Railway Exchange Building

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Railway Exchange Building, Santa Fe Building
Life Span: 1904-Present
Location: NW corner of S. Michigan and Jackson
Architect: D. H. Burnham & Co.

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904

Railway Exchange

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
Railway Exchange Bldg.—80 E. Jackson boul nw. cor. Michigan av.

Inter Ocean, April 19, 1903

Railway Exchange to Be Erected on Old Argyle Site.
The big building to be erected by the Standard Office company at the northwest corner of Jackson and Michigan boulevards, and for which the building permit was issued some time ago, will be known as the Railway Exchange building. D. H. Burnham & Co., the architects, have let the general contract to the T. Nicholson & Sons company, aud work will begin promptly on May 1. The building will be seventeen instead of sixteen stories high, and will cost $2,000,000.

union

Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1904

Ordinary citizens who for years have suffered, at home or office, from the roar and grime of passing railway trains, particularly Illinois Central trains, should be happy now. Railway officials, from presidents down to office clerks, are suffering the same torture, and they blame it all on the Illinois Central.

The unusual complaint of railway men against railway racket comes from the Railway Exchange building, Michigan avenue and Jackson boulevard. Many high officials have luxurious offices there. Among them are President A. J. Earling and George R. Peck of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, President S. M. Felton of the Alton, Paul Morton, second vice president; E. D.
Kenna, first vice president; and E. P. Rip-ley, president of the Santa Fé system. These and many more moved to the big Michigan avenue building in the fond belief that they would escape much of the noise and grime of downtown Chicago.

Appreciate Switch Engines Now.
But they forgot the Illinois Central suburban trains and switch engines. Now they have stood it as long as they can. They have made heartrending appeals to the officials of the Illinois Central to abate the nuisance, to make the switch engines stop smoking and the passenger engines as well. As fellow railway men, they have requested that electricity be installed as motive power, and nice, noiseless, smokeless motor cars installed to haul the trains along the lake front.

And the Illinois Central officials have listened politely to the protests as coming from business associates and old friends, and have replied: “Why, certainly; we would be glad to install electricity and will do so—when it is shown that motors are practical.”

Where Experts Disagree.
Then, they add, they have made many experiments with electricity and that all have proved unsatisfactory. And they conclude by saying they are sorry for their brother railway men, but see no way out of the difficulty at present.

It has been proven, however, tenants in the Railway Exchange declare, by the Baltimore and Ohio road that electricity as a motive power is feasible. That road has used electric motors for handling both freight and passenger trains successfully in Baltimore for years.

The New York Central, too, has arranged for the electrification of its lines within thirty-five miles of New York. The plans provide for a third rail carrying a direct cur-rent. The voltage is low and the third rail will be protected so that human contact with it will be practically impossible.
But in spite of all these arguments the Illinois Central engines continue to smoke and the Railway Exchange tenants, big and little, suffer. But perhaps the average man who has suffered for years may think “they had it coming to them.”

RAILWAY EXCHANGE building, at 224 South Michigan Avenue, on the northwest corner of S. Michigan avenue, was built in 1904. The formal entrance to the building is located at 80 E. Jackson street, which in 1904, was a more important street than Michigan Avenue. D. H. Burnham & Co. were the architects and Joachim Giaver the engineer. The building is 17 stories high, with one basement, on hardpan caissons.

The building is organized as a classicization of John Wellborn Root’s Rookery. A street level two-story enclosed court designed in a symmetrical Beaux-Arts style was surmounted by an open lightwell which was surrounded by a ring of offices. By the formal arched entrance on Jackson Boulevard, a large staircase led to shops and a second-floor balcony. White-glazed terracotta sheaths the exterior façade and interior court and the lightwell is lined with white-glazed brick. Classical designs were used for the ornamental dentils, balusters, and column capitals.

This was the building from which the American de Forest Wireless Telegraph Company sent horse race results to the City of Traverse gambling boat that sailed along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

D. H. Burnham & Co. moved its offices to the fourteenth floor, and Burnham’s descendants continued ownership in the building until 1952. It was in a penthouse on the northeast corner of the roof of this building that architect Daniel Burnnham created his famous 1909 Plan for Chicago. This was also where many visitors were brought to view the work-in-progress.

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