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The Spirit of Progress Story

Many Chicagoans have noticed the bronze statue on top of the old Montgomery Ward headquarters building on West Chicago Avenue. It is Ward’s time-honored symbol, The Spirit of Progress, a female figure poised on her left foot, holding a torch high in her right hand and a caduceus, an ancient symbol of commerce, in the other, while she leans forward into the wind as though about to flight.

Actually, Spirit is the third of three similar statues which have graced a number of prominent Chicago buildings. The first, a gilded weather vane of Diana, goddess of the hunt, stood on the Agriculture Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The second, Progress Lighting the Way for Commerce, also a gilded weather vane, was made for Montgomery Ward’s Michigan Avenue Tower Building in 1900. The third and final reincarnation was created for the Montgomery Ward Administration Building on Chicago Avenue in 1928 and christened The Spirit of Progress.

Diana I and II by Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the W. H. Mullins shop in Salem, Ohio.

Diana, Goddess of the Hunt
In 1891, Diana, Goddess of the Hunt was commissioned by New York’s Madison Square Garden’s architect, Stanford White to design a weather vane for the famous hall. He asked his friend, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, to design it. The tower at Madison Square Garden was modeled after La Giralda, the Bell Tower in Granada, Spain which also sported a weather vane called Faith.

Diana was fabricated at the W. H. Mullins shop in Salem, Ohio, she was 18 feet tall and weighed 1,800 pounds, yet she was perfectly balanced and could move gracefully with a light wind. She was made of many individually formed sections of 22-ounce sheet copper which were first machine-hammered over dies and then riveted together. Inside, the thin-skinned copper figure rested on a wrought iron skeleton, the same method that was used to construct the Statue of Liberty in 1883. Diana was covered with gold leaf.

Unfortunately, Diana did not rotate as planned because of its immense weight. Furthermore, both White and Saint-Gaudens realized that the gilded figure was somewhat awkward looking and was disproportionately large for the Madison Square Garden building. So the figure was removed about a year after its debut and a smaller, 13 foot Diana was installed. Madison Square Garden was demolished in 1925 and Diana II was placed in storage, awaiting completion of a new tower promised by New York University. But NYU could not raise the money to build.

In 1932, the Art Museum’s dynamic young director, Fiske Kimball, persuaded the New York Life Insurance Co., Diana’s owner, to give the sculpture to the Museum of Art in Philadelphia.

She was installed in 1932 at the top of the stairwell.

Diana I (Left) and Diana II on top of Madison Square Garden

Charles McKim, the architect for the Agriculture Building at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, who was about to begin construction, thought that Diana I would be a perfect piece to top the dome. The exposition officials agreed, and in early 1892 the statue was purchased for $2,500 and sent to Mullins for refurbishing. Once in place, Diana I soon won the admiration of many fairgoers because of her beauty and her prominent position overlooking the Court of Honor in the heart of the exposition.

DOME OF AGRICULTURE BUILDING.—The agriculture department of the World’s Columbian Exposition was housed in a palace, for the great building devoted to the purpose was a magnificent structure, both as to dimensions and architectural character. The main building stood beside Lake Michigan its principal facade facing the grand basin in the Court of Honor, full opportunity being thus afforded for the display of its imposing features. The view above given is that of the principal entrance, with the landing for gondolas and electric launches in the immediate foreground. The style is the classic renaissance with Corinthian pillars fifty feet high and five feet in diameter. This entrance led through an opening sixty-four feet wide into a vestibule terminating in the rotunda one hundred feet in diameter, and surmounted by a mammoth glass dome one hundred and thirty feet high. Above the main entrance, as well as in the vestibule and on the domes of the corner pavilions, were groups of statuary illustrative of the building’s uses. Surmounting the main dome, as will be seen in the illustration, is the beautiful Diana statue by St. Gaudens, which adorned the tower of Madison Square Garden in New York and was brought to Chicago for its greater purpose. The pediment, which represented Ceres, was a work of almost equal beauty.

At first it seemed that Diana I was destroyed by a fire that swept the fairgrounds on January 9, 1894 as most of the structure was left in ruins. Fortunately, the Chicago Tribune reported the following day:

Diana

This was not the whole story. Executives from Montgomery Ward toured the Agriculture Building and bought the statue and had it stored in the Columbian Museum (Fine Arts Building, now the Museum of Science & Industry) until their Tower Headquarters was built in 1899. It is uncertain whether Diana was sent back to Mullins and was refurbished or if a new statue was made from a new design.

Progress Lighting the Way for Commerce
Architects for the new Ward Tower, Richard E. Schmidt and Hugh Garden envisioned a statue-weather vane on top of their new structure. Schmidt hired John Massey Rhind a Scottish sculptor to design the final statue. For some reason, however, the statue of Progress is not mentioned in articles of his work, nor does it appear in the lengthy obituary published in a London newspaper on October 22, 1956. The reason for this might well be that Rhind only designed alterations to transform Diana, therefore he would not have been the sole creator of Progress.

The reincarnated weather vane was installed on the top of Montgomery Ward’s new Michigan Avenue tower headquarters on October 21, 1900. It was dubbed Progress Lighting the Way for Commerce by the Inter-Ocean.

Progress Lighting the Way for Commerce on top of the Montgomery Ward Tower on Michigan Avenue. Photo on the left was taken during the dismantling in 1947.

The Chicago Tribune had acclaimed the new statue as “rivaling in beauty New York’s famous ‘Diana.'” And small wonder; with her torch held high some 390 feet above the street, the gleaming figure of Progress was visible over most of the city and far out into Lake Michigan. Lit by four electric beacons with 1,000 candlepower each, Progress actually did serve as a beacon in at least one instance. On September 18, 1918, Captain Ben Lipsner used these lights to guide his plane into Grant Park after making the first airmail flight between New York City and Chicago, in 9 hours and 13 minutes of stormy weather.

In 1908 Montgomery Ward sold the Tower Building and moved to more spacious headquarters on West Chicago Avenue. Although the Michigan Avenue building still stands, its 125-foot tower portion was removed in 1947 after being judged structurally unsafe. As for Progress, she also had to come down. On Saturday, April 26, 1947, workmen of the Speedway Wrecking Company erected a scaffold around the statue and began to dismantle her. On July 20, 1947 the Chicago Tribune, calling the figure “Diana,” reported that:

The statue was cut into about 30 pieces before it was lowered. Most of the statue is at the company’s office, but some parts have been claimed by Chicagoans. Diana’s arm with outstretched spear came off at the shoulder, the head came off in one piece, and one leg below the knee. The requests for pieces of the metal for souvenirs was amazing. Some old-timers wanted the metal to make into ash trays, and others just wanted pieces of it as souvenirs. One of Chicago’s prominent citizens has, for some reason he kept to himself, requested the bust.

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Progress’ head was auctioned off on November 4, 2014 at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.

The Spirit of Progress
In 1922, the year of Ward’s fiftieth anniversary, Theodore F. Merseles, President of Montgomery Ward, presented the widows of A. Montgomery Ward and George R. Thorne with 15-inch bronze replicas of the Progress statue. The disposition of Mrs. Ward’s figurine is not known, but Mrs. Thorne’s statue was passed on to her great-grandson, Charles H. Thorne II.

In 1928, when construction had started on a new Administration Building on Chicago Avenue, Mersele’s successor, George B. Everitt, felt that the building shaould have a statue. He commissioned an artist to design one, and in September, 1929 The Spirit of Progress was placed atop the white stuccoed Art Deco tower.

Once completed, Spirit became the new corporate symbol, and the company commissioned copies to place on other Montgomery Ward buildings across the country. But President Everitt’s successor, Sewell Avery, was not quite taken to her. After he became president in 1952 Avery sought to have her removed. However, he dropped the plan when he found that it would cost $6,000 to dismantle her.

LEFT: Progress Lighting the Way for Commerce
RIGHT: Spirit of Progress

For years the identity of the artist was unknow, making the story of Spirit’s origin as much as a mystery as that of Progress. However, it is probable that Spirit was the work of sculpture-architect Joseph Conradi. In a letter to his grand-daughter, Grace Conradi Anderson of Addison, Illinois, Conradi’s second wife Anna wrote:

Your grandfather Conradi was architect and sculptor at St. Alphonsus Church at Lincoln, Southport and Wellington Avenues, Chicago. Also, the tallest statuary, “Progress” is his work (I think it’s on Montgomery Ward building) can be seen from Lake Forest and afar.

Although there is no other documentary evidence to corroborate Mrs. Conradi’s conviction, the sculptor’s oldest son Leo also attributed the statue to his father. Just before his death in 1979 Leo told Mrs. Anderson that he remembered the day his father’s statue of The Spirit of Progress was placed on the Ward’s building.

Spirit of Progress on top of Ward’s Administration Building on Chicago Avenue.
Sheet musc for Spirit of Progress March, composed in 1928, published before the final design of the statue was approved

Later reports include captions for photographs taken in 1929 by the foundry, American Bronze Company, and they list the artist as George Mulligan, son of sculptor Charles James Mulligan (1866–1916). The elder Mulligan studied at the Chicago Art Institute with Lorado Taft and his local works include Lincoln, The Railsplitter, The Independence Square Fountain and the William McKinley Monument.

Chicago Tribune. January 27, 1929

Foundations are now being installed for the eight administrative building being erected by the Larrabee Building corporation for Montgomery Ward & Co. at the southwest corner of Chicago avenue and street. This structure will occupy a site 160 x 320 feet which was purchased by the late A. Montgomery Ward at the time he bought the land for Ward’s present huge building, just across the street.

Designed by the construction department of the mail order firm, under the direction of W. H. McCaully, chief engineer, the new building will be of modernistic architecture. At one corner there will be a tower surmounted by a figure reminiscent of the statue atop the Tower building at Michigan and Madison-Ward’s home.

The new building will contain the executive, administrative and general offices and the clerical departments. The first floor will be for retail store purposes, replacing the establishment in the building the street. Clerical departments wil take up the second and third floors.

On the fourth floor there will be a large cafeteria for employees and for customers of the store. Executive departments of the chain store and retail store divisions will be found on the fifth story. The merchandise buying group will take up the sixth floor, while the catalog and general operating departments will be on the seventh. And, finally. the executives are to be located on the top floor where it’s presumed they’ll have walnut trimmed rooms, fireplaces, and the other perquisites of the “big shots.”

The building is to be of reinforced concrete construction. Financing is being accomplished by a $2.000,000 bond issue recently announced by Lawrence Stern & Co. and the First Trust and Savings bank. Winston & Co. were the real estate brokers in arranging the enterprise. The Wells Brothers Construction company has the contract.

Sources: Chicago History Magazine Summer 1982 Volume XI Number 2, Chicago Tribune, Scientific American.

Field Building

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Field Building
Life Span: 1933-Present
Location: 135 S. La Salle Street
Architect: Graham, Anderson, Probst and White

Chicago Tribune March 26, 1931

BY AL CHASE.
Chicago’s largest building permit issued since the slow-up in construction reached its low level was taken out at the City Hall yesterday for the new $12,000.000 Marshall Field office building. to occupy the entire block of frontage on the north side of Adams street. extending from LaSalle to Clark. In this connection it was learned that bids for steel for the first unit of the big project will be asked for within ten days. Contracts will be awarded during the summer, with the actual work to start Nov. 1.

A last minute change In the plans was decided on yesterday when the architects, Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, were Instructed that there’ll be no thirteenth floor. That doesn’t mean there’ll be any engineering problems involved: It merely means a gesture of deference to the superstitions of prospective tenants who balked at considering leasing offices on such a supposedly unlucky floor. In other words, the next floor above the twelfth will be the fourteenth.

Looking forward to the time of the subway, the Marshall Field Estate, owner of the building, has made provisions to permit an entrance from the subway trains to the basement on the Clark street side. Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, architects

Largest In Chicago.
This forty-three story structure will be the largest office building in Chicago and one of the biggest in the country. It will be erected in two units, with the old Home Insurance company building, at the northeast corner of La Salle and Adams to be torn down first. The W. J. Newman company has the wrecking contract for the removal of this old timer.

It is planned to have this first unit ready for tenants by 1933. The occupants of the Standard Trust building, at the northwest corner of Clark and Adams, will then move into the new section, if the on the job renting agents for other loop skyscrapers haven’t persuaded them to move elsewhere.

The second unit wIll comprise a section similar to the first unit and in addition will contain the tower section. which will be as large itself as many loop skyscrapers. It is announced that this second section will be ready for occupancy In the spring of 1934.

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Many Innovations.
The new Field building will not only be the last word In structures erected in 1931. but as it is being built over a period of three years and many novel and important office building improvements and refinements both in operation and construction are how being developed, it will have many innovations lacking In any other Chicago structure now standing.

For instance, as already stated, it probably will have the double unit system of elevators, which permits two cars to operate In the same shaft at the same time. In this connection it is possible that the newest New York idea of having escalators to the second floor will be installed. This, however, has not yet been decided.

Two Arcades Planned.
Moving stairways from the main floor to the basement and to the second floor and perhaps the third, it is pointed out, would give these stories almost the same accessibility as the ground floor. As the basement may have the same arcade extending from La Salle to Clark that the first floor will have, an escalator at each end would have the effect of making the lower level thoroughfare almost as easy to reach as the first floor.

The new Field building will have the largest bank of elevators of any office building In Chicago. There’ll be forty-two lifts, and it the double car system is used it’ll have eighty-four cars.

Robert Carpenter, manager of the Conway building, will have charge of the new Field . He states that renting arrangements already are under way.

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Chicago Tribune April 9, 1932

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Chicago’s first air conditioned loop skyscraper will be the new Field building, according to an announcement made yesterday by George Richardson, trustee of the estate of Marshall Field. The basements and first four floors of the 42 story structure will be supplied with fresh, cool air in summer from ten to fifteen degrees lower thai outside, and with warm, pure air in winter. Air conditioning has been in operation in office buildings and department stores in Detroit for several years but this will be the first use of this modern comfort in this class of loop structure.

Another feature new to large loop structures will be alternating electric current which will enable tenants to enjoy the advantages of electric clocks, radios, and other electrical devices. Mr. Richardson, being an optimist and believing that some day Chicago will have a subway, has had provision made for an entrance from the basement to underground train service beneath Clark street.

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Architect’s Drawing

In 1932, owners placed a plaque in the southwest section of the lobby reading:

Home Insurance Building

Field Building Elevators

Chicago Tribune December 30, 1934

N. W. Ayer & Son Lease Space in Field Building
N. W. Ayer & Son, Inc., have leased part of the sixteenth floor in the cast of the Field building for a term of years and will move there from the Federal Reserve Bank building. According to Sterling E. Peacock, resident vice president in charge of the Chicago office, an extensive special layout will be completed on Feb. 1. The advertising agency has occupied its present headquarters in the Federal Reserve Bank building since 1922.

Chicago Tribune, January 3, 1959

Sixth article in a series
Planned at the height of the roaring ’20s and built\ in the depths of the de- pression, the towering Field building at 135 S. La Salle st. rang down the curtain on a great era of Chicago building. Not until the Prudential went up nearly 25 years later did any new skyscraper challenging it in size appear on the Chicago sky line.

When the Field building was under construction in 1933, it was the only major office structure going up not only in Chicago, but in the entire country. Into the terrazzo mosaic floor or the lobby and elsewhere thruout the Field building was worked a simple design—two capital letters “F” standing back to back. “Field’s Folly,” of course, became the popular translation in those times.

It cost the estate of Marshall Field 15 million dollars to erect the Field building; replacement value today is estimated at 50 million dollars. Since 1942 the building has been nearly 100 per cent occupied, the current figure being 99.7 per cent, according to Richard M. Palmer, president of Robert Carpenter & Co., manager of the property.

The building was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. It occupies half a city block fronting on La Salle, Adams, and Clark streets. On the La Salle side formerly stood the Home Insurance building, conceded to have been the first skeleton frame building in the world.

The Field building went up in three sections—the La Salle street portion, completed in 1932; the Clark street unit, 1933; and the tower, 1934. The floor numbers go to 44, but since there is no 13th, the building actually is 43 stories high, up 535 feet from the sidewalk level.

George A. Fuller company, which had built the Home Insurance building in 1885, also was general contractor for the Field building.

Straight vertical lines give the building a look as new as 1959. The main exterior material is limestone. The lower and entrances made extensive use of white bronze and black granite, also with a complete lack of extra- neous detail.

As far as materials and craftmanship are concerned, another Field building may never be built, architects say. The cost would be prohibitive. Three kinds of marble were used in the vast lobby arcade and corridors—white, from Vermont; a green variety, from Italy; and a delicately toned tan marble, also from Italy.

The Field building took the entire output of the quarry producing the tan marble. It is irreplaceable, said Palmer. All the marble was cut and laid so that the patterns match from one slab to another. v

The first five floors were air conditioned at the time of construction. In recent years the air conditioning has been extended thruout the building. The Field building was the first office skyscraper with a built-in vacuum system and the first with aluminum windows. It has its own distilling plant for supplying chilled water.

More than 270 firms have offices in the building, the major space users being Zurich Insurance company, W. A. Alexander & Co., General American Transportation corporation, Continental Can company, and La Salle National bank.

The building maintains one of the city’s largest law libraries, with 25,000 volumes, for its law firm tenants and others. The securities business is represented by such firms as Halsey, Stuart & so., Blyth & Co., and Glore, Forgan & Co.

With 1,051,874 square feet of rentable area, the Field building is one of the largest office skyscrapers in Chicago. Up to 9,000 persons work in the building and daily elevator traffic runs to 150,000 persons. The building manage- ment and maintenance staff numbers 325.

When the Field estate terminated, the property was taken over by the late Marshall Field III who gave it to Field Foundation, Inc., in 1947.

Randolph Street Development

Chicago Tribune January 2, 1932
PRESENTS PLAN OF $26,000,000 RAIL TERMINAL
Start of Vast Lake Front Project.
Pictures and illustrating the Chicago plan commission’s project for, a great terminal on the lake front at Randolph street will be found in the rotogravure section of The Tribune tomorrow.

By Philip Kinsley.
The Chicago plan commission, through its chairman, James Simpson, presents today to the community and for the particular consideration of all, citizens, officials and interests directly affected, a New Year’s plan of downtown lake front which, Mir. Simpson says, offers about $12,000,000 in work for the unemployed, solves an old and vexing problem and provides a stimulus to business generally in Chicago.

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This suggestion, In brief, is the construction of a $26,000,000 union railway passenger terminal, fronting on street a short distance east of Michigan avenue, as a permanent home for all the 15 south side railroads.

Beginning of Development.
True to the spirit the creator or the original Chicago plan, the elder Daniel Burnham, this new and revised feature has “the magic to stir men’s blood.” It is a big plan, the beginning only, to Ernest R. Graham, and member of the plan commission, of a 25 year development along East Randolph street and the adjacent territory.

The coal piles, the wilderness of tracks and old freight sheds of that neglected 100 acres on the lake front, are to spring to stony attention. The sparks from the noisy old locomotives are to become still lights in the towers of a mighty concourse of American skyscrapers.

There is to be a new loop there, a new skyline of beauty and utility, connected with the old by elevated boulevards and by an underground structure of streets, shops and parking places which will dwarf similar efforts in New York and London. It will be a new city of air rights and surface rights, built to connect with the new Outer drive and the proposed extension of Wacker drive eastward.

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A DIAGRAM OF THE STATION APPROACHES AND TERMINAL FACILITIES

Architect Explains Plans.
This dream has already been reduced to blue prints and architects’ drawings dad detailed cost sheets and rental basis in the offices of Mr. Graham. This white-haired, dynamic builder of many great structures, such as the Union station In Chicago, the Cleveland Terminal and stations in Pittsburgh. Philadelphia and Washington, says of the first proposed step, the new union terminal:

Financially, it is easy; economically, it is here. It presents economy of operation for the railroads without expenditure of any more money per car than at present. The basis is found in the 1,500,000 square feet of space required by the roads, now spread all over Chicago.

For the new terminal building itself, the plans call for an area, of two blocks, or 175.000 square feet. It Would be a strong, simple stone structure rising from the Randolph street viaduct now being built. The plans call for a tower of 50 floors and. a building larger than any ollice building In Chicago. With the expanding requirements of tenants there could be provided over 2,000.000 square feet of floor space, well within the requirements of the building ordinances.

A Stimulus to Business.
“The time is coming soon when we will be able to realize this and much More,” aid Mr. Simpson, in discussing the terminal plans.

“It offers the people of Chicago something that will be a long step toward normalcy, not only bettering the city’s passenger terminal facilities. but adding to the comfort, convenience, appearance and business prosperity of Chicago. It will be effective in starting building construction, in stimulating business generally and in freeing a backward section of Chicago for normal developments.”

Here are the concrete benefits which such a development would provide for th1e city, the railroads and all the interests involved, as stated by Mr. Simpson:

To Increase City Revenues.
2. This station can be built without spending a dollar of public money and without adding a dollar to the taxes of the people of Chicago. On the contrary it will actually increase revenues and thereby, perhaps, make it possible to reduce taxes somewhat.” This increased city revenue will come through transforming a large and close-in district, which for years has been blighted because Its natural development has been regarded by adjacent railroad occupancy, into one of the highest type of development, part and parcel of the loop itself.

3. The proposed station will require a minimum of capital expenditure by the railroads. In fact it should mean the return to them of a considerable part ot the capital outlay already made for existing terminal facilities.

The Illinois Central Is under contract with the City of Chicngo to build a new station at Roosevelt road large enough to accommodate all the other roads. The Randolph street terminal will not cost any more than the Roosevelt road station; thus it will not in. crease the capital expenditure of this particular railroad.

Further, the expenditure made by the Illinois Central in building this station will be offset In two ways; first by the rentals received from the other roads using the system: second, by increasing the value of the realty by making possible and bringing to early realization the development of air rights throughout the remainder of the Illinois Central’s 85 acre area. Thus the suggested terminal should prove a splendid financial investment for the Illinois Central.

Help to Other Roads.
A proper charge per car made for station use by other railroads should not only reduce present station costs for all the other roads, but the freeing of their present passenger terminal for other uses should far more than offset the cost of renting space in the Randolph station, either by a major reduction in their present capital outlay through the of thelr present station properties or through the rent received from the commercial use of such station areas.

Thus it will be greatly to the financial advantage of all south side railroads to unite in the suggested Randolph terminal, in addition to the other benefits to come from newer and better station facilities, closer connection with the heart of the city, improved access, better passenger service and other well known advantages of consolidation and simplification, which always result In lower operating costs.”

4. The new station would not increase the annual tax of any railroad involved, but would decrease taxes for all roads except the Illinois Central. That road has a provision in its charter that its annual tax shall amount to 7 per cent of its gross revenue. The tax on a new station would be no greater than on its present depot. If the other roads build now terminals of their own, their tax on such development would be increased just as was the ease with the Union station on Canal street. If they use a station constructed en Illinois Central property, they pay no tax on their terminal. Therefore this saving in taxes means a substantial benefit to them.

Near to Shoppinig Areas.
5. The Randolph street site is in intimate contact with the hotel and shopping districts, and actually more centrally located with respect to the heart of the business district than any of the terminals now occupied by the south side railroads. It has street access unequaled elsewhere. Uninterrupted traffic movement on the front superhighways, Sheridan road, nnd Outer drive along the south shore, is supplemented by widened La Salle street and South Park Way, while east and west access is possible by way of widened Wacker drive without the necessity of traversing crowded loop streets. Street car and elevated railroad transportation facilities are nearby, and will be made even more convenient hy the underground pas- sage suggested as part of the general scheme.

6. There ean be no denying the fact that presence of the railroad stations in the area bounded by Roosevelt road, Van Buren street, State street, and the Chicago river has prevented the natural development of the entire southern portion of the loop district. Removing the several passenger stations, and restricting the freight areas to south of Roosevelt road would remove this blight and permit this district to grow and develop normally, to the tremendous benefit of the city as a whole and the gain of the property owners throughout the entire section.

Boon in Street Opening.
7. This would have the further effect of making it easier and very cheaper for the city to open Market, Franklin, Wells, La Salle, and Dearborn streets through this district and on through the railroad freight area south of Roosevelt road. North of Roosevelt road these streets should be opened at the normal street level, which is not only much less costly, but also much better from the standpoint of street traffic and adjacent building development.

It should stimulate the opening of these streets through the area now absorbed by railroad occupancy, and nothing of greater benefit for that section of the city could possibly be done than removing the present railroad blight and giving the district adequate and access to the remainder of Chicago, both of which betterments will greatly stimulate high class building development all the way from the lake to the river and from the present southern boundary of the loop at least to Roosevelt road.

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GROUND PLAN OF THE RANDOLPH STREET DEVELOPMENT announced by James Simpson, chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission and designed by Ernest R. Graham, of Graham., Anderson, Probst and White, architect and member of the commission. The shaded shapes eut of Michigan avenue indicate the proposed buildings in this area, the darkest-toned of the s e marking the site of the fifty story passenger wrminal. It is planned to connect all buildings in this district by means of bridges at their tenth or twelfth floor levels.

Eugene S. Taylor, manager of the Chicago plan commission, gives the following statement of the background of the terminal movement-nnd the rea- sons for the proposed revision:

The South side terminal situation is at a standstill, and it Is apparent that it is folly to cling longer to a faint hope that sometime, somehow the suggested Roosevelt road terminal will become a reality. And until the terminal is decided there is little prospect of getting streets opened through the south side railroad area.

Roads Oppose Change.
During the Union station negotiation of 1914 the Chicago plan commission to the best of its ability endeavored to persuade the Union station to move their proposed new station back to Roosevelt road. Thre railroads would not agree to this location, primarily because they felt that road was so far from the business center that they would lose a great deal of their passenger business to their competitors.

During the Illinois Central terminal negotiations of 1919, the city hald in mind consolidating all the south side railroads In the proposed new Illinois Central depot on the lake front at Roosevelt road got the last thirteen years the Illinois Central has been trying, without success, to induce the thirteen other roads using the Dearborn, VaRn Buren, Harrison street stations Io in with them.

Millions for Terminals.
Two other factors of great importance have also had considerable bearing on the of new terminal development. One Is the enormous capital investment required. The Chicago and North Western depot cost $20,000,000; the Union station $75,000,000; and the estimated cost of the Roosevelt road Illinois Central depot, Including electrification, etc., amounts to the total of $88,000,000. The other factor is the increased tax burden resulting from a new terminal. The Union station tax, it is understood, was increased by over a million dollars a year for the new station over the old one.

From time to time during the last two decades people have suggested the possibility of building a new passenger terminal at Randolph street, east of Michigan avenue, to house all 15 south side roads now using four south side depots. Until recently a number of these railroads did a considerable suburban passenger business, and it was generally believed that the narrow right of way of the Ilinois Central along Grant park was not sufficient to care for the suburban and through passenger business of these 15 railroads.

Suburban Traffic Reduced.
Today, however, conditions are materially changed. No longer do the railroads do such a tremendous volume of suburban business. Even the volume of through passenger business had declined materially. Other changes in railroad operation have come about.

Air rights development over railroad tracks has become a reality. The Outer drive along the south side lake front has been built and its connection with the Lake Shore drive on the north side is under construction. A widened Randolph street viaduct east of Michigan avenue has been designed and the cost of its construction has been financed. An easement has been given to the city for a wide Wacker drive east of Michigan avenue and other streets have been provided For in this district.

Now, studies indicate, the narrowest portion of the Illinois Central right of way is more than ample to accommodate all the through passenger trains and all the suburban trains of the fifteen south side railroads, with sufficient additional capacity in reserve to care for all the future expansion that reasonably can be anticipated.

Many Phass Realized.
In the course of its twenty years’ history many of the great plans of the commission and its founders have developed from the dream stage to actuality. The lake front development is one, Michigan boulevard is another.

The river straightening is now completed and the outer drive is approaching completion. Wacker drive is an example of what happens when a goal is presented and the public consciousness reaches the decision that the time has come to reach that goal.

The Randolph street terminal and all Its possible development in adjacent territory is the new goal now set up. Its backers have complete faith in it and see no for doubt that this new growth will be needed. They are looking beyond the present mood of the people.

“This Is a gift to the people,” said ‘Mr. Graham. “It contemplates the greatest railroad center development ever known, greater even than the Park avenue and Grand Central development in New York.”

Mr, Graham has figured the cost at $16,200,000 for the building and $10,000,000 valuation on the land, on a rental basis of $10 a square foot. Its bearing on will be important, as it is hoped to have the trains pulled in and out by electric engines, as in New York. This would be subject to the requirements of each road, as it comes into the terminal at different points. The nearest southern connection would be at i6th street.

The stimulation of growth in tile district is seen in the estimate of Mr. Graham that 200,000 persons a day would pass in and out of the station.

As an extension of the terminal facilities a great underground development is being planned, Including an excavation that would take care of 4,000 parked cars.

Describes Proposed Building.
Something like this is in operation under Piccadilly Circus in London and at the subway entrances in Now York. A description of the station building Is given by Alfred Shaw of the firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, as follows:

The concourse, which will be a room of 130 feet by 400 feet and almost 100 feet high, is located at the north end of the building. Opening from it would be ticket office, baggage checking, parcel checking, waiting rooms, restaurants and all the various conveniences and concessions which go along with a great terminal.

Tho building would be constructed chiefly of stone, with the office building portion designed In a simple, strong character, of contemporary American architecture.

Libby Prison Museum

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Libby Prison Museum
Life Span: 1889-1899
Location: Wabash avenue, between Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets
Architect: Burnham & Root

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1892

Libby Prison War Museum

The building had been erected by Luther Libby as a ship chandlery in 1845 but was confiscated by the Confederates for a prison. W. H. Gray of the Knights Templar Assurance society found that it could be purchased for $23,000.

Harper’s Weekly, October 17, 1863

Interior view of Libby Prison, showing the quarters of the Union soldiers confined there.—Sketched by Captain Harry E. Wrigley, Topographical Engineer (See page 667

Chicago Tribune, February 5, 1888

Interest in the history and relics of the War of the Rebellion does not seem to lessen as the years roll by. Eastern book and magazine publishers find the dark days of ’61-65 mine productive of wealth; artists of more or less National repute have been impressed into the service to furnish the larger cities with cycloramas of the most important battles, and in numerous villages is to be found a “memorial hall” in which are displayed a company flag tattered and torn, half a dozen harmless shells covered with rust, a few mus-kets, and a sabre or two, all of which are reverently worshiped by the people of the neighborhood. A new departure in the line of relic-worship has been taken in this city, which is the headquarter of all the new departures which have achieved a National success in the last twenty-five years. Yesterday the preliminary steps were taken for the formation of a corporation whose object is the purchase and removal to this city of the famous Libby Prison of Richmond, Va. The gentlemen who figure as the Commissioners and who are instrumental in organizing and developing the scheme are Messrs. William H. Gray, Josiah Cratty, John A. Crawford, and Charles K. Miller. The company will have a capital of $100,000, and it is understood that all the stock has already been applied for. The history of the enterprise is best told in the words of Mr. William H. Gray, to whom is due the credit for its inception.

“Last November,” said he to a reporter for The Tribune, “when I was traveling through Eastern Virginia with Judge Moore of Tole do we met on the road between Old Point Comfort and Richmona Col. Barnes, a former oficer in the Confederate army, and at present engaged in the business of fruit-growing on a large farm near Richmond. In the course of a conversation on the events of the war reference was made to the old Libby Prison, and it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to purchase the building and transport it to Chicago. I took Col. Barnes into my confidence and asked him to ascertain if the property could be purchased. Shortly after my return I received a letter from Rawngs & Rose, real-estate dealers in Richmond, stating that the old prison was now the property of the Southern Fertilizing Company, and that it could be purchased for $23,000. At my request Mr. John A. Crawford, the General Superintendent of the Chicago Towing Company, went to Richmond and looked over the ground and investigated the possibility of moving the building. He returned full of enthusiasm for the enterprise. Some further correspondence with the real-estate firm mentioned resulted in their obtaining for me an option for thirty days on the property, with the understanding that if any other would-be purchaser offered as much or more, I was to close or reject in five days. The option fixed the price at $8,000 for the original store of Libby & Son, 4×30 feet, or $23,000 for the whole property, a building 132×90 feet. The five days’ compulsory clause did not suit me, and I once more entered into correspondence with Rawlings & Rose. This time I had better success, as you will see from the option I received a few days ago.” Here Mr. Gray exhibited the following document:

THE SOUTHERN FERTILIZING CO.

“The building ” continued Mr. Gray, “is built of red brick, three stories high, and covered with an old fashioned gable roof. It fronts on Cary street and runs back almost to the James River, the first story in the rear being the basement in the front. It was built in the good old-fashioned substantial manner, which is a distinguishing feature of the plain architecture of the South, and is as solid today as when erected over fifty years ago. it contains about 600,000 bricks, stone caps, and sills, and is surrounded on three sides b a stone sidewalk. I have consulted with Burnham & Root, the architects, and they inform me it can be taken down, removed to this city, and rebuilt just as it how stands in Richmond. We, that is the company, propose to number every brick, stone, and shingle. The building will be taken down in sections, the material will be boxed up and transported by rail to Chicago. We will carefully draw every nail that has not rusted away; we will grind up the mortar and use it as far as possible in the rebuilding. Every beam, joist, door, and window will be set in place.”

“What will the enterprise cost?”

“Somewhere about $200,000. We will surround it with another building 200×150 feet, with a glass roof, and on the wall opposit the rear of the prison we will have painted a panoramic view of the James River and the Country bevond.”

“Where do you intend to place it?”

“We have hot vet determined. Some of the exposition people favor tearing down the conservatory at the south end of their building and giving us a site there. However, we will get a site that will be convenient to the centre of the city and easy of access. We estimate that the cost will be divided in this way: For the building, $23,000; for tearing and boxing, $10,000; freight, $10,000; for reconstruction, $23,000; for the site, s60,000; inclosing building, $76,000. If we cannot buy the lot we want we will lease. It is our intention to make an elaborate collection of relics of the Rebellion-in tact, make it a perfect museum of the late War. We will have panoramic views of the engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac and other well known events of the war.”

“When do you expect to get to work?”

“The contract for the building. and property will be closed this month. We hope to get early possession of the old store of Libby and Son, and have this portion rebuilt in time for the Republican National Convention next June. As soon after as is possible we will complete the rebuilding of the remainder of the prison.”

“Will the Richmond people allow you to move the building! Do they take any local pride in it?”

“I am informed that up to two years ago, when the property came into the possession of the Southern Fertilizing Company, the Richmond authorities had to keep a guard around it to ward off the relic hunters, who would have picked it to pieces. I have been informed that some of the Richmond people may kick, but it will do them no good.”

Josiah Cratty, one of the incorporators, in talking of the scheme, said: The beams are very large, the walls are twenty inches through, and the building is solid as ever, notwithstanding its age. The building is practically unchanged since war times. The checkerboards cut by the prisoners are still to be seen on the solid old planks, and every available inch is covered with names carved in the wood and in the bricks themselves. The same old sidewalk surrounds it on the two sides open to the street. The design is to take it to pieces, transport it here, and set it up again exactly as it was. This is no easy undertaking, but it can be done. Every brick, plank, shingle, beam, and lath will be numbered. Then hundreds of photographs will be taken at every stage of the work, that in restoring it will be the workmen guided by the marks on the material and by the photographs as well. The number of bricks in the building has been carefully estimated at 600,000, and it will take fifty cars to transport the débris here. It will be slow, careful, and expensive work. The work of tearing down the building will have to be done piecemeal and with great care. The material will have to be carefully boxed to prevent damage in transportation and in handling. The site of the building in Chicago has not been definitely determined, but it will be within half a mile of the Court-House. A site on the North Side has been offered to us free, but will not be accepted. Offers have also been received to take it to New York City and Coney Island, but we have decided that Chicago was the place for it.

“It should be understood that there is no idea of waving the bloody shirt’ in this; it is simply a business speculation for what there is in it. I take it that very few people have not heard of Libby Prison, and we have calculated on its being an object of interest to people from all parts of the country, the South as well as the North. The Gettysburg panorama people divided $400,000 in three years, and it still pays 8 per cent on a capital stock of $360,000-so I guess there is a fair chance at any rate of the thing taking. There will be no lack of money to give the plan a trial, at any rate. It won’t be a bad thing for Chicago anyway. It will add another to the long list of her advertisements if nothing else. Those interested are all Chicago men.”

“Libby Prison,” which took its name from the officers, “Libby & Son, Ship Chandlers and Grocers,” was used as a prison for the Union officers captured by the Confederates, and its first inmates were officers made prisoners at the battle of Bull Run. At first the prison consisted only of the Libby store, but as the needs of the Confederate Government in this line increased the two adjoining stores. which had been used as a tobacco warehouse, were added to it, and the whole became known as Libby Prison. The old sign-board was sold a few years ago to a relic-hunter for $250.

Inter Ocean, September 22, 1891

No landmarks the civil war have associated with them more that repels than the Southern prisons. They have gone into history as prison hells, where the barbarous cruelties of the inquisition and the dungeons of the Tower and the Bastile failed to furnish adequate contrasting features to convey an idea of what men suffered—Andersonville, Saulsbury, Libby, Castle Thunder, and other names arouse more indignation than any other in American history, and they have no defenders. They excite hate in the North, and shame in the South. As landmarks merely, they had better be forgotten. Such was the feeling when it was proposed to bring the old Libby Prison to Chicago. But that feeling has given way to one of interest in the old building, as it is understood that this is here only to form the home for one of the most complete and interesting museums of the war in the country-a museum that knows no North and no South, but is of historical interest to all, because of the impartiality shown in the collection of relics of the civil war. Tho portraits of Lincoln and Jeff Davis, those of Grant and Lee, and the great military captains on both sides, hang upon the walls, and their letters, dispatches, and orders are in the cases.

A leading Democrat who stood high in the councils of the last administration, in looking over the museum at its opening. said that he was happily surprised at the result. He had denounced the proposition to bring Libby Prison to Chicago as a dangerous scheme to keep alive the animosities of the two sections, and since its completion believed it would be one of the strongest ties in the reunion.

Be this as it may, Libby Prison is now in Chicago instead of Richmond, and it is filled with war relics instead of prisoners of war. The towers and turrets of the wall which incloses the old prison reminds one of the fortresses of old, but the gates awing out as well as in, and in fact it is much easier to get out than to pass in. Libby, too, holds its prisoners now only by their own interest in the museum, and the “underground railroads to God’s country,” as the tunnels were called, are no longer needed for escape.

The old sign on the corner of the building gives its early history. This reads: “Libby & Low, Ship Chandlers and Grocers.” It tells all that is necessary to explain that the big square, red, brick building standing on the bank of the James River was a grocer’s warehouse before the war, and until the Confederate authorities needed a prison in which to confine their prisoners of war. Then it was converted into a bastile, by making no greater changes than to take the groceries and boxes out and substitute Union prisoners. In the exigencies of war this was perhaps all that Jefferson Davis could do in the way of following the example of Napoleon. He had no great penitentiary there. He had no walled fortress. Therefore he took possession of the big warehouse and filled it with prisoners What could not be done with walls and iron bars was done by guards. Sentinels patrolled the streets surrounding the building, with muskets ever ready to shoot off the head of a Yankee who became even curious enough to look out the windows.

It had four floors and two solid brick division walls extending, from ground to root. Those made the place three prisons instead of one. There were nine large rooms, 105×45 feet, with three sets. of stairways reaching from cellar to garret When converted into a prison narrow doorways were cut through the walls dividing the two upper floors so as to permit the prisoners to mingle freely. The basement were not named, except that in the middle for a carpenter shop. The east collar I was surrendered to the rats, and known as rat hell.” The first floor in the eastern section was used by the commandant of the prison, Major Turner, and his guards; the first floor of the second division was converted into a kitchen and dining-room, and the first floor of the western section was used fort hospital. The second and third floors were occupied as the prison quarters.

Many of the Union officers captured were sent to Libby for safe confinement at the capital. where they might be held as hostages, or exchanged as the government found it advantageous. This at times almost filled Libby with intelligent and well-bred men who had never known what it was to want food or clothing. and oven in their army life had been accustomed to have servants to do their bidding. Here they were compelled to help themselves and take their turns at cooking in the kitchen, scrubbing the floors, and other menial work.

Among the first prisoners were Colonel Straight and Colonel Milroy, and they, with their accompanying officers and men were located in the the second and top floors of the east section over the commandant’s room. Milroy had the second floor and ever afterward it bore the name of “Milroy’s room.” Colonel Streight had the top floor or garret, and it always bore the name of “Straight’s room.” These were the only two rooms that bore the names of individuals.

The second section of the building was occupied by Chickamauga prisoners and the rooms were known as the upper and lower Chickamauga rooms. The third section was devoted to Gettysburg prisoners and the rooms were designated as upper and lower Gettysburg. The rooms are all marked now as they were designated then when crowded with from 1,000 to 1,200 prisoners.

Libby Was the Best Managed
of the Southern prisons, but it became as celebrated as Andersonvilie, because of the many officers of rank imprisoned there. There were cruelties practiced, but the prison was under the very nose of the President of the Confederacy and his Cabinet, and the prisoners were men of intelligence and force to demand some rights as prisoners of war, and, often held hostages for Confederate officers in the North, they could not be so easily imposed upon. But they had no furniture, not even blankets. They slept on the floor in double rows, head to head and feet to feet, covering whole floors with a human and loyal carpet. In the cold weather they were commanded to sleep spoon fashion, and appointed captains who gave the order when the row was to change from the right side to the left, or vice versa.

In the little kitchen, with only two small stoves, they fought for preference, stole from each other the places at the fire, removed each other’s skillets and pans to secure places for their own, when they had food to cook, and when they didn’t they divided with each other and starved together. It was a fight for existence and many surrendered rather than keep up the fight.

The names cut in the floor and in the brick walls are still to be found, and in many cases they are the head stones carved to mark the graves of those who cut them.

But all was not sadness and sorrow in Libby. There were debates and discussions, literary exercises and singing school, language lessons and even ministrel performances. The men did not dispair. They made the best use of their time while in the prison. They figured out great engineering schemes for escape. And when the news came that Vicksburg had been captured by Grant, they made the old prison walls resound with the “Star Spangled Banner” and all the war songs they could remember, not forgetting to let Richmond hear how Yankees could sing “John Brown’s Body Lies Moldering in the Grave.” It made the Richmond people mad, but that only encouraged the prisoners to sing louder and longer, and without lights, they bang all night until the impregnable capital of the Confederacy had in its midst one of the grandest loyal choruses that ever sang patriotic hymns.

The one great event of Libby, however, was the tunnel escape, when 109 men gained their freedom in one night, and half of them reached the Union lines. This tunnel was projected by Colonel Rose, of Pennsylvania, and he was assisted by Major Hamilton, of Kentucky. These men were both daring spirits, and were determined to escape. They planned several tunnels, but the first one toward the river filled with water, and others had to be abandoned for various reasons, until they determined upon a tunnel clear across an open lot where the guards were constantly on duty. This necessitated tunnel fifty feet in length, To get into the cellar, or “Rat Hell,” as it was known, Rose and Hamilton went into the kitchen, took out the brick in the back of the fireplace, then dug between the floors and made an opening that allowed them to slip from the kitchen in one division to the cellar of the other division under the hospital without giving any alarm in the hospital. It required weeks of slow and silent work to accomplish this, for each night after they had worked upon the hole they had to replace the brick and recover them with soot to prevent suspicion. When this was accomplished they made a rope ladder and let themselves down into the cellar. Here they removed the bricks in the outer wall and began their tunnel. They organized a party of fifteen prisoners, who were taken in the secret, and by relays they worked all the time, five men in each relay. One. would dig another drag out the dirt, a third use a blanket to fan fresh air into the tunnel, a fourth fought the rate and concealed the dirt under a lot of straw in the cellar, and the fifth remained on guard. It required eighteen days And nights to dig the tunnel, and several times they were near exposure, once when the digger thought he was safe beyond the sentry line and started to make the opening, only to find that he was almost under, the sentinel’s feet; and again when in counting the prisoners two men at work in the tunnel were found missing in spite of the repeating of their fellows, and from that time on had to live in the “rat hell” to prevent detection.

When the tunnel was completed the fifteen men engaged in the work agreed that each should convey the secret to a friend and that the second fifteen should wait an hour after the first fifteen had escaped before they attempted to follow; that they should then convey the secret to fifteen others, and let the plan to work until as many as possible had escaped without detection. But no sooner had Colonel Rose and his party crawled out through the tunnel than the secret got out and the whole 1,200 prisoners began to try to escape. There was a struggle, but 109 escaped and 59 reached the Union lines. The Confederates recaptured forty-eight and two were drowned This was the biggest tunnel escape during the war, and it gave Libby wide celebrity.

The commandant’s room, then occupied by the Confederate guard, is now filled with relics of the late Confederacy. There are oil portraits of Davis and Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and all the Southern leaders: the autograph copy of General Lee’s farewell address to his army, his acceptance of the command, his commission from President Davis; Stonewall Jackson’s acceptance of the command, Albert Sydney Johnston’s report of the campaign at Bowling Green, Ky. Jefferson Davis’ commission as colonel of volunteers in the Mexican war, his report of the campaign in Mexico, his commission to Congress in 1845, his proclamation declaring martial law in Richmond; General Hardee’s reports of the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, and Murfreysboro: the wil of John Brown made only an hour before his execution, letters and dispatches from Beauregard, J. K. Johnston and Longstreet, dispatches from Davis while fleeing from Richmond, letters of Alexander Stephens, all the books and papers printed in the South during the war, letters of Captain Wirz, the commandant of Andersonville, the original models for the Confederate flags, and the most interesting collection of Confederate relics to be found are here in this room.

In the second room, or old kitchen, are relics of the Union armies, pictures of Grant and Lincoln, Logan and Hancock, all the leading Generals, the Cabinet officers under Lincoln; long rows of glass cases filled with autographs, letters, engravings and photographs, all kinds of arms used in the civil war, flags, etc. In the third room, or hospital, this collection is continued, and has added to its large collection of relics of President Lincoln, a piece of the flag that floated over Fort Sumter when fired upon, a piece of the oil cloth marked with the life-blood of the brave Colonel Ellsworth, the chisel with which the tunnel was dug, Sherman’s old army printing press, Lincoln’s bootjack, the hat which General Hancock wore at Gettysburg, etc.

Chicago Tribune, January 8, 1893

President Gunther of the Libby Prison War Museum takes pride in the fine collection of historic flags that he is accumulating for the museum. The collection includes almost 100 of the most memorable banners identified with the history of the Civil War. In this collection is the celebrated flag that floated at the masthead of the Merrimac during its engagement with the Monitor, the three original models of flags presented to the Confederate Congress for adoption. a rare specimen of the Kuklux flag, the battle-flag of the “Black Horse ” Battalion of Georgia, and battle-flags of the Sixtieth Alabama Infantry and Twenty-eighth Mississippi Cavalry. The museum also possesses a good sized piece of the flag that floated over Sumter and one of the flags that decorated Lincoln’s box the night he was assassinated in Ford’s Theater.

Chicago Tribune, April 29, 1893

One of the most valuable purchases ever made for the Libby Prison War Museum is that made yesterday by President Gunther, consisting f nearly all of the furniture from she chamber in which President Lincoln died, including the death bed, the chair in which Secretary Welles sat and watched at the foot of the bed, the gas jet that burned through all of that eventful night, and a book that Lincoln held in his hand for some moments previous to his death. This valuable material will arrive in Chicago early this week.

Rand, McNally’s Bird’s-Eye Views of Chicago, 1893

Libby Prison War Museum stands behind a handsome stone battlement on the east side of Wabash Avenue near Sixteenth Street. George E. Wright conceived the idea of removing the old Libby tobacco warehouse from Richmond to Chicago, and with the aid of a few men like C. F. Gunther it was successfully done. The rooms of the building are filled with relics, and the visitor should see the tailor’s goose of Andrew Johnson, the will of John Brown, the details of the tunnel escape, two bullets that met in mid-air, manuscripts by all American generals, old currency, cannon-balls imbedded in trees on battle-fields, arctic souvenirs, the great chain from Newberg, many historical portraits, and war stationery. An afternoon devoted to the attractions in Libby Prison is instructive. Admission 50 cents.

Libby Prison.
Two blocks southward is the war museum called Libby Prison. The famous tobacco warehouse of Richmond, Va., has been transported to Chicago and placed behind handsome castellated walls of artesian-well stone. The plan of the historical prison escape is shown and all the floors and rooms are preserved, and brass tablets in the floors show where survivors slept. The building is filled with mementoes of the war, and among other relics the table used by Generals Grant and Lee at Appomatox, chisel used in the famous tunnel escape, life mask of Abraham Lincoln, and death mask of General Grant are to be seen. Entrance, 50 cents. About three hours may be spent there, and Grand Army men are always repaid for going. Gunther, the well-known confectioner, is the leading backer of the enterprise. Within the inclosure may also be seen the original Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The Standard Guide to Chicago in 1891

One of the principal permanent attractions of the city. The original Libby prison (transported from Richmond, Va., and put up brick after brick, just as it stood during the War of the Rebellion, when used as a prison for Union soldiers) is enclosed with massive walls, built after the manner of the middle ages.

Among the attractions offered in Libby Prison are the following:

Admission, 50 cents; children, half-price; open day and evening.

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Rand, McNally & Co.’S Bird’s-Eye Views of Chicago, 1893

Libby Prison.—Two blocks southward is the war museum called Libby Prison. The famous tobacco warehouse of Richmond, Va., has been transported to Chicago and placed behind handsome castellated walls of artesian-well stone. The plan of the historical prison escape is shown and all the floors and rooms are preserved, and brass tablets in the floors show where survivors slept. The building is filled with mementoes of the war, and among other relics the table used by Generals Grant and Lee at Appomatox, chisel used in the famous tunnel escape, life mask of Abraham Lincoln, and death mask of General Grant are to be seen. Entrance, 50 cents. About three hours may be spent there, and Grand Army men are always repaid for going. Gunther, the well-known confectioner, is the leading backer of the enterprise. Within the inclosure may also be seen the original Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

AFTERMATH.

Altho the Museum was in Chicago during the year of the Columbian Exposition (1893 World’s Fair), it had no connection with that Fair, and was never considered as a Fair attraction. It was quite some distance from the Exposition Grounds. The Museum was highly profitable and continued so until 1899. At that time the venture was disbanded and the second Coliseum was erected on the site.

Many of the bricks were disposed of as souvenirs and to builders. A large number went to the Chicago Historical Society, along with the collection and other parts of the building. The Society constructed the north wall of their Civil War Room from these bricks. This building is located at North Avenue and Clark St., Chicago.

The beams, timbers and most of the wood were sold to an Indiana farmer named Davis and he used these to build a massive barn on his farm at Hamlet (La Porte County) Indiana. The barn still stands and is owned by his daughters, Miss Ella J. Davis and Mrs. Charles Dowdell of Chicago. Most of the timbers still show the stenciled words “Second Floor M; or “Third Floor E.”, together with the pathetic names and initials carved by the men while in prison. Miss Davis has presented the City of Richmond recently with a gavel made from this wood.

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Inter Ocean, January 4, 1899

The Libby Prison War Museum association of Chicago has assigned and set over to the Coliseum company of Chicago a certain leasehold interest dated Feb. 6, 1889, and executed by John D. Jennings and wife to the Libby Prison War Museum association for the term of 99 years, covering the following ppty: Wabash av. 488½ s of 14th st. w f. 283 64-100×172, together with the appurtenances, buildings, structures, and fixtures thereon and belonging thereto, for the same term and subject to all the provisions, terms, and conditions of the above-mentioned lease. The consideration is $1; deed is signed by S. H. Woodbury, president for the Libby Prison War Museum Assn. and is dated Dec. 30, 1890.

Inter Ocean, April 26, 1899

The Coliseum company, the corporation that is to build a new coliseum building on the site of the old Libby prison, has acquired 69.5×171 feet of the ground to be built on by a purchase from Ira B. Cook and wife for $51,222. The ground is on the east side of Wabash avenue, 546 feet north of Sixteenth street. A deed of trust gto the property has been given to the Title Guarantee and Trust company in security of a loan of $36,000 for three years with 4½ per cent interest. The old prison building, which was used as a war museum, is being torn down. Charles F. Gunther is the president of the Coliseum company.

Inter Ocean, June 29, 1899

Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1920

WOMEN TO RAISE FUNDS TO KEEP GUNTHER RELICS
There is a place in Chicago to which one may go and spend an hour or two which will almost seem like an hour in the presence of Lincoln or of Washington, of of many of those who have helped to make America what it is. For in the rooms of the Chicago Historical Society are personal mementoes of these great men which do for the boy or girl of man or woman who might look at them what personal associations of any absent his person may do for one interested Him.

A collection of great value, that of the late C. F. Gunther of Chicago, has recently come into possession of the society, and is soon to be in such form that it may be seen by students of history or any one who pleases to visit the building at the corner of West Ontario and North Dearborn streets.

Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus has in commenting on a part of the part of the collection:

The Lincoln items are of superla tive attractiveness and importance for a museum in the city of his nomination and life-long association. In connection with the documents from the hand of Grant, Lee, and, the great soldiers on both sides of the Civil war, it is certain that students of the period will and a pathway to the institution possessing them, and their home will be a Mecca for all those interested in the annals of that critical time. The objects of interest from the Civil war associated with these letters and documents rise into extraordinary value. Hardly less may be said of the Washington items, some of which are unique and beyond comparison with those which have given distinction to other museums. The whole subject of our two revolutions is so illustrated by these precious memorials that all the institutions of learning in Chicago might well unite to conserve this material in our city.”

There are, among tens of thousands of interesting items in the new Gunther collection, the first patent ever issued in America; the farewell order of General Lee to his the letter of Grant to Pemberton proposing terms for the surrender of Vicksburg; the manuscript copy of the negotiations of the treaty of Greenville; the document transferring Louisiana from and the similar one transferring it from France to the United States; the pass given by Benedict Arnold to Major Andre when he was seeking to betray West Point to the British, together with its sad sequel, the report of the board of officers to Washington recommending that Major Andre be put to death. All these and hundreds of other, papers rouse the envy of the collector.

Of museum objects there are the table on which Grant drafted the terms of surrender at Appomattox; the bed on which Lincoln died, and the coach in which he was wont to take the air; the compass used by Washington, his camp dishes, and some of his Mount Vernon pewter; and the compass used in laying out the streets of downtown Chicago.

This, the directors of the society declare, is of immense value to the people of the city in making American history real and in stimulating American citizenship. The existence of historical societies was vindicated by the government during the war on the ground that they strengthened the morale of the country by keeping green the memory of heroes.

In order to make permanent in the Chicago Historical society the Gunther collection, which is one of the most valuable historical collections in the country, a committee of women, under chairmanship of Mrs. George A. Carpenter, has undertaken to raise $120,000 to complete payment for it. Of this amount, $20,000 has already been raised within a short time. In the fall the items of the collection, all of them of great interest, will be. exhibited in groups, as it will be impossible on account of its size, to show it all at once.

Coliseum I

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Coliseum I
Life Span: 1896-1897
Location: Between Sixty-second and Sixty-third streets, and is bounded on the east by Grace avenue and on the west by the tracks of the Illinois Central railroad
Architect: S. S. Beman

The first Coliseum, built near the site of the World’s Fair, was impressive in size for its day, twice as large as the second Madison Square Garden; its interior was supported by 12 massive arches, 100 feet high with a span of 230 feet. There were seven acres of interior floor space.

Inter Ocean, August 5, 1895

On Monday, the second day of the coming September, by far the greatest amusement building of modern times will be inaugurated by the “Greatest Show on Earth,” in this city, the only place where such a vast structural triumph could be so magically erected and so magnificently dedicated.

“The White City,” with which Chicago enterprise amazed, delighted, instructed and elevated the world, is now mainly “the unsubstantial pageant of a vision faded,” but will, in impressive magnitude, elegance of design, perfection of purpose and steel and masonry’s most solid durability, be stupendously and splendidly commemorated by a Coliseum, challenging its palaces in noble and surpassing proportions and permanently beneficent results. The site selected will make it at once a gigantic World’s Fair reminder and a, most beautifully and breezily located Mecca for Chicago’s multitudes of amusement seekers; an ampitheater for the accommodation of expositions, horse and cattle shows, bieycle tournaments, spectacles, musical entertainments, national conventions and great gatherings of every character. No other auditorium on earth is, from either a local, State or national standpoint, so conveniently, rapidly, and cheaply accessible.

As arranged for the exhibitions of the great Barnum & Bailey show it will afford ample accommodations. and seats for 40,000 people daily, and this vast concourse can be brought and returned from all points in the city as expeditiously as an ordinary theater audience is handled.

Rival of Rome’s Coliseum.
The site of this rival of Vespasian’s imperial ambition to give Rome a Coliseum worthy of her position as mistress of the world is upon the ground occupled by the Buffalo Bill wild West show during the World’s Fair. It will cover an entire block, giving a total street frontage of 2,200 feet.

The Chicago Exhibition Company, which represents the characteristic broad-gange Chicago loyalty, local pride, enterprise and courage, to which the erection of this edifice is due, in a recent circular, addressed to the people of America, refers as follows to the Important and difficult question of securing an attraction anything like proportionate to its character for its fitting dedication:

JOHN T. DICKINSON
President.
JAMES O. HEYWORTH
Vice President and Treasurer.

For the reasons thus emphasized this unprecedented honor has been conferred, and is supplemental to the fact that the great Barnum & Balley show has been twice similarly indorsed, both at home and abroad, by being invited to formally open the hitherto two largest amusement places in the world-the Olympia, in London, and the Madison Square Garden, in New York. It may be here pertinently. remarked that it has not appeared in Chicago since 1892, solely from the fact that grounds equally convenient to the public and adapted to the exhibitive necessities of the “Greatest Show on Earth” were not to be bad, while there was no building big enough to hold its ethnological features, wild beasts, circus performances, etc., alone. The same difficulties were encountered when it exhibited in the Olympia, London, and the Madison Square Garden, New York–the largest amusement structures in the world, until Chicago’s Coliseum sprang into gigantic and all-overshadowing existence.

Description of the Coliseum.
And, although, the dimensions given elsewhere show this new Chicago wonder to be nearly, if not quite, capacious enough to swallow up both the others, still the growth of. the “Greatest Show on Earth” has been proportionately aggressive, and to the additonal acres of canopied space must be added yet other acres, to accommodate the World’s Horse Fair and myriad employes of this ever-expanding enterprise. Such authentic facts and figures speak for themselves.

The building is designed by Mr. S. S. Beman, the architect who created the World’s Fair building dedicated to Mines and Mining. It is in the Italian style, dependence being chiefly on the effect of massive simplicity and graceful proportions. It will be fire-proof, with brick walls, steel trusses, girders, and columns. The buff brick of the first- story walls will be pierced with a regular series of large-arched openings, fifteen feet wide, filled with glass, forming a continuous arcade around the building. From the sidewalk to the top of this cornice will be forty feet. A tower, or campanile of picturesque design will ornament the center of the eastern facade. It will be 240 feet high and 36 feet square, be provided with elevators, and be used for an observatory, and an amusement ball and cafe will be placed in the top story. A powerful electric light is to be a feature of the pinnacle. A roof garden some thirty; eight feet wide will run entirely around the building above. So. much for the exterior. Within the whole structure is embraced a ground floor area of 210,000 square feet, or about five and one-half acres. Together with the gallery on the roof and the mezzanine stories, this gives a total floor area of eight acres.

Wonders of Greatest Show on Earth.
Up to this time there has been no building in the world large enough to conveniently accommodate the monster shows-circus, menagerie, hippodrome, and ethnological congress- -given by Barnum & Bailey. The biggest tent ever manufactured contains but half of it. Under ordinary conditions and without an extra lower tier of movable seats and boxes, this circus auditorium will seat 12,000 people. Additions will bring the seating capacity up to 16,000.

One of the peculiarities of construction is the changeable character of the auditorium-which can be made larger or smaller at pleasure to suit a spectacular show, a political convention, a football game, bicycle tournament or anything else requiring accommodations for a large audience and plenty of room to operate in. The entire interior fittings are designed to be portable, interchangeable, and easily and quickly arranged for an emergency.

The Coliseum will present an admirable inducement for great gatherings of every character. Those who have attended national political conventions will understand the need for such a building. There has never yet been a public hall sufficiently large to accommodate a national convention and its attendant crowds. The State Fair will here find satisfactory quarters. It is proposed also to utilize the building for great intercollegiate football matches.

But this circus and hippodrome, although a grand spectacular exhibition twice as large and with more than twice as many acts and performers as any other circus that ever entertained the amusement-loving public, is but half of the Barnum & Bailey show.

Great Ethnologienl Congress.
It is necessary, therefore, to have additional room immediately contiguous to, but separate from, the great arena monopolized by the circus proper, for the big menagerie and wonderful collection of curious poole from every savage nation on earth. student and the man of letters the object lesson in the ethnological congress is of greater interest than any other part of the great show. He has here brought home to him the living pictures of that of which he has knowledge only through books. In these strange people of every clime he has not the greatest show on earth—it is the earth. The collection is inseparable from that of the savage inhabitants of the swamps and deserts and woods and jungles.of the unexplored recesses of the world.

To group this extraordinary collection so that it may be seen at once as a whole, and studied in detail without inconvenience, requires almost as much space as that demanded by the big three-ring circus. This space will be afforded for the first time under a roof by the stupendous Chicago Coliseum Building. The main entrance will lead directly into a division of the building thrown open its full width of 300 feet and 320 feet in length. The cages of wild animals will be disposed of on either side. Through the central portion will be grouped the strange people of savage and semi-civilized nations, leaving ample space between wild beast and wild man for the curious and the scholarly visitors. This single room will be larger than the entire aren!c space of Madison Square Garden.

Varied and Brilliant Attractions.
From the menagerie and ethnological congress the visiting public can pass directly, by two commodious entrances, into the circus proper. And when the show is over they will find beautiful gardens, shimmering lakes and cool restaurants that invite to rest and to refreshment.

The opening of the Coliseum will be formally conducted under the auspices of public-spirited citizens of Chicago, co-operating with Mr. James A. Bailey. Excursion trains will be run on all the railroads leading into the city, and these will be maintained during the Barnum & Bailey engagement. There will be a grand illumination at Jackson Park every night, and the wonderful creation of the architect and the builder will alone be worth coming many miles to see. Ordinarily. it would require at least six months to erect such a building as this Aladdin-like Coliseum, and yet its sponsors have unalterably wagered $50,000 that it will be completed within sixty days of the real beginning of work, and will be in readiness for the splendid festivities with which it will be inaugurated Sept. 2.

A fitting conclusion to this article is found in the words of that great manager, Mr.
James A. Bailey, who says:

Fully appreciating the high compliment involved In selecting the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth to inaugurate the superb, stupendous, and unparalleled Chicago Coliseum, as well as the unusual responsibilities associated with an event of such signal and general interest, I beg to publicly and earnestly assure the projectors of the grand and beneficent enterprise, and the people of Chicago, that no effort or expense will be spared on my part to present an entertainment full worthy in magnitude and merit, instruction and interest, novelty and variety, elegance and quality, learning and laughter, of the notable occasion, and of the great metropolis, to whose chaplet of enterprise it adds yet another victorious leaf, and of the confidence reposed in me.

1893 map of the location of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show just outside the Exposition grounds.The Coliseum was built at the same location in 1895, between 62nd and 63rd Streets on Grace Ave. The Coliseum opened on August 22, 1895 with Buffalo Bill’s West Show.

Chicago Tribune, August 22, 1895

The mammoth Coliseum, in course of construction on the old site of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, in Sixty-third street, near the World’s Fair grounds, is a wreck. At 11:10 o’clock last night ten of the eleven huge cantilever roof trusses swayed and fell to the ground, and were twisted into a mass of worthless iron. The only truss left standing was the last one put into place, at the south end of the partially completed building. The loss, it is believed, will reach $125,000.

Three men were inside the building at the time of the crash—Jake Crawley, a watchman who was at the north end; J. T. Recetto, another watchman over a boiler; and John A. Fischer, an engineer, who was going to work at 4 o’clock in the morning and who was at the east end of the eighth truss.

It is supposed one of the foundations settled and the trusses, which rested upon them and not upon the walls, gave way and precipitated the crash. The accident began at the south end ot the structure and spread towards the north. The three north trusses fell north. ward and outward and the other eight south-ward. The two watchmen and the engineer heard the crash at the south end of the building and barely had time to escape.

It was reported there were tramps in the building. The police discredited this theory, but calls for aid were sent to the Police and Fire Departments. Several hook and ladder companies were soon on the spot, as were also several details of police. AlL attempts to search in the débris, however, had to be given up because the many electric wires whien had been broken by the fall of the trusses had charged the steel beans with a powerful current and it was dangerous to handle them. Lieut. Thompson and several police officers started to enter the ruined building, but each received a slight shock, which warned him of the danger. Orders were then given that no one should enter the building.

Cause of the Collapse.
The wreck covered a space 350×530 feet.

On top of the roof were piled from 30,000 to 50,000 feet of green lumber, ready to be used for roofing. The falling of this lumber is thought to have played havoc with the contents of the building.

Over 600 men have been employed on the structure. They were working in three shifts. One shift of 400 men stopped at 9:30 o’clock last night and the second shift would have gone to work at 3 o’clock this morning.

The cause of the accident could only be conjectured last night. It was said the foundation being made of piles was defective and the builders were not careful enough in the construction of the roof. The placing of the roof boards was going on and large quantities of lumber had been loaded on the steel trusses which were already in place. It was asserted last night that this lumber was not evenly distributed about the structure and unequal pressure was thus exerted on the trusses causing them to fall.

The Coliseum Building was constructed similarly to the Machinery Hall at the World’s Fair in that the trusses rested on separate foundations, and the walls were built outside them.

The crash could be distinelly heard from the elevated railway at South Forty-seventh street and the passengers left the train to ascertain the cause of the noise.

The President of the Exposition company is John A. Dickinson, Vice President A. O. Heyworth. Secretary A. R. Oughton.

Two-hundred and fifty men will begin to unearth the ruins at 9:30 this morning, and President Dickinson says a meeting of the directors will be called at once and the work of reconstruction no doubt bordered immediately.

Design of the Building.
The Coliseum was designed by S. S. Beman in Italian Renaissance style. It was to be 770 feet in length by 300 feet wide. This great area of 240,000 square feet, or nearly five and one-half acres, was to be inclosed and covered with a great roof. The loss was estimated at $125,000.

The side walls were to be forty feet to the cornice line, of buff brick, pierced by fifteen-foot arched openings, filled with glass. In the center of one side was to rise a graceful campanile 240 feet high and thirty-six feet square provided with elevators and to be used as an observatory. In the topmost story there was to be a café and music hall. At the pinnacle a huge electric searchlight was to be installed. Around the roof a roof garden thirty-six feet wide was designed.

The mezzanine stories and roof garden spaces were to add two and one-half acres to the available area. The seating capacity was calculated at 40,000.

The construction, according to the plans, was to be entirely fireproof—steel, brick, and glass being the materials to be used. The great roof was to be supported by a series of great steel cantilever arches.

The interior plans provided for a clear central arena 225 feet wide and 602 feet long, surrounded by a thirty-eight foot promenade. Beyond and around this promenade the permanent seats and arena boxes were to be built. The promenade might might in case of need be fitted with and boxes also. The arena was to be divided so that a space of 400 feet by 225 feet could be devoted to the circus. In this arena three rings, two elevated platforms, and a carnival water pool were to be installed.

Twenty-four feet above the lower boxes was to run a thirty-eight foot wide gallery, giving a splendid view of the whole arena. A second ten-foot promenade was to run sixteen fieet higher up. The arches were eight feet in clear height.

The building was to have been opened Sept. 2 by the Barnum & Bailey circus and next Monday a large part of the should have been turned over to that company.

President Dickinson said last night he was certain the showmen would not cancel their dates, but provision would be made to give their exhibitions if not on the site of the coliseum at least near by.

The contractors for the building were the H. Probst Construction company. The contractors for the iron work were Bender & Seifert, No one connected with either company would hazard an explanation of the disaster.

One Man Probably Killed.
At 2:30 o’clock this morning Frederick Taylor. one of the workmen on the building, said that one of his fellow-workmen, whose name is unknown even to the foreman, announced to him his intention of sleeping on the roof. If he did so his body is now buried under many tons of rubbish. The electric light wires were cut early this morning and as soon as day breaks a force of police and workmen will begin a search for the missing workman.

Chicago Chronicle, September 26, 1895

COLISEUM WILL RISE AGAIN.
PLANS FOR THE STRUCTURE
The Coliseum will be rebuilt and work on the great structure is to begin at once The company announces that negotiations looking to the completion of the enterprise began immediately after the collapse of Aug 21 The contracts for the work have been let to the Probst Construction Company The Coliseum company yesterday issued the following statement:

The said plans have been carefully examined by two other engineers of established reputation and their certified approval of same as to points of absolute safety secured before the ordering of the new iron and steel work.

In addition to the approval of these expert engineers the iron and steel work will be inspected and certified to as to its requisite quality by the well-known engineering and inspection firm G. W. G. Ferris & Co who will also inspect the work during its erection and will certify to its completeness as a whole. The mason carpenter and all other work will also be closely inspected during construction by competent superintendents.

In the reconstruction of the Coliseum the contractors will be given ample time in which to complete the building and when it is entirely finished another thorough inspection will be made by the same engineers and a satisfactory report received from them before a public entertainment of any character will be given in the building.

The Coliseum was intended originally to have been completed the early part of this month and had already been rented for various large annual public exhibitions and attractions. The demand constantly made upon the Exhibition Company emphasized the pressing need for a building of this character and magnitude in this city and the directors have therefore concluded to reconstruct the Coliseum. In the manner above described at the earliest practicable date and thus provide Chicago with one of the largest and best constructed exhibition buildings in the world.

The building will be completed early next year.

ChicagoChronicle, March 16, 1896

The Chicago Coliseum, in which the democratic national convention will be called to order July 7, 1896, has assumed the outlines of a building. The ninth iron truss was placed last Thursday, and if the man in the Auditorium tower attends to his business the twelfth, and last, truss will be in place by the time The Sunday ChronicLe is before its readers. Fourteen feet, in height, of the brick walls are up, all around, and the material and laborers are waiting for the last iron truss. to be put in position and the filling in will follow, and without any unnecessary rush the structure will be finished by May 25. This will give a leeway of six weeks for convention purposes.

A Permanent Structure.
The Coliseum will differ from most places in which national conventions have been held, in this, that it is to be permanent. None of the temporary attachments or ugly and ungainly arrangements in most national convention halls will here be seen. Chicago being the unquestioned natural 10-cation for national conventions it remained to build here a structure that would meet any requirement in the way of conventions. This the Coliseum will be. If the democratic convention had not come to Chicago the Coliseum would have been built just the same.

A good deal has been written and published and spoken about the size of the Coliseum and its capacity. The average reader who has not made a study of such things is very apt to know nothing about the size of a building from printed figures or make an erroneous conclusion if they attempt to guess. It has been stated that the building will cover 285,000 square feet, the ground floor area being 213,000 square feet, the remainder being allotted to the gallery. This does not give the reader unaccustomed to figures any conception of the size of the structure. Those who have seen the Madison Square garden building of New York will know something of the size of the Coliseum when it is stated that the latter is twice the size of the former.

The building now in course of construction in St. Louis, in which the republican national convention will hold its sessions, will be 180×260 feet. It will not require even a comMon school education to figure the comparative insignificance of the St. Louis building to the Chicago Coliseum. ‘The former when finished could be set inside of the latter and there would then be room enough for a race course, a football game, a bicycle tourney and a circus.

A Mammoth Auditorium.
Colonel John T. Dickinson, president of the Coliseum Company, and James O. Heyworth, vice president, and S. S. Beaman, architect of the Coliseum, have figured out these dimensions, and their credibility is not to be questioned. The enterprise is one which cannot depend upon uncertainties. It will be finished as planned and at the time specified and as described to the public, barring the high tower seen in the pictures and cuts of the building. The completion of that is not necessary for convention or for any other purpose.

The seating capacity of the hall for delegates is over 1,000. There will be 906 on the list. The capacity for the alternates is the same. The speaker’s stand will seat 300, more than has ever been on a speaker’s stand in any convention. The newspapers will be accorded for actual working men room for 250. Their desks will be in front of the speaker and not back of him as has been too often the case in former conventions. The total of these figures is 2,550. The gallery and the promenade will accommodate 15,000. This does not mean the push and overflow which come to every national convention and which usually gets in, regardless of the capacity of the structure. It does not include the force necessary to the handling of a convention. It does not, taking in all that have been classified, mean the capacity of the building. So far as that is concerned but half of the building will be used by the convention and the people who will be admitted. The temporary partition will be east and west from a point just south of the tower, which is the half way point. The unoccupied section of the building, the south end, will hold the entire convention and its visitors, if they should decide to adjourn for pleasure and did not wish to get from under the roof. It would be folly to fill the entire structure with seats. Those in the remote ends would never hear. People who stood in the extreme.sections of the manufactures building at the world’s fair at the time of the Initial dedication in the fall of 1892 will understand why it would be folly to fill the Coliseum with seats.

The arrangement of the seats will be in the form of an amphitheater. The section that will seat the delegates will be immediately in front of the speaker, and will be divided into seven blocks. The alternates’ seats will be irnmediately in the rear, and divided in the same manner. Flanking these sections, right and left, will be two sections of seats, divided into four blocks each, for distinguished guests. The gallery will be for that contingent known as the dear public, or as many of the contingent as will have enough influence to get in. It is this contingent which is sometimes mistaken by foreign visitors for the convention proper. It is the contingent that makes most of the noise, and is always read to resent any action of the delegates or ruling of the speaker which runs counter to the contingent’s idea. The chairs throughout will be the same. The man in the gallery who will do most of the yelling will have as good a chair as the senator who may be a delegate at large. The chairs will be on the campstool order, with backs, but not upholstered.

An Immense Gallery.
The gallery extending around the entire structure will be forty feet in the clear. The committee-rooms—the number is not limited—will be convenient to the floor of the delegation and will be furnished with every necessary convenience, well ventilated and lighted by incandescents if night sessions should become necessary. The toilet-rooms on the main floor and on the gallery floor will be permanently constructed from the completion of the building. These arrangements will be in keeping with the general finish of the building, and consequently modern and perfect.

In addition to the committee-rooms, Colonel Dickinson and his coadjutor, Heyworth. will have a number of rooms furnished for the benefit of the great daily newspaper representatives. Each metropolitan daily will have its own office in the building, if it wishes to, and each one of these offices will be furnished with every facility required for the quick transmission of reports. No other convention hall in this country has ever had any such arrangements.

For the benefit of the man who is never satisfied until he knows everything, it is necessary to add that restaurants, cafes and stands with refreshments, except intoxicants, will be scattered about the structure and in the hands of people who will be required to satisfy the management that the concessionaires understand their business. Colonel Dickinson is now prepared to receive bids from those who want concessions.

Light and Ventilation.
The exits to a building like the Coliseum would under any circumstances be numerous and properly located. The arrangement for light and ventilation is about as perfect as could be made. The location of the building insures a delightful breeze. The structure is isolated; there is no other building within 100 feet. To the east are the green and restful swards of Jackson park, which made the white city such a vision, and within sound of the delegations are the swish-iIng waters of Lake Michigan. The openings in the building on all sides are numerous, giving an uninterrupted supply o that breeze so famous in Chicago in summer.
The roof is also constructed with a view of increasing the ventilation, if that were necessary. It would really seem proper, in view of all this, in connection with Chicago’s summer climate. to advise delegates to bring their overcoats and their heavy underwear.

The grand entrance of the Coliseum will be in the Sixty-third street end. The speaker’s stand will be on the east side. Thus, while the speaker will confront the west in his rulings, the convention will look to the east for its rulings.

Telegraphic Facilities.
The operating-rooms of the Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies will be underneath the press platform and a tube from each writer’s desk will carry his report to the telegraphic operators below, and this transmission will be the work of a moment. When Colonel Dickinson was secretary of the world’s fair he had constant occasion to come in contact with the press of the country. He understands its wants and what is necessary to accommodate it and he is making personal exertions looking toward the interests of working newspaper men in the coming convention. He promises that his plans will be so well carried out that every newspaper man in the convention will be in favor of having all conventions held in this city.

Transportation Facilities.
The means for reaching the Coliseum and for leaving it are known and understood by Chicago people. For the benefit of those without the city something about this is necessary.

The Illinois Central railroad is obligated to furnish the same sort of service during the convention that it furnished during the world’s fair and that was perfect. Extra trains will run every few minutes from Randolph street to Sixty-third street. The distance from the Sixty-third street station to the south entrance to the Coliseum is less than one block. If there should be night sessions extra night trains will be run up to the hour of adjournment. The time between the city and the Coliseum by these trains will be less than fifteen minutes.

The trains on the Alley “L’ run to a station almost at the very entrance of the building. In this connection it is added that the Alley “L’ people promise that before thebconvention meets its loop on the Wabash avenue side as far as Randolph street will be in operation, thus giving through and quick transportation from the business center to the Coliseum.

Electric lines, with through cars—no transfers from train to train—will run on Sixty-third street west, connecting with the Cottage Grove and State street cable lines. The electric lines to Pullman, Kensington, South Chicago and other suburban places south run within a few feet of the building.

Other Coliseum Attractions.
There are people who are under the impression that the Coliseum will be christened by the democratic national convention. Unfortunately the Coliseum will not have this distinguished consideration. Buffalo Bill opens the building June 1, and occupies it until the 15th, with his wild west show. From June 18 to 20 the cycle tourney, on a quarter-mile track, has the building.

July 4 will occur the patriotic musical festival under the auspices of the business men of Chicago.

The convention comes next. July 21-23 sees another cycle tourney. Aug. 10 the southern states exposition will open there. From Oct. 19 to Nov. 1 the Barnum and Bailey “Only Only’ will begin a session of two weeks. From Nov. 4 to 7 the horse show will be inaugurated, and will be followed by the fat stock show. The week before Thanksgiving will begin with a series of athletic sports, a national game of football taking place on Thanksgiving. This will be the first football game ever played in a roofed amphitheater.

The reader who may wonder how so many varied affairs can occur in one structure is informed that the blocks of seats in the Coliseum are partable and can be thrown in any desired position or into any part of the building. It is estimated, on what the managers say are good grounds, that between June 1 and Dec. 1 1,500,000 will visit the Col-Iseum. It is unnecessary to add that the Coliseum will become politically famous by reason of its first nominee becoming president the following year.

Chicago Tribune June 2, 1896
From the Coliseum Building last night came fierce whoops and yelps, followed by the rattle of rifles and revolvers.

“I knew the Dimmicrats were a-goin’ to hev a hot time,” said a startled farmer on a Big Four train, “but I didn’t think they’d begin shutin’ so quick.”

For it was not the partisans of either Grover Cleveland, William Russell, or Gov. Altgeld who made the sanguinary demonstrations. The convention does not come for a month. It may be divided up between three, four, or a dozen candidates, but the convention which opened the big building out Stony Island way yesterday was solid for one man. He was the biggest thing in the Thirty-fourth Ward, not expecting the Coliseum Building itself and the statue of the Republic down in the lagoon.

He was Buffalo Bill.

Russell may doubt the loyalty of some of his followers, and Altgeld may be in doubt for a considerable portion of the time as to just where “he is at.” But when Mr. Buffalo Cody, at the head of a couple of dozen reformed cow-punchers dashed out from two or three hand[painted mountains and shot 300 blank cartridges into the backs of the redskins chasing the Deadwood stage coach the excited audience simply stood up and holloed.

And when the cruel war was over, and the cowboys were borrowing tobacco from the slain Indians in the back room, and the hero of the World’s Fair and all Europe halted his panting charge down in front of the first row of boxes, there was a sense of enthusiasm for which future candiadtes in the Coliseum would be willing to pay.

On His Old Stamping Ground.
Buffalo Bill was back on his old stamping ground. Last night his Arabs and Indians were again fraternizing with the small boys of Woodlawn, and the cowboys were hunting up some of the old trails that led south to the wet corner of Hyde Park. It was appropriate for Buffalo Bill to receive first plaudits in the Coliseum, for the big convention hall stands exactly on the site of his World’s Fair camp.

There was a big crowd out to see him, both afternoon and evening, a crowd that came early and staid to the concert. It cheered everything from Buffalo Bill down to buffalo calf that was shot at ninety-five distinct and separate times without apparent injury.

It was the same show. The Cossacks charged down on the people in the end boxes with drawn swords, and the Irish lancers rode so stiffly it was feared one or two of them would tumble off and break. There was first of all the grand review, which was a sort of minstrel first part, “introducing all the members of the company.” There were half naked Indians with war paint on, at least the book said it was war paint, and there were cowboys, Arabs, Mexicans, and a detachment of cavalry from a half dozen different countries. And after they had all galloped to their stations the bugles blew a fanfare and Buffalo Bill dashed to the front and waved his hat and apparently said something which nobody understood, but which everybody cheered to the echo.

Then there was a horse race, in which a Cossack unfortunately badly defeated a cowboy. A pony post-rider then dashed about the ring, making lightning changes of horses and riding half the time with both feet dragging on the ground. After Buffalo Bill had obligingly driven away a band of marauding Indians and allowed the entertainment to proceed the Arabians took possession of the ring. While the rest of the troops were walking on swords and apparently trying to turn themselves inside out a dancing dervish mounted a barrel and turned around and around for ten minutes straight. He seemed able to keep it up for several months without stopping for meals, and unless an impatient audience shoots him will some day furnish a clew to perpetual motion.

Cossacks Do Trick Riding.
Then the Cossacks rode. They ride by hanging to a horse by their hands or their feet or teeth or their hair. It doesn’t seem to bother which. Sometimes they ride in their saddles, but more often they thump along the ground or stand straight up in their saddles or ride backwards, while the audience makes bets on how long it will be before they break their necks.

Vincente Oropeza is a Mexican who can do more with a rope than common people can with a wire. He puts a noose in the rope, and then revolves it so that it stands out as iff it were a wire. He jumps into the loop and out again, and ends up by lassoing all of his obliging friends in sight.

Buffalo Bill, who had already rescued an emigrant train and a stage coach, managed to arrive at the close of the performance just in time to keep the Indians, who had escaped from their dressing rooms again, from shooting the paint all off a property cabin in which the settlers were surreptitiously concealed. When the Indians saw Buffalo Bill they seemed to be struck by the fear that he was going to reduce their salaries, for they immediately retired. The settlers’ lives were saved, and Policeman Higgins of the Woodlawn Station, who contemplated sending in a riot call for the wagon, took his seat again.

tobey

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show Poster

Offers Bill a Governorship.
One thing was demonstrated by the performances in regard to the Coliseum. It is a mascot. Before the afternoon performance was ended Buffalo Bill received a telegram announcing he could receive the Republican nomination for Governor of Nebraska if he would accept the nomination. “I haven’t got enough money to run for Governor,” he said. Still, he didn’t know but he might change his mind after breathing the air of the Coliseum for two weeks.

Salt Lake City Herald, June 28, 1896

coliseum,

The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in the Coliseum. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. (This inflationary measure would have increased the amount of money in circulation and aided cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.)

College football teams immediately saw the feasibility of playing indoor games in the Coliseum, and four big games took place:

Chicago Tribune, December 25, 1897

The Coliseum Building, in Sixty-third street, burned to the ground early last evening. Three hundred persons connected with the manufacturers’ carnival and winter fair were in the huge structure when the fire began. In attempting to save their personal effects many had narrow escapes from death. A large number were injured. A dozen persons were reported missing, but all who were known to be in the building at the time the fire started were accounted for by 10 o’clock except four. Those of whom nothing could be learned and who are believed to have perished are:

Byrnes, Joseph

Geyser, Howard

Huffian, Sholan

Malosoum, J. A. Turk

It was thought that Pauline Dauphine, a dancer. 14 years old, and her mother, had also been lost, but they appeared late at night at their home, 14 West Randolph street.

The total loss on building and contents, the latter being property of exhibiters, is estimated at $617,000.

The winter fair had been closed at 5:30 o’clock for supper. The three or four hundred visitors had all left the building and the exhibiters and their people were eating supper or preparing to leave the building for an hour. The Streets of Cairo troupe, forty in number, had spread their table in their quarters in the north end of the building The fire spread with rapidity unexampled since the burning of the Manufactures Building at the World’s Fair. The structure almost in an instant was filled with the densest smoke. Most of the exhibiters would have been able to make their escape without difficulty or danger if they had not stopped and attempted to save their personal be-longings.

The Injured.
Following is the list of the injured:

Allaby, William

Ament, George W.

Baba, Ali

Dekreko, George

Duggan, Eugene

Dekreko, Eugene

Foote, Peter

Harley, Robert

Hamilton, Harry

La Belle Saida

Lyons, G. A.

Lyons. Mme. Helene

Maher. James

Morley, M. J.

Murphy. Frank

Nalbandi, Jacob

Parker. Harry

Robertson, Wiltiam

Wheeler, M. J.

Weiss, Louis

Wright, W. H.

Heavy Loss All Around.
The loss due to the fire falls heavily on both Insurance companies and property-owners. The cost of the Coliseum was placed last evening by S. S. Beman, the architect, at $350,000. The interior furnishing cost
$100,000. Insurance on the building was $120,000. Exhibiters were without exception uninsured. They estimated their aggregate loss at $167,000.

The list of losses, as given by those affected, follows: