Michigan-Chestnut Building, Saks Fifth Avenue, Chemetron Building, Renaissance Building, 840 North Michigan Avenue Building
Life Span: 1928-1991
Location: 840 N. Michigan avenue, SW Corner Michigan Avenue and Chestnut Street
Archiect: Holabird & Roche
Chicago Tribune, November 6, 1927
Late word reveals that the skyscraper report said was to have risen at the southwest corner of Michigan avenue and Chestnut street has shrunk to a structure of six and seven stories—six stories on the Michigan and Chestnut fronts and seven stories on the court side.
Boul Mich’s latest acquisition is to be dignified structure of simple lines, designed by Holabird & Roche, and it will be devoted to shops of the exclusive type now found around the Drake, offices, and studios. The two lower floors will contain shops, then there will be a couple of floors of offices, and fifty studios above will have fifteen foot ceilings. The studios will be suitable for interior decorators, painters, sculptors, musicians, etc.
The street elevations will be of stone, while the other sides will be of a face brick of a color to match. Penthouses and other unsightly roof appendages will be treated so as to be in architectural harmony with the rest of the building.
The owner is the Michigan and Chestnut Building company, of which W. B. Frankenstein is president, and it is stated that the project will represent an investment of $1,250,000. It will occupy a site fronting 107 feet on Michigan and 200 on Chestnut. A number of handsome old residences on the site owned by Palmer estate, are to be razed at once and it is hoped to have the new structure ready by May 1, 1928.
The Hageman-Harris company are the builders and Frankenstein & Co. will manage the structure when it is completed.
The picture above is an exclusive shop, office, and studio structure, to be erected immediately at the southwest corner of Michigan avenue and Chestnut street, across from the Fourth Presbyterian church. Holabird & Roche are the architects, and the owner of the Michigan and Chestnut Building company, of which W. B. Frankenstein is president. It is stated that the cost will be about $1,250,000.
Chicago Tribune, October 21, 1928
Advertising Agency to Move North to Boul Mich
Collins-Kirk, Inc., advertising, for the last six years at 750 North Michigan avenue, has leased a suite of offices on the fifth floor of tje new Michigan-Chestnut building through John A. Cullinan of Frankenstein & Co.
Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1928
BY AL CHASE.
Chicago’s retail department store field, after many years of threats and false alarms by various eastern concerns, at last is to be invaded by a big New York firm, and the interesting point to the announcement is that the locale of the invasion is the near north side and not the loop. Saks & Co., who operate two big Gotham establishments, have leased space of the new Michigan-Chestnut building on the southwest corner of North Michigan avenue and Chestnut street, and will open a Chicago branch about the middle of February.
W. B. Frankenstein, president of the Michigan-Chestnut Building company, is now in New York getting the final signatures on the long term lease, which ws negotiated by Frankenstein & Co. Saks will take all of the first floor, 103×200, with the exception of store space now occupied by Yamanaka & Co., Japanese importers. They also will occupy the entire second floor and half of the third.
Store for Women.
The lease is for a term of years, beginning Jan. 1, 1928. The rental was not disclosed. The store, according to Mr. Frankenstein, will be operated along the lines somewhat similar to Charles A. Stevens & Bros.’ State street store; that is, it will cater exclusively to women, with ready-to-wear garments, millinery, shoes, etc.
Saks & Co.’s two New York stores are at 5th avenue and 49th street, and at Broadway and 34th street. Despite the fact that the new local store on Boul Mich and a thousand miles from Gotham, the new uptown emporium is to be called “Saks’ 5th Avenue.”
Plan Elaborate Store.
Work will begin at once on extensive alterations to be followed by the installation of what is claimed will be unusually elaborate fixtures.
The locating of this big New York firm settles a lively flock of rumors. Several Chicago brokerage firms have sought for many months to persuade Saks to cross the Hudson, and several likely locations were considered.
Architectural Forum, 1929
Chicago Tribune, February 3, 1929
WEIRD TALES
Abstracted From:
Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up, Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock, 2013
In 1928 Popular Fiction Publishing Company, publishers of Weird Tales, moved into the 840 N. Michigan building after a short stint at 450 W. Ohio street and remained there until 1938. During these years, Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos stories first appeared in Weird Tales, starting with “The Call of Cthulhu” in 1928. The publisher of Weird Tales was attempting to make the loss-making magazine profitable and offered the job of editor to Lovecraft, who declined, citing his reluctance to relocate to Chicago on aesthetic grounds. Editor Edwin Baird was succeeded by Farnsworth Wright, whose writing Lovecraft had criticized. Lovecraft’s submissions were often rejected by Wright. This may have been partially due to censorship guidelines imposed in the aftermath of a Weird Tales story that hinted at necrophilia, although after Lovecraft’s death, Wright accepted many of the stories he had originally rejected. Lovecraft was an obscure pulp fiction writer in his lifetime, was rediscovered in the decades following his death in 1937, inspiring a new generation of horror, fantasy and science fiction writers. While considered one of the great American horror writers, Lovecraft is considered controversial because some of his writings include his racist beliefs. The first mainstream article about Lovecraft, “The Ten-cent Ivory Tower,” appeared in the January 1946 issue of Esquire magazine.2
Chicago artist, and Dil Pickle Club attendee, Margaret Brundage’s first pulp cover was for the September 1932 Oriental Stories, also published by the Popular Fiction Company. Brundage went on to create covers for other magazines produced by the same publisher, Popular Fiction Publishing, including The Magic Carpet and most famously for Weird Tales. The magazine is regarded by historians of fantasy and science fiction as a legend in the field, with Robert Weinberg, author of a history of the magazine, considering it “the most important and influential of all fantasy magazines”
Brundage sold 66 original pulp cover illustrations to Weird Tales from 1933 to 1945. Her work often featured fantasy scenes of women trapped in sexually vulnerable situations. Brundage covers were very popular with the readers of Weird Tales, but most of the public was not aware of the artist’s gender, because her work was usually signed “M. Brundage.” When puritanical social forces complained about the overt sexuality of Weird Tales cover art, the editor finally revealed that the artist was a woman, hoping to mollify the perceived offensiveness of her work.
H.P. Lovecraft in 1934, and Margaret Brundage reading the March, 1947 copy of Weird Tales.
One more note, Chicago-born author Robert Bloch was the youngest and last surviving member of the original “Lovecraft Circle,” a group of pulp-fiction authors who gathered during the 1920s and 1930s around the reclusive Providence, Rhode Island writer, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. In 1959, Mr. Bloch wrote the novel “Psycho” which Hitchcock’s movie was based on.
Colorized view from what is believed to be the Weird Science editorial office, 840 N. Michigan building, in 1937.
Weird Tales’ Chicago editorial office, in 1937. Business manager Bill Sprenger, editor Farnsworth Wright seated, Henry Kuttner, and Robert Bloch on the right.
Chicago Tribune, June 30, 1935
One of the most important north side leases in several years, signed yesterday, will move Saks-Fifth Avenue specialty store from its present location at 840 North Michigan avenue, south several blocks to 669 North Michigan avenue. According to Adam L. Gimbel, president of the store, $200,000 will be spent in remodeling the present five-story building—once occupied by the Blackstone shop—and in erecting a five-story addition adjoining it on the south.1
When completed early in the fall it is expected the Saks-Fifth Avenue company will have one of the most beautiful specialty shops in the country, according to store officials. The entire building is to be air conditioned. Holabird & Root, associated with William Servic, are the architects.
Setting for Luxury Merchandise.
Gimbel said:
- Plans for the exterior and interior have been completed to create a perfect setting for luxury merchandise. The spirit of the interior throughout will reflect that of a fine home. The scheme is a blend of regency and modern.
Each floor will have special furniture, done in the contemporary manner. Fireplaces will add to the atmosphere of intimacy, which will be enhanced by the fact that little or no merchandise will be in view. Displays of goods will be shown in niches and other similar settings or in cabinets.
It is to be an entirely femine store. Nothing in the decorations will appeal to the masculine sex. The new space will permit enlargement of facilities for production of fur pieces, millinery, and dressmaking. Extensive workroom space will be provided.
Owned by Wolbach.
The present five story building and the twenty-nine feet adjoining on the south on which the five story addition is to be erected are owned by Murray Wolbach, who has leased the property to Saks-Fifth Avenue for a term of years at an undisclosed rental. The completed building and annex will front 69 feet on Michigan avenue with a depth of 143 feet, There will be approximately 40,000 square feet of floor space.
Chicago Tribune, July 31, 1977
The vertical shopping center at Water Tower Place—the multi-use building at Michigan Avenue and Pearson Street—has given birth.
Just across the street at 840 N. Michigan in the Renaissance Building (formerly Chemetron Building), a new “mini-mall” has been created.
Taking its cue from Water Tower Place, the mini-mall—covering more than 14,000 square feet with space for about 17 stores—is on the fifth floor of the seven-story structure.
Had it not been for the stimulus and expected shopping traffic generated by the big vertical center, William Farnsworth said, his little project never would have materialized.
Farnsworth is president of Farnsworth, Palmer & Co., co-owner with another firm of the 40-year-old Renaissance Building on the Magnificent Mile.
Farnsworth hit on the mini-mall idea several years ago when the former office structure was acquired, and he’s spent a quarter of a million dollars in transforming the fifth floor into a pint-sized shopping center. Upper North Michigan is a hot street for retailing these days, Farnsworth said. Merchants in ground-floor stores that line the avenue in pastyears have paid $20 or $15 per square foot a year in rent, but he foresees $30 and $35 rates with the growing commercial strength of the area.
Farnsworth said that a prospective tenant for a small ground-floor store in the Renaissance Building may be paying $40 a foot for the privilege of doing business there.
He also believes that demand for space on North Michigan by merchants, which outstrips the availability of stores, will make upper-floor space attractive.
A leather goods shop is one of the stores in the “mini-mall” on the fifth floor of 840 N. Michigan Ave.
Rental rates in the mini-mall range from $9 to $13 a square foot.
Farnsworth said that merchants, wholesalers as well as retailers, having offices on the upper floors of buildings is nothing new. Loop office high rises have had them for years.
But the idea of actually transforming a corridor into a mall with “setbacks” and attractive “storefronts” is an uncommon one, Farnsworth said.
The Renaissance mall which was completed about five months ago, is expected to atract boutiques that want the same type of customers attracted to the building’s ground floor stores, Crate & Barrel and Colby’s.
A leather-goods store, an optometrist, and a beauty parlor have taken space.
Farnsworth said with candor that the leasing program so far has been less than dramatic, but he looks for that to change.
“I think that as the migration of retail stores continues to North Michigan Avenue, within a year and a half from now we’ll have a waiting list,” he said.
Chicago Tribune, April 2, 1990
Make Room for Hyatt?
Some tenants in the building at 840 N. Michigan Ave. say they have been given notice to move out in May. Sources say US Equities Realty Inc., the owner, will raze the building in June to make way for a new 32-story structure. The Park Hyatt Hotel, now at Chicago and Michigan Avenues, would occupy the top 30 stories of the building, a source close to the deal said. The first two levels will be devoted to retailing, he said. US Equities says any speculation at this point is premature. US Equities also is said to be ready to go on plans to build two towers aove Union Station if it can sign Maxwell Communication Corp. as the major tenant.
Chicago Tribune, April 9, 1990
A Non-Moving Sale Planned
Crate & Barrel plans a “We Don’t Want to Move It” sale starting April 21 at its store at 840 N. Michigan Ave. The store will close in mid-May because owners of the building plan to raze it the following month to make way for a new high-rise hotel and retail structure.
Stanley Nitzberg, vice president, says the firm would have to store any unsold merchandise in its Northbrook warehouse. It’s constructing a five-story building at Michigan Avenue and Erie Street, but the store won’t open until around Labor Day. The new store will have twice the selling space of the old unit.
The company also will move to its original outlet at 1510 N. Wells St. to North Avenue and Hasted Street late this summer.
840 N. Michigan Avenue Building
Sanborn Fire Map
1935
NOTES:
1 In 1923, Saks & Co. merged with Gimbel Brothers, Inc., which was owned by a cousin of Horace Saks, Bernard Gimbel.
2 “The Loved Dead” is a story written by H. P. Lovecraft and C. M. Eddy, Jr. A controversial tale of necrophilia, it was published in Weird Tales issue for May/July 1924.
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