Heisen Building

Heisen Building, Transportation Building
Life Span: 1911-Present
Location: 608 S. Dearborn, SW corner of Harrison and Dearborn streets
Architect: William Strippleman

Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1910

Two Great Buildings to Be Erected on Harrison Street Corners.
Nothing emphasizes more sharply the era of improvement which has set in in the district south of Van Buren street and east of State street than the two great buildings which Charles C. Heisen and Arthur B. Jones are to erect at the southwest corner of Harrison and Dearborn streets and the southwest corner of Harrison and Clark streets, respectively.

Heisen’s building will front 300 feet on Dearborn and Federal streets and 61.28 feet On Harrison street, will be twenty-two stories high, of stone, brick, and terra cotta exterior, fireproof throughout, and will cost when completed about $2,000,000. A permit has been taken out for the first section of 123 feet frontage, the cost being given at $750,000, and the foundation for which is now approaching completion. William Strippleman is the architect, and the building contractors are W. J. Newman & Co. It will be one of the most striking buildings in Chicago and is certain to greatly further the development of that part of the city. The building will be ready for occupancy on May 1, 1911.

The Jones-building will front 150 feet on Clark street and 100 on Harrison, will be twelve stories high, of fireproof construction, and with concrete floors, and is expected to cost around $500,000. The first floor will be divided into store space and the upper floors will be either leased as a whole or divided. It is to be so arranged, however, that it can be used for office or mercantile purposes. C. H. Burnham & Co. are the architects, and the building will be in charge of the Bowes Realty company. It is expected to be completed for the spring renting of 1912.

Other improvements in progress or planned in that district comprise the great building which Mrs. Borland has nearly completed on Federal street, while it is stated that Rand, McNally & Co. expect to begin work on their proposed great building at the northwest corner of Clark and Harrison streets next fall. It also is said that Poole Bros. are preparing to build a six story addition to their building at the southeast corner of the two streets.

Chicago Examiner, April 30, 1911

LOAN OF $1,750,000 ON NEW SKYSCRAPER
Charles C. Heisen has secured a loan Of $1,750,000 in connection with the construction of his twenty-two-story office building at the southwest corner of Dearborn and Harrison streets. The Chicago Title & Trust Company is trustee in the loan which is in the shape of a bond issue Of 1,750 bonds of the denomination of $,1000 each running twenty years at 4 per cent interest. The building is expected to cost about $3,000.

C. C Heisen. a pioneer in Dearborn street office building construction, is erecting a twenty-two story office building at the southwest corner of Dearborn and Harrison streets, the cost, including the land, being $3,000,000.

Transportation Building
1911

Chicago Tribune September 9, 1911

The Chicago Telephone Company has declined to put telephones in the new Heisen building, now nearly completed at Harrison and Dearborn streets. The company s refusal is based on a fear of becoming involved with the electrical workers’ union, which has been at outs with C. C. Heisen, owner of the new skyscraper.

As a result Mr. Heisen and Charles Scribner’s Sons, publishers, who are tenants of tho Helsen building, petitioned the Superior court yesterday for a writ of mandamus to compel the company to install telephones on the twelfth floor of the new structure.

Company’s Duty to Public.
It is understood that the suit in court will argue that under the telephone company’s franchise from the city it is compelled to furnish telephone service to all customers, irrespective of whether the fulfillment of such prescribed duty will be pleasing to this or that labor union.

B. E. Sunny, president of the telephone company, saId last night that his company was willing to install the instruments, but that Electrical union No. 184, with which the company had a contract, would not furnish the workmen.

Company’s Duty to the Public.
Mr. Sunny was asked:

Is it not a fact, and also is it not the theory on which you operate, that the company’s franchise makes it obligatory on the telephone company to furnish equal service without discrimination to all customers?

Mr. Sunny replied “yes.” He added:

The company and the union have a contract that the union shall install all telephones in buildings under construction. The reason the union will not furnish us workmen to put telephones in the Heisen building is because of trouble between Heisen and the electrical union.

Will Press Case in Court.
Mr. Heisen contends that this is no excuse for the public service corporation to supply service, and he will press the matter in the courts, He says the telephones now in use in the building were installed by non-union electricians. He adds that before any telephones had been installed he wrote to J. M. Boyle, business agent of the electricians, and demanded that the union supply him with workmen for the installation of the instruments.

“I learned that Boyle served notice on the telephone company to the effect that if it even furnished the telephone instruments for my building he would call a strike of all electricians in the employ of the company,” said Mr. Heisen.

The complainants’ petition alleges that they communicated with Mr. Sunny and demanded that he order the telephones installed. They assert that their demands were denied,

Trouble Began Last Spring.
Labor trouble on the building began early last spring when the steamfitters and plumbers first engaged In their dispute. It was the scene of many labor and several riots. Jobn Ramler, a steamfitter, was shot and almost killed during one of the battles between members of his union and a crew of gunmen,

Mr. Heisen said last night that labor trouble had cost him $143,000. He attributes the present difficulties to the trouble between the steamfitters and plumbers, The electricians’ union was the only building trade organization that sympathized with the plumbers. The other trades supported the steamfitters.

The Heisen building will be finished In a month, according to its owner. It is twenty- two stories high.

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