, so easy that one passes up them without realizing that an ascent has been made of some twelve or fourteen feet without producing any perceptible feeling of weariness. There is a private stairway in the
rear leading from the pulpit to the pastor’s study in the basement.

The main auditorium will seat 990 odd, or in round numbers, 1,000 persons on the main floor, and is in this respect the largest Protestant church in the city. There are others that will seat a larger number if the galleries be included.

The entire building is heated by four Lawson furnaces, manufactured by Fuller, Warren & Co., of this city, and are put up in an unusually neat and tasteful manner by Fry & Holmes, agents, of this city.

The building was designed by G. P. Randall, architect, of this city, under whose supervision, with the ald of S. B. Gookins, O. S. Hough, Dr. J. H. Hollister, Newton Chapin, Andrew Moody and P. L. Underwood, as the Building Committee, the work has been carried forward to its completion.

Chicago Evening Post, October 14, 1867

Plymouth Church Dedication.—The new building of the Plymouth Church congregation was dedicated yesterday, the edifice being completely filled on the occasion.

Plymouth Congregational Church erected at Wabash avenue and Eldridge court about 1868.

Chicago Evening Post, November 22, 1871

The Holy Name Church will be rebuilt as soon as the insurance matters can be put in a definite shape. Collections are being made for the purposes of recuperation. St. Mary’s will, most likely be renewed, at least upon the same site, but there are rumors that grand cathedral church will be established somewhere on Wabash avenue. A particular statement of the losses of this denomination will be found below:

St. Mary’s Church

Chicago Evening Post, October 9, 1872

Dedication of St. Mary’s.
The dedication of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church (formerly the Plymouth Congregational), corner of Wabash avenue and Eldridge court, were commenced at 10:30 o’clock this morning. The sacred edifice was thronged by an immense Catholic concourse, every seat being filled and the aisles completely blockaded. The decorations of the church were very simple, consisting only of a communion rail, covered with red cloth, temporarily constructed the usual amount of blessed candles, and a “tabernacle” surmounting the ordinary altar. A representation of the Saviour, after being taken from the cross, was suspended above the dais. The Sisters of Charity, in their simple but picturesque costumes, occupied the side seats on the left of the altar.

The Inter Ocean, April 2, 1899

St. Mary’s church. at the corner of Eldridge court and Wabash avenue, is the house of worship of the oldest Catholic congregation and parish in Chicago. No church in the world has a congregation like it. Of the 3,000 people who attend mass there on Sunday not more than 500 live in the parish. Practically the entire membership is transient.

“If we were to start a parochial school we would not always have twenty-five pupils,” says Father Conway, assistant to the pastor, Father Murphy. “There are no children in this church, because there are none to speak of in the parish.”

This curious state of affairs is explained by the fact that the boundaries of the parish are the limits of the First ward. The First ward is St. Mary’s parish. Into that church on Sundays all of the big-town hotels, the night lodging-houses for transients, and the one-night lodging-houses empty their guests. This, with the sparse resident population of the First ward, constitutes the 3,000 who attend the four Sunday masses. It makes one of the most appreciative, keen, and cosmopolitan congregations to be imagined.

“I don’t believe that a parish in the city, or a a church, has a better crowd of worshippers,” Father Conway declares.

It is a congregation, too, Chicago’s down-town hotels he asks to be directed which gives to the pastor and his assistant priest infinite opportunities for helpfulness. When a Catholic from any part of the world stops over Sunday at one of Chicago’s down-town hotels he asks to be directed to the nearest church. This is St. Mary’s, and from its past history as the parent church of all the Catholic churches in the city, it is very dear to the hearts of all. Very few strangers stopping in Chicago for a few days fail to find the stone church with the gold cross on Wabash avenue.

Petitions at St. Mary’s Shrines.
And strange are the tales which they pour into the ears of the priests. Some of the strangers travel for fortune and some for pleasure. Some are flying stealthily from justice in foreign countries or in other states in this country. Some are even of royal lineage. When they worship at St. Mary’s they all met on a common footing. All pour out their joys and sorrows and make their petitions at St. Mary’s shrines. And St. Mary’s church has two shrines which are not yet common in the United States—the shrine of St. Anthony and the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, a grotto in exact imitation of the famous fountain of miracles at Lourdes, France.

“Some years ago,” Father Conway of St. Marys’s, “St. Anthony began to be very popular throughout the country as a patron saint, and in response to the popular demand we had the beautiful shrine in the chapel down stairs erected.”

St. Anthony is the saint who more especially than others grants temporal favors. “If you’ve lost anything, ask St. Anthony and he’ll bring it back,” is a common expression among children. St. Anthony looks out for the material welfare of his devotees so well that there is scarcely a minute in the day when some parishioner is not payig his devotions, and the shrine at St. Mary’s has become well known for the seemingly miraculous answers which have been received by devout petitioners.

The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdesis of ragged rock, fashioned exactly after the original healing fountain in France. Water runs continually in the fountain and a large image of the Blessed Virgin stands in the grotto on the right-hand side. This shrine is kept covered with flowers and offerings.

Church Started in 1833.
It will be sixty-six years ago in May that St. Mary’s church was dedicated. Being the first Catholic church built in Chicago, it was at one time a cathedral. Thst was when St. Mary’s was a little frame chapel at the corner of Wabash avenue and Madison street. The parish had always had the same boundaries—from the river south to Twelfth street, and from the lake west to the south branch, although after the great fire of 1871 the location of the church was changed to the present site. Before 1833 the Bishop of Vincennes, Ind., had jurisdiction over the territory of Illinois. Chicago was a trading station in those days and occasionally priests from a neighboring diocese would come as missionaries to the settlers and the Indians. By April, 1833, there were nearly 100 Catholic residents in the little dirty village on Lake Michigan and they wrote down to the good Bishop of St. Louis and asked him to send them a pastor. Among the original signers of the letter were many whose grandchildren are well-known members of the Catholic church in Chicago today. They were nearly all French, as the following partial list shows:

Ch. Monselle, J. B. Brodeur, J. B. Demekin, J. B. Taleavy, H. St. Ours, N. P. Perry, I. B. Rabble, H. Honedrof, D. Deplat, L. fe, J. Chassut, I. PoFranchere, M. Smith, J. B. Bronix, L. Chevalier, J. Mann, H. Taylor, Major Whistler, A. Oielmet, P. Le Clefe, J. Chassut, I. Pothier, J. B. and M. Baubien, D. Vaugh, J. Caldwell, P. Walsh, L. Bourasse, A. R. Robinson, J. R. and C. Laframboise, and W. J. V. Owens and family.

First Pastor of St. Mary’s.
In answer to the petition, Bishop Rosati at once sent Father John Mary Irernaeus St. Cyr to build up a parish in Chicago. Father S. Cyr proved to be a man of learning, and and energy, and piety. He was made of the stuff that is molded into missionaries by the church. He was 29 years old and a native of Lyons, France. He became so dear to the people of St. Mary’s and to Catholics throughout the country that great preparations were made to greet him at the fiftieth anniversary of St. Mary’s, the jubilee celebrated in 1888. Father St. Cyr, an old man of 80, was living in St. Louis then, and likewise looked forward with joy to visiting his child of 50 years. He died, however, a month before the ceremonies of the golden jubilee took place.

When Father St. Cyr reached Chicago, in 1833, he found that land had already been secured for the church, and a little frame structure was built and dedicated in September of that year. It was not long before the work grew to such proportions that Father St. Cyr sent for four other priests to assist him. Ten years later a new diocese was formed at Chicago, and Bishop William Quarter of New York city was chosen to fill the see. St. Mary’s thus became the cathedral parish of the diocese. When Bishop Quarter took charge he found that a new brick church was being built beside the frame chapel. It was in debt, and funds were lacking to carry the building to completion. Bishop Quarter finished the new church with private funds belonging to himself and his brother, the Rev. Walter Quarter.

Within a few months the germ of the Catholic university of the lake was planted in a Catholic college, which was opened with two professors and six students. An ecclesiastical seminary was established in 1845. Sisters of Mercy were sent for and came from Pittsburgh to found an academy, a famous and fashionable institution in Chicago for many years. A charity hospital and orphan asylum at Jackson street and Wabash avenue was also founded and placed in their charge. All these enterprises emanated from St. Mary’s parish and were supported by it, and St. Mary’s became the pride of the church in the West and the Mecca of the devout.

Numerous societies were organized for helpfulness in those early days, among them being the Hibernia Benevolent Emigrant association. At that time the tide of emigration from Ireland and other parts of Europe was at its full. Every emigrant then did not have a friend or relative in the new new world. The members of the Hibernia association thus found manifold opportunities for helpfulness in securing employment for the hundreds of their countrymen who came West. Among those who were instrumental in organizing this society were Thomas Kinsella, John McGovern, Charles McDonnell, John Breen, and John Devlin.

St. Mary’s church took up the plea for temperance, and a Total Abstinence society was formed. At one service held in the church by Father Fitzgerald between 800 and 1,000 people signed the total-abstinence pledge.

Under Bishop Van de Velde and again under Bishop Foley, the parish began to grow in numbers and in usefulness. It was the rich and fashionable and influential parish of the city. By its influence and from its funds church and schools were started all over the city. When the great fire came in 1871 St. Mary’s was at the zenith of its history. The fire destroyed all of the parish buildings and the church. On the morning of Oct. 10, 1871, St. Mary’s parish and St. Mary’s cathedral were a heap of charred fragments. In order to resume the work of the church as soon as possible, it was decided that a Congregational church at Eldridge court and Wabash avenue should be purchased. This is the St. Mary’s church of today, and, owing to its Protestant ancestry, the general appearance and the arrangement of the altar differs from that of most Catholic churches.

Since the fire conditions in St. Mary’s parish have changed. The church, however, has held out bravely in the face of advancing commercial interest. The old parishioners were driven out by the shops, hotels, and wholesale houses that rendered the district unsuitable for residence purposes. Many out of live for St. Mary’s, however, continued a connection with the church after they had moved to other sections of the city, and St. Mary’s had no thought of capitulation. Despite the fact that the parish has practically no settled population, the congregation is one of the largest in Chicago. Father Murphy, the head of the parish, is a Chicago man, and well knows the need of his parish, by ten years of experience. He is much loved by his people. It is a saying that Father Murphy’s kind heart never allows him to send a beggar from the parish-house door, although he often laughs at the easy ways in which he is victimized. St. Mary’s is so close to the business part of the city that its-parish-house must be an information bureau, hospital, and almshouse combined. The greater part of the priest’s duties consist of visiting the sick and dying in hotels and hospitals, and in ministering to the poor.

Father Conway is Father Murphy’s assistant. He has a great fund of good humor and a practical, cheerful way of looking at hard problems. St. Mary’s has an excellent musical quartet, composed of the following soloists:

Mrs. William Woods, soprano; Miss Mae Fleming, contralto; John Wynn, tenor, and Felix Enderlein, basso. The organist is August Espel.

The standard of music at St. Mary’s is unusually high.

Chicago Tribune, September 28, 1970

Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 911 S. Wabash Av., has changed little since Rocco Dabicci was confirmed there by the late Cardinal Mundelein and even less since the Rev. Eugene F. O’Malley came 42 years ago as choir director.

There was a time when worshippers packed the aisles to hear the famed Paulist Choir of Old St. Mary’s, but in the last few years, attendance has grown smaller.

Oil Firm Buys Land
Yesterday, the aisles once again were packed as Dabicci participated as lector in the last mass to be held in the 105-year-old church.

The building where Dabicci participated as lector will be demolished and the parish’s chapel at Wabash Avenue and Van Buren Street will become the center of Old St. Mary’s services. The land has been purchased by the American Oil co.

Sorrow Over Loss
Dabicci has been active in the church, both as an acolyte and lector, ever since he was 5 years old, living only a few blocks away. He sells newspapers on the corner of Lake and State Streets—the site of the first St. Mary’s Church.

For many years Dabicci worked with Father O’Malley, serving as master of ceremonies for the Paulist Choir. Yesterday Father O’Malley took no part in service.

“They wanted me to play the organ for the last time, but I don’t want to,” Father O’Malley told his friends. “I wish they could have saved the church.”

“Father O’Malley asked to be excused from addressing you,” Rev. James Young, superior of the Paulist Community of Chicago, told worshippers.

Father Young then began the last sermon in old St. Mary’s—”There is a time to build and a time to tear down…”

Lill & Diversy’s Chicago Brewery

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Chicago Breweries

Lill & Diversy’s Chicago Brewery
Life Span: 1841-1871
Location: Chicago Avenue and Pine Street
Architect: Unknown

Norris’ Chicago Directory for the Year of 1844

Lill, Wm. of L. & Diversy

D. B. Cooke & Co.’s City Directory for the Year 1859-60
Lill & Diversy, (William Lill and Michael Diversy), brewers, cor Chicago av and Pine

Halpin & Bailey’s City Directory for the Year 1863-64
Lill & Diversy, (William Lill and Michael Diversy,) ale brewers, Chicago Brewery, Chicago av., cor. Pine. (See adv’t. p. 280)

Edwards’ Annual Directory in the City of Chicago, for 1870
Lill’s Chicago Brewery Co. (William Lill, pres. James Bromfield, se.), Pine, cor. Chicago av

INTRODUCTION
The year 1833 marks not only the incorporation of Chicago as a town, but also the establishment of Chicago’s first commercial brewery. German immigrant William Haas and Swiss immigrant Konrad (Andrew) Sulzer came to Chicago from Watertown, New York. They brought with them one hundred and fifty barrels of ale, a load of malt, brewery equipment and $3,000. The Haas & Sulzer brewery was an immediate success, producing approximately 18,600 gallons of ale for town of 200 (presumably thirsty) soldiers, traders, and adventurers.

In 1841, Michael Diversey and William Lill bought the first commercial brewery in Chicago (Haas & Sulzer Brewery) and changed the name to the Lill & Diversey Brewery, also known as the Chicago Brewery. The two men saw huge success and by 1861 were producing 45,000 barrels of beer a year and employing over 75 men. Famous for “Lill’s Cream Ale,” by 1866 the brewery had sprawled to over two acres and four stories high. The Water Tower Pumping Station, which still stands today, was put in directly across the street.

Chicago Tribune, October 27, 1860

Disastrous Fire at Lill & Diversey’s Brewery.¹
About 6 o’clock P. M. yesterday afternoon, a fire was discovered in the malt house of the extensive Brewery establishment of Messrs. Lill & Diversey, in the North Division, at the the foot of Superior street, and immediately adjoining the Chicago Water Works.

From the location of the fire it gave but slight exterior signs without the building, and so conveyed no alarm, but Mr. Lill conceiving readily the danger, dispatched a man on horseback to the Court House, and the signal was sounded for the Sixth District. The Fire Department were promptly on the spot, the messenger conveying the intelligence to several of the steamers and guiding them to the spot.

The fire broke out in the vicinity of one of fourteen large grain kilns in the malt house, a massive four-story brick structure, fronting on Sands street, and the foremost of the long range of substantial structures extending in a line nearly to the Lake Shore, a distance of over four hundred feet. The fire spread rapidly through the close beams of the long ranges of floors, the depth of the building render the task of reaching it with the streams of water no slight one, and the labors of the firemen for several hours were extremely arduous, Chief Engineer Harris was everywhere, and used admirable discretion and judgement in guiding the attack.

It is such fires as this that most strikingly evidence the gain to the Fire Department in calling Steam to “man the brakes.” The fire last night would have worn out hundreds of men at the old hand machines, with far less effective results than were attained. By dint of hard exertions the flames were confined to to the front of the premises and gradually got under, with a loss confined to the malt house.

It is impossible to estimate the loss, but it must be quite heavy, there being in the building from $8,000 to $10,000 worth of malt and barley. The exterior walls of the building were, as was believed, preserved in a good condition. The entire loss must be from $10,000 to $12,000; insured. The fire was occasioned by too high a firing of the kiln in question

History of Chicago; Its Commercial and Manufacturing Interests and Industry, I. D. Guyer, 1862

THE MANUFACTURE OF ALE, BEER AND PORTER.
One of the great things of our Republic is, that it opens to every citizen all the paths that lead to wealth and honor. Here there is freedom for glory, as well as struggle; wealth as well as toil. We shall reckon no Norman conquest in our history; for where we conquer a nation her territory is divided among all our people. We rummage no musty libraries for titles of nobility; but in the United States, every true, brave, daring man is the Rudolph de Hapsburgh of his race. If such institutions, and the universal prevalence of such a spirit, do not make us a great nation, then civilization itself, with all the appliances of political and religious liberty, cannot do it. England has given the world all the grand and bright ideas she had for ages, until the Anglo-Saxons began to develop themselves on this side the Atlantic, in unfettered liberty. The world is astonished at our progress; and we should be ourselves if we could stop long enough to see how rapid it has been. Other countries trace their fortunes to a few men; we do it, comparatively, to many. It is to the concurrent energies, genius, and patriotism of a multitude of men, that we owe what we’ now are. To illustrate—turn to the frontispiece of this elegant commercial volume (right), and behold a view of Chicago of 1820 then to the next page and see Chicago of 1862; a city of only about forty years growth the admiration of travelers from every part of our own continent—the marvel of those from the other hemisphere. And yet, only a faint conception of the secret of the unexampled progress this city has made in life and power, can be gained by the contemplation of its more imposing palaces, churches, public buildings and hotels. In these we see only surface indications—they are but the saloons and surface decorations of the gorgeous steamer. To understand the power that moves her, we must go below and look at the gigantic machinery which impels her along her way. Behold her manufactories—her men of business: these are the architects whose genius and enterprise have reared this proud structure of commercial greatness on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Oneof the most interesting spots to visit in this great and growing city of the West, is Messrs. Lill & Diversy’s extensive Brewery, situated in the northern part of the city, on the shore of the lake, whose crystal waters forms so important an item in their article of manufacture.

Ale is a beverage of great antiquity in Great Britain and Ireland. But the Ale of those periods, and until the sixteenth century, contained no hops. Ale is mentioned in the laws of Ina, King of Wessex, who ascended the throne about the year 689. It was one of the articles of a royal banquet, provided for Edward the Confessor, about the middle of the eleventh century.

Some centuries since, ale and wine were as certainly a part of a breakfast, in England, as tea and coffee are at present, and even for ladies. The Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Henry VIII., lived in the following manner:

On flesh days through the year, breakfast for my lord and lady was a loaf of bread, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, half a chine of mutton, or a chine of beef, boiled. On meagre days, a loaf of bread, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, a dish of butter, a piece of salt fish, or a dish of buttered eggs.

Hume relates that the Earl of Leicester gave Queen Elizabeth an entertainment, in Kenilworth Castle, which was extraordinary for expense and magnificence. Among other particulars, we are told that three hundred and sixty-five hogsheads of beer were drank at it. Now in this quantity there are twenty-three thousand gallons; and if there were twenty-three thousand persons present, which is not possible, it would still be an allowance of a gallon to each.

Ale, a fermented liquor, prepared from an infusion of malt and barley. It is called ale or beer; in some places, as in Wilts and Dorset, in England, the terms are used indifferently. In others a distinction is made; Ale being a light colored liquor, prepared from slightly roasted malt, and which gives off more froth or bead. Beer is probably the generic name, hence brewing. Though a German word, its connection with the Latin bibere is obvious. Ale is Anglo-Saxon. It is a common beverage in almost all countries in which the climate prohibits the cultivation of the vine; and here it may be observed that the use of some fermented beverage is universal throughout the ancient and modern, civilized and savage world, from Noah to the South-Sea Islanders. Beer or Ale, cerevisia, from Ceres the goddess of corn, is said by Tacitus to have been drank in his time by the Germans, the root from which the great beer drinkers of modern times derive their origin. According to Herodotus, the Egyptians prepared it from the barley for which the valley of the Nile is still famous. Diodorus Siculus speaks of two different liquors, one the pure infusion, Zythos, the other Kourmirmi, prepared with honey. Some, even for the nations which could take their wine, did not despise John Barleycorn; the Spaniards, Gauls and Greeks liked beer; the Gauls in particular had their corma and cerevisea, a barley beer, and a wheat beer, while the Britons imbibed a thin potation, which would hardly pass the lips of their descendants, which they prepared from wheat sweetened with honey. The Chinese, among whom every new-fangled idea has been in use for centuries, have a drink made of barley or wheat, and the Japanese take a rice beer at every hour of the day. Benighted Nubia and Abyssinia claim kindred with Europe, in this one touch of nature—they prepare a drink from various grains. As for the Danes and Northmen they placed their hopes of eternal happiness, among other pleasures, in an unlimited supply of beer. The bitter infusion of hops is of less respectable antiquity. Their use does not seem to date earlier than the eleventh century; before that time the Scandinavians are reputed to have used oak bark. What effect the preservative virtues of tannin had on their bodies and health, is not recorded. Boot beer, pleasant to Teutons but an abomination to Britons, was invented after the twelfth century; probably first devised as a substitute by some unfortunates during a time of famine ; just as sailors who are out of tobacco take to chewing oakum. Hans Kenne, of Nuremberg, (1541) was the father of white Beer, dear to the patriotic Prussian. Ale and Beer was once accounted, beyond dispute, one of the necessities of life, and equally with bread, was subject to an assize of price and quality. Municipal officers, whose duty it was to taste the Ale served out to the public and report defaulters, were appointed by various English statutes. The duty was probably not unpleasant, seeing that the brewers were not likely to submit a bad brew for inspection. The venders of an adulterated tap had to stand in the public dung cart. Beer, though accounted less respectable than wine, perhaps, because the Komans, who served out a ration of parched corn and vinegar to their hungry legions, thought but little of it, has furnished matter to literature and art. Beer riots in Bavaria, malt-tax riots in England, on account of the rise in the price of these beverages, help to teach statesmen that the great food question is at the bottom of all real popular discontent. Hogarth in his Beer Alley and Gin Lane, shows us the infinite superiority of wholesome, sound-bodied Beer, over the detestable alcohol, just beginning to be popular in his day. Every one remembers “JohnBarleycorn” as a picture of burly strength and substantial solidity. Burns’ “happy ale” is the symbol of good fellowship; and to what a depth of contempt does Iago assign “small beer.” The government of Bavaria paternally interested in the welfare of of its people, gives considerable attention to the supply of its people with a good and wholesome drink; and although the Bock Beer, so called from the saltatory movements similar to those of a bock (goat), which it induces in its too partial admirers, may bring the beverage into some disrepute with serious people, the excellence of Bavarian Beer cannot be denied.

About the year 1620 some doctors and surgeons, during their attendance on an English gentleman, who was diseased at Paris, discoursed on wines and other beverages; and one physician, who had been in England, said:

The English had a drink which they called Ale, and which he thought the wholesomest liquor that could be drank; for whereas the bdy of man is supported by natural heat and radical moisture, there is no drink conduceth more to the preservation of the one, and the increase of the other, than Ale; for, while the Englishmen drank only Ale, they were strong, brawny, able men, and could draw an arrow an ell long; but when they fell to wine, they are found to be much impaired in their strength and age.

Wherever a people make Ale a common beverage, spirituous liquors, drunkenness and vice decrease in proportion. A few years ago, in the State of Illinois, the common drink was whisky, or rather a compound of fiery poisons, called whisky. Now Ale is becoming the universal beverage. There are about three hundred and fifty thousand barrels of Ale brewed annually in the State of Illinois, and about two hundred and fifty thousand of Lager. Among the most extensive and popular Breweries in the Mississippi valley is that of Messrs. Lill & Diversy. A visit to this Brewery is full of interest, the gigantic character of business operations, the scrupulous cleanliness which pervades everything is gratifying to the lover of fine Ale. This immense establishment has grown to its present gigantic proportions since 1835, when it was established by W. Haas & Co. The firm was composed of William Haas and Andrew Sulzar, whose combined capital invested amounted to about $3000, giving employment to four men.

These pioneers emigrated to this then far Western Territory, from Watertown, in the State of NewYork. They brought with them a small brew-apparatus, a lot of malt and about one hundred and fifty barrels of Ale. Soon after their arrival they purchased of Wm. B. Ogden, a lot one hundred by two hundred feet in Kinzie’s addition, for two hundred dollars, upon which they erected a frame building, forty by eighty feet, with small additions, where they commenced brewing the finest Ale made in Chicago. Upon that very site now stands the Chicago Brewery, of Lill & Diversy, whose humble origin dates back twenty-seven years ago, when six hundred barrels of Ale per annum (the amount manufactured by Haas & Co.) supplied the Chicago market, which now requires ninety-three, thousand barrels per annum.

About 1836 Mr. Sulzar sold his one-half interest to Wm. B. Ogden, and in 1839, Mr. Haas sold his to Mr. William Lill, the present active partner, through whose indefatigable business capacity, and knowledge of the Brewing interest, the Chicago Brewery has attained its present wide-extended reputation, and extensive sales throughout this great valley, from the frozen regions of the—north the rock-girt shores of Lake Superior—to New Orleans, the Naples of the South—from the Falls of Niagara to the newly discovered gold regions of Pike’s Peak. Every where over this wide extended territory, Lill & Diversy’s Ale is favorably known and sought for.

The progress of the Americans in brewing of malt and hop liquors, is not less than that made in manufactures and inventions, and we seem to be overtaking John Bull in Ale making, aye, and in Ale drinking. Even temperance men have rejoiced in this, as they look upon the rise of Ale as the downfall of poisonous liquor. But a few years ago, alcoholic liquors were the almost universal drink, and the Ale then made was as “swipes.”That day has passed, and the most fastidious Britisher and epicurean Teuton quaffs the ripe and sparkling Ale, and the lively, cheering Lager, with a gusto equal to what either could in their own country, and the American who used to ridicule the Englishman and the German, now sits down and takes his Lill’s Ale with a zest, and protests it is the richest tonic he ever imbibed; while in the homes of American families, we find the barrel and the half-barrel standing ready tapped all the while; and Yankees find that Ale is a cure for dyspepsia, and a capital thing to take and enjoy.

This Brewery occupies two entire blocks, on which there are three large brick buildings, measuring four hundred and thirty by one hundred feet, and four or five stories high, while the rest is devoted to out-buildings, yards, shops, stabling and storage. It was erected at an expense of $125,000, and frequent additions have been made from time to time; the vats, machinery, appurtenances, live stock and wagons, are worth about $80,000; while the value of barley, malt and hops on hand, is always about $110,000. Thus there is a capital of about $300,000 employed in the business, which is far ahead of any similar establishment in the West. They send Ale as far east as Buffalo, north, to Lake Superior and St. Paul, west, to St. Joseph, Mo., and previous to our National troubles, to New Orleans. They also have agents in all the principal cities of the West.

In brewing, the barley is first elevated to the lofts of the main building, each of which measures one hundred by one hundred and forty feet, and is capable of storing one hundred thousand bushels of grain. The barley is raised to the lofts by the elevators, and then passes into a peculiar looking vehicle, called a screening machine, which cleanses it. The first operation is malting. This is the process by which certain of the component parts of barley are converted into a species of saccharine matter, through the agency of an artificial or forced vegetation; and to this are devoted four floors of the entire building, which are as remarkable for their cleanliness and order as for their size, being one hundred by one hundred and forty feet. They have also a Malt House at Janesville, where they malt twenty thousand bushels per annum, also, another, not connected with the Brewery, malting eighteen thousand bushels per annum, and soon they purpose the erection of another building, with facilities for malting one hundred thousand bushels per annum. There are seven immense steeping tubs, capable of holding nine hundred and eighty bushels, and seven drying kilns. Into these tubs the grain is turned, along with water, and remains soaking for many hours—for Ale, it remains twenty-six to forty hours.

There are always four thousand five hundred bushels of grain in process of malting. When sufficiently soaked, the contents of the steeping tubs are emptied upon smooth cemented floors, of which there are two, seventy-eight by two hundred feet in extent. Here the steeped barley remains to grow from seven to ten days; it is then thrown into the drying kilns, and is heated over a coal fire for three days ; after this, the barley is again elevated to another floor by the elevators, and falls from thence into the huge mill, where it is completely crushed between ponderous cylindrical iron rollers, which break every corn; then it passes into the malt-bin, and so on to the mash-tun, where the boiling water is added, and is mixed up by a mashing machine capable of mashing one thousand and ten bushels, or more, at a time. This tun is a round wooden vessel, with a movable perforated bottom, and when the barley is thoroughly mixed, it passes through this into a great copper boiler. The hops, at this stage, are added, and the boiling progresses. This is continued vintil the liquid, or wort, as it is called, is brought to the condition required, and which demands the nicest discrimination on the part of the brewer. The contents of the boilers now pass into the hop-jack, which, having a bottom like the mash-tun, the liquor passes off, leaving the hops at the bottom of the jack. The liquid is then pumped, by steam, into the coolers, which are large shallow vessels, more like boxes, in a separate apartment at the top of the building. As it is essential that the cooling should be rapid, the apartment is almost all windows, overlooking the lake, while over the coolers are fans, which, revolving, keep up a breeze which soon chills the liquor, which passes, subsequently, through pipes to the great fermenting tuns, or tubs, below, (of these there are six for Ale, with a capacity of two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty barrels each, and fourteen for Lager, of seventy barrels each,) every tun being furnished with a refrigerator. Fermentation is a process which is the most difficult of all to conduct properly—the most precarious in its results; but, at the same time, of the greatest importance to the operator. For although he has been successful in all the preceding stages, yet should he fail in this, the advantages which he has already obtained will be of little avail, and complete disappointment must ensue, inasmuch as the produce will be wanting in every requisite property in spirituosity, flavor and transparency. The yeast is added, and the Beer gradually rises in foam, until the tun, which was half full at first, soon brims over. The yeast works out at the top of the Ale, and is skimmed; while it works to the bottom of Lager, and the liquor is drawn off, leaving the yeast as a sediment. The process of fermentation takes from three to ten days. From these tuns the Ale or Beer is drawn into puncheons, or hogsheads, of about ten barrels each, situated in the working cellar. When the working has ceased, the liquid passes into the racking vats, where it rests for about six hours, and is then racked into packages for shipment. But it is of course not sold until the article has ripened, which occupies many months, the longer the better; and no brewers but the most extensive can afford their brewing to remain so long on hand. In this respect, Messrs. Lill & Diversy possess facilities beyond that of any other establishment of a similar nature in the North-West—a large capital and extensive capacity for storage, enable them to keep their Ale and Beer longer than the other firms, and this places their productions pre-eminently ahead of their competitors.

In the manufacture of Porter and Brown Stoiit, the barley, in malting, is roasted, or burned. Stock Ale, which is made in the winter, takes twenty days longer than light Ale in making.

At this Brewery, four thousand seven hundred barrels of Ale are always in process of brewing, and there is always ready stored in the immense ice houses, eleven thou- sand to twelve thousand barrels of Stock and Bitter Pale Ale, Porter, and Brown Stout, in tuns holding from thirty to two hundred and ten barrels each.

There are two Ice Houses, one of which was recently erected, measuring two hundred and ten by seventy feet. The ice is in the middle of the ice house, in two bodies, one measuring sixty by thirty and twenty-five feet high, and the other sixty by sixty and twenty-five feet high, packed in tanbark, and encased in wood, by which means a temperature of forty degrees is kept up during the year. The absence of cellars has been the greatest drawback to Chicago as a brewing point, but these ice houses overcome all that, and the fame which Milwaukee Lager Beer gamed through its cellarage, no longer obtains to the depreciation of Chicago Ale. Messrs. Lill & Diversy, last year, bought one hundred and twelve thousand bushels of barley and sold, in the same period, forty-four thousand seven hundred and barrels of Ale, Stout, and Porter, while their facilities will enable them to increase their manufactures at least thirty per cent, when the supply shall fall short demand, as soon it must do.

In this Brewery they have a force of seventy-five men, thirty-five horses, a steam engine of twenty-five-horse power, and a boiler of fifty-horse power, which heats the water for boiling and mashing, and warms the entire building. Added to tins, ther are Malt Vinegar Rectifying Works, which turn out twenty-five barrels per die, They require two carpenter shops and twelve men to attend to repairs, and making boxes and signs. They have two cooper shops, which employ from five to twenty men, according to the season; while the stables, in neatness and order, are unsurpassed,

Within a few years, Ale of the first quality has been brewed by this establishment, and justly appreciated, until it is now the table drink of nearly every family in easy circumstances—being light, sprightly, and free from the bitterness which distinguishes Porter-no other ingredients entering into the composition than malt hops, and pure water. The qualities which most distinguish this Ale, are purity, brilliancy of color, richness of flavor, and non-liability to deterioration in warm weather qualities, the result of the peculiar characteristics of Lake Michigan water, the high intelligence, care, and experience of their brewers, conjoined to the use of apparatus possessing all the modern improvements, of European and American manufacture.

Lager Beer.-The manufacture of Lager Beer was introduced into this country about seventy years ago, from Bavaria. The process of brewing it was kept a secret for a long period. Its reception was not a welcome one; and about twelve years elapsed before its use became at all general. Within the last few years, however, the consumption has increased so enormously, not merely among the German, but among our native population, that its manufacture forms an important item of productive industry. The superior quality of that made by Messrs.Lil & Diversy, has, no doubt, increased the demand, and diminished, to a great extent, the use of spirituous liquors. Lager, signifies “kept,” or “on hand;” and Lager Beer is equivalent to “beer in store.” It e made from the same cereals from which other malt liquors are made; but barley is the grain usually used in this country. The process resembles that of brewing Ale and Porter, with some points of difference, and the brewing generally forms a separate and distinct business.

The Beer used in winter is lighter, and may be drawn five or six weeks after brewing; but the real Lager is made in cold weather, has a greater body-that is, more malt and hops are used and is first drawn about the first of May. It is much improved by age and by keeping in a cool place.

There are about twenty Brewers of Lager Beer in Chicago, employing a capital of about $300,000.

The statistics of the entire Brewing business of Chicago for 1861, are as follows:

The Capital invested in Ale, Porter, and Lager Beer Brewing, including Malting, is about $1,070,720.

Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1862

PURE ALE. -The wretched condition of the water which has been furnished to the people of Chicago for some months past, has induced large numbers of our citizens to substitute other articles as a beverage, the cheapest and by far the best of which is good ale. But as many of our citizens have misgivings in regard to Chicago ale, under the supposition that in drinking it they are only drinking Chicago water in disguise, we can assure them that they run no risk whatever in drinking the celebrated ale brewed by Lill & Diversy. The proprietors of this well known brewery having found it impossible, many months since, to make good ale from the water furnished by the Chicago water works, they, at great expense, caused an artesian well to be sunk 70 feet, from which they draw the entire supply of water for their brewery.

Chicago Evening Post, December 13, 1869

Col. Michael Diversey, of the well known firm of Lill & Diversey, brewers, died in this city, yesterday. Deceased came here in 1857, and was at one time an Alderman. He contributed liberally toward the German Catholic institutions of the city, and was highly respected among the German population.

Chicago Tribune, August 14, 1875

Mr. William Lill’s friends received late last night a telegram from Denver, Col., confirming the report of his death (from paralysis). He died at 9 o’clock a.m. Wednesday (11th). Notice of the funeral will be given hereafter.

Chicago Tribune, August 19, 1875

WILLIAM LILL.
The Funeral Services.
The obsequies of the late William Lill were held in St. James Episcopal Church, corner of Huron and Cass streets, yesterday afternoon, and were very largely attended by all classes of our citizens. About sixty carriages formed the funeral procession, which moved from the late residence of the deceased, corner of Chicago avenue and Pine street, at 2 o’clock, and reached the church fifteen minutes later. The casket was beautifully decorated with flowers, the monogram of Mr. Lill being wrought in floral characters, and his age, 67 years, recorded in the same ephemeral but graceful manner. From the hearse the coffin was borne into the sacred edifice by the following pall-bearers:

Mayor Colvin, A. H. Blanchard, Robert Law, A. Booth, Edward Martin, Edward Meadowcraft, Henry Cady, and Judge R. S. Wilson, all of whom were intimate and life-long friends of the departed.

The Rev. Dr. C. V. Kelley read the funeral services, at the conclusion of which the lid of the casket was partially removed so as to reveal the face of the dead man, who appeared to have, so far, escaped “decay’s effecting fingers,” for the features were as natural and as free from sign of decomposition as when their owner was among the living. The visitors, one by one, passed the coffin, and took a last look at the mortal remains of one whom the people of Chicago had learned to honor through an upright and successful business career extending over twenty years.

When the last of the mourners had passed, the body was once more placed in the hearse, and the mournful cottege started for Rosehill, where the remains were interred in the family vault.

Competing Saloons

Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1870

At twenty minutes of 11 o’clock last night, fire broke out in the rear part of the two-story frame building, No. 167 State, owned by Potter Palmer, Esq., and owned by Mrs. (Catherine) Tierney. The rear part of No. 165, adjoining, also owned by Mr. Palmer, was slightly burned. The damage to both buildings will not exceed $500; fully insured. Mrs. Tierney lost about $1,000 in the Chicago and $1,000 in the State. The rear part of No. 165 was occupied by Pierce Newton, as a wood office. Loss minimal. Next door, or No. 50 Monroe street, was the meat shop of Mr. Robbins, whose loss will be about $50. The place was evidently set on fire, as the rear of both buildings, as well as the sidewalk on Monroe street, was saturated with kerosene. Box No. 14 was turned in.

Frank Cahill’s and Mrs. Catherine Tierney’s saloons were typical saloons selling Lill’s and other ales.

Chicago Tribune, January 5, 1869

Chicago Evening Mail, October 3, 1870

Operations will commence in a few days for the construction of a portion of the Lake Shore Drive in the North Division, from Diversey street, two and a half miles north.

Chicago Directory, 1880

New Streets and Names of Streets Changed Since Last Year.
Diversey av. (N.D.) fr. the Lake to the River, 6 blocks n. of City Limits.

NOTES:

¹The original family name spelling is “Diversy,” and has been used officially in all references and advertising. This 1860 article is one of the rare times the name is spelled “Diversey” until after his death in 1869. The advertisement on the right was from the 1858-1859 Chicago Business Directory.