W. F. Hall Printing Co. III
Life Span: 1925-1988
Location: 4600 W. Diversey Ave
Architect: Weiss & Niestadt
Inland Printer, April, 1925
The New W. F. Hall Building
When the cornerstone of the new W. F. Hall building, Chicago, was laid on December 11, the following document, written by Edwin M. Colvin, vice-president and secretary, was deposited among others in a box within the stone:
PAST·PRESENT·FUTURE
We are assembled here this day for the purpose of dedicating a wonderful building to one of the oldest of crafts, that of printing.
Yesteryear, as time is reckoned by geologists, the blue waters of Lake Michigan rolled over the spot where we now stand, and yesterday, by the same reckoning, the North American Indian stalked his prey through the tall grasses of endless prairies.
Likewise, tomorrow, some of our descendants now living will congregate here and contemplate what may seem to them our puny efforts, but will without doubt regard this site as the geographical center of the greatest city of the world.
We are proud to have been among those pioneers who were instrumental in bringing printing out of the chaos of struggling art into the realm of crea. tive art and mighty industry.
- The World’s Largest Commercial Printing Plant
The illustration above gives a partial view of the new plant of the W. F. Hall Printing Company, Chicago, which when completed will be the largest commercial printing plant in the world. The two-story section is 100 by 500 feet; the one-story section 500 by 900 feet. The building is rapidly nearing completion.
In less than two decades we have builded one of the world’s greatest institutions devoted to the production of commercial literature, and we owe our success to the loyalty of our employees, the confidence of people to whom we sell, and the integrity of people from whom we buy. We are not unmindful of the indulgence of Almighty God, Who has blessed us with uninterrupted good health, as well as unfailing strength to meet the exigencies incident to the conduct of a large enterprise. Nor do we forget another factor contributive to the fulfillment of our dreams—the protecting wing of the greatest government of all time.
You of the future will take your motive power and much of your food from the air; you will take your heat from the depths of the earth; a single revolution of your press, whether photographic or electrical, will imprint its kiss upon the virgin surface of thousands of sheets of paper instead of one; your homes will be widely separated from your activities—twenty-five, fifty, one hundred miles—yet you will go to and fro in fractions of an hour; you will be in close communication with the planets: from your easy chair you will view the entire surface of the earth—icy wastes, mountains, forests, green fields and witching sea.
But you will be no more abreast of the times than we of the present—you will be simply living in that era when these things shall have come to pass because of the restlessness of man.
Chicago Tribune, May 18, 1924
Work will start next month on the largest printing establishment of its kind in the world, the $2,000,000 plant of the W. F. Hall Printing company, on the seventeen acre tract bounded by Diversey, Wellington, Kilpatrick, and the Northwestern railway. A picture of this huge group of structures is shown in a nearby column.
The present Hall plant is in the block bounded by Chicago avenue, Superior, Townsend, and Kingsbury. This will be either sold or rented when the equipment is moved to the northwest side on completion of the new buildings next spring.
500 Foot Office Building.
Architects Weiss & Niestadt have drawn plans for a main administration building of concrete, two stories, with foundations for a third, to be 500 feet long, fronting on Diversey. It’ll be 100 feet deep and will be occupied by the offices, receiving department, employment, and welfare departments, and cafeteria on the first floor. The general offices, photo-engraving, composing room, and foundry will be on the second.
To the north will be. a one story concrete and steel building, 500×800, with only one interior dividing wall. This will house the presses, bindery, and other manufacturing departments.
Largest of Its Kind.
The Hall concern is said to be the largest in the world doing commercial printing of catalogs and magazines. Among the concerns whose catalog work it does are Montgomery “Ward & Co., The National Cloak & Suit, Charles William stores and Sears, Roebuck & Co. Photoplay, the System magazines and others are printed.
An interesting angle to the acquirement of the site for the new plant was told at the time it was bought, July, 1922, but is worth repeating. Henry G. Zander and his partner, George Frederick Goester, of the realty firm of Goester & Zander, originally owned 435 acres in the neighborhood. Gradually they subdivided it and built it up with homes.
“Help Keep the City Clean.”
At least twelve large industries have been turned down and at higher prices than the Hall concern paid. No firm which had a foundry, a machine shop, or a lumber yard in its plant was considered. A buyer must sign an agreement to use electric power and thus do away with smoke and grime, and to erect a building architecturally attractive.
The Hall company fulfilled all these requirements and signed an agreement. You’ll perhaps notice a big smoke stack in the picture, but that is only for heating the plant. All power will be electrical.
Plenty of Playgrounds.
The company intends to use considerable space for their employes recreation. They bought 580,000 square feet of space and their buildings will only cover 450,000. The balance ultimately will be for expansion, and meanwhile will be used for baseball diamonds, tennis courts, outdoor swimming pools, etc.
The Hall company was founded In 1892 by William Franklin HalL.
Chicago Tribune, January 26, 1985
W.F. Hall Printing Co., a unit of Mobil Corp., is laying off 750 employees at its Chicago printing and binding plants as a result of losing a contract to print Playboy magazine. In addition, the company is moving its headquarters, which employs 170 people, to northwest suburban Itasca. Hall said the layoffs which began earlier this month, will be completed by Aug 1.
Playboy is expected to complete transferring its printing to Quad Graphics of Pewaukee. Wis
The phaseout affects printing and binding operations at 4600 W Diversey, which also houses the headquarters and printing operations for Chicago Rotoprint, 4601 W. Belmont Ave. Paperback book manufacturing and warehousing operations at 2441 N. Normandy Ave., which employs 475 people, will not be affected. Although some operations will remain at the Diversey and Belmont plants, Jim Johnstone, vice president of employee relations, said the company isn’t sure whether it will lease the unused space or sell the buildings.
He said the company is working with the Greater North Pulaski Development Corp. to find users for the plants.
Hall had been the principal printer of Playboy for 30 years. “We had been negotiating with Playboy for about three years,” Johnstone said. “They finally notified us last October of their intentions, then notified us by means of a press release in mid-November” about its decision to use another printer.
“We still haven’t been definitively advised by Playboy when they will complete taking their .work out of here,” Johnstone said. He said, though, that the company expects them to be gone by the beginning of August.
A Playboy spokesman said that in the last few years more than half of the Playbov issues have beeh printed somewhere else, although all of the magazines continued to be bound at Hall. Hall, once one of the area’s largest printers, employed about 2,000 people at its Chicago printing and binding plants at its peak in the 1960s, Johnstone said. Over the last few years the company has lost customers seeking lower cost operations in other states.
The loss of the Playboy contract was “the last straw, he said.
Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1985
W.F. Hall to sell Chicago plant
W.F. Hall Printing Co. has retained the Des Plaines real estate brokerage firm of Harrington, Tideman, O’Leary & Co. to sell its printing plant at 4600 W. Diversey Ave., Chicago. The 1.1, million-square-foot plant, which extends from Diversey to Belmont Avenue, is the largest industrial facility currently available in the Chicago area, according to Timothy M. O’Leary, vice president of Harrington. W.F. Hall is asking $4.5 million for the property, O’Leary said. For sale are the company’s printing and binding operation on Diversey, which was shut down earlier this year: and the Chicago Rotoprint facility on Belmont avenue, which is expected to close by February. A partnership involving W. A. Krueger Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Tngier A.G. of Zurich, recently announced plans to acquire W. F. Hall from Mobil Corp., which paid the $50.5 million for the printer in 1979.
- W.F. Hall Printing Co. is selling its plant at 4600 W. Diversey Ave. Hall’s broker, Harrington, Tideman, O’Leary & Co. of Des Plaines, says the facility is the largest industrial property for sale in the Chicago area.
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