The Cultural Walk -An Architectural Tour In 1996, a comprehensive self-guided walking tour of historic State Street was developed as part of the State Street Renovation Project. Wrought iron informational kiosks containing details about 22 landmark buildings representing three distinct architectural periods (the late 19th century's Chicago School, the Mercantile Classicism of the early 20th century, and the Beaux Arts and Art Deco styles of the world war) have been placed along an eight block stretch. Learn about the history of State Street and the history of American retailing. Take a virtual tour of "that Great Street!" Introduction: State Street: Chicago's Great Department Store Street 1. State-Lake Building, 190 North State 2. Page Brothers Building, 177-179 North State 3. Chicago Theatre, 175 North State 4. Marshall Field's, 111 North State 5. Reliance Building, 32 North State 6. State-Madison Building (The Boston Store), 22 West Madison 7. Stevens Building, 17 North State 8. Mandel Brothers Building, 1 North State 9. Chicago Building, 7 West Madison 10. Carson Pirie Scott & Company, 1 South State 11. Mentor Building, 39 South State 12. North American Building, 36 South State 13. Singer Building, 120 South State 14. Palmer House Hilton, 17 East Monroe 15. Century Building, 202 South State 16. Consumer Building, 220 South State 17. Benson & Rixon Building, 230 South State 18. Lytton Building, 235 South State 19. Maurice L. Rothschild Building, 300 South State 20. A.M. Rothschild & Co. (Goldblatt's Building), 333 South State 21. Second Leiter Building, 401 South State 22. Chicago Public Library, 400 South State Introduction: State Street: Chicago's Great Department Store Street There is only one State Street. Widely celebrated in song, "that great street" has been known since the 1870s for its concentration of premier department stores and its world-class architecture. Chicago's earliest shopping district was located along Lake Street. Parallel to the Chicago River and only one block south, Lake Street absorbed the traffic and commerce that already existed along the river's edge. State Street developed when entrepreneur Potter Palmer recognized that the curve of the river would limit Chicago's potential for economic growth and envisioned State as the city's major retailing thoroughfare. State Street in the 1860s was a narrow, unpaved street edged by wooden sidewalks and a confusion of small shops. Palmer, who had been in business with Marshall Field and Levi Leiter in a Lake Street store before the Civil War, translated his dream into reality by purchasing a 3/4 mile stretch of land along State Street, convincing Field and Leiter to open the street's first major department store at the northeast corner of State and Washington Streets. By 1870, State Street had become Chicago's shopping destination. Widespread destruction caused by the Chicago Fire of 1871 merely delayed its growth. By the 1890s, State Street was home to Chicago's finest retail establishments, with the more prestigious and expensive stores clustered at the north end and the more popular stores carrying a greater variety of merchandise at the south end. Department store architecture is as important to Chicago as State Street's retailing history. It reflects the genius of the city's earliest great designers. Lining State Street are buildings by William Le Baron Jenney and the architects who trained under him: Louis Sullivan, William Holabird, Martin Roche, and Daniel Burnham. Taking advantage of Chicago's location as a railroad hub, its rapid commercial expansion in the lumber, coal and steel industries, its population explosion (Chicago tripled in size between 1870 and 1890), and its immediate need to rebuild following the Chicago Fire, these men set out to create a new building type with a whole new look. Because Chicago's central business district was restricted in size by Lake Michigan, the Chicago River and, to the south, railroad yards, the only direction to build was up. The result was the skyscraper. The commercial style developed by these pioneers in Chicago's Loop between 1880 and 1910 became known as the "Chicago School of Architecture." Recognized worldwide for its modernism, the style of these Chicago School skyscrapers had no precedent. Their exterior design looked like a grid, an expression of the building's interior metal frame, and ornamentation was generally simple, and non-historical. The style was an outgrowth of major advances in technology. Steel frame construction, developed in the 1880s, meant that tall buildings with flexible floor plans could be erected quickly and cheaply. The first sheets of plate glass rolled in the 1880s allowed for maximum light and ventilation. Faster and safer elevators in the 1870s made tall buildings practical and new fireproofing techniques made them safe. In 1893, Jenney firmly established his reputation as a pioneer in the development of steel skeleton construction, designing huge buildings to house Siegel, Cooper & Co. (the Second Leiter Building, #21) and the Fair Store (demolished). Distinguished by broad open floor space, impressive height, and simplified exteriors, both ushered in the era of the "Big Store." Carson Pirie Scott & Co., before moving to its current location, operated on the ground floor of the Reliance Building (#5). This tall narrow building, sheathed in white terra cotta, was designed by Burnham and Root. It is universally recognized as one of Chicago's most distinguished early steel and glass skyscrapers. In 1899, Louis Sullivan began designing the Schlesinger and Mayer Store building, which has housed Carson's since 1904 (#10). There is no finer example of a simple elegant Chicago School building. Like numerous other buildings of the Chicago School located along State Street, such as the Mandel Brothers Building (#8) and the A.M. Rothschild & Co. Building (#20), Carson's interior metal frame is expressed in a grid-like exterior design. In addition, Sullivan's highly original ornamentation embellishes the frame. Several handsome commercial buildings never intended for department store use also dot the street. The Chicago Building (#9), by Holabird & Roche, is among the city's stellar Chicago School office buildings. Rapp & Rapp's 1921 Chicago Theater (#3) recalls the romantic time of movie palaces. The elegantly detailed Mentor Building (#11), designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw, echoes the design ingenuity typically found in his beautiful country houses. The current Palmer House Hotel (#14) is the fourth Palmer House built on this site and serves as a constant reminder that Potter Palmer was State Street's major developer. Department stores and significant architecture tell the story of State Street. As the 20th century progressed, retailing became firmly established -- anchored by numerous distinguished department stores. At the same time, many of the city's finest Chicago School buildings were constructed. State Street reflects Chicago's mercantile beginnings: its history is rich and its architecture is splendid. Credits: Historic Certification Consultants 1. State Lake Building, 190 North State Street, Rapp & Rapp, 1917. This elegant 12-story white terra cotta office building originally housed the State-Lake Theater. The broad archway on the first floor surrounded on either side by broad fluted columns framed a grand marquee. Inside, the former 2700-seat auditorium still serves entertainment, having been converted into broadcasting studios for ABC-WLS by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1984. Rapp & Rapp, the architects for the building, were highly regarded for their theaters, having designed over 400 movie palaces across the country. Many of their commissions, including the Chicago Theater across the street, were for Balaban and Katz, Chicago's foremost theater promoters and managers. Balaban and Katz maintained their offices in the State-Lake Building for many years, 2. Page Brothers Building, 177-191 North State Street, John M. Van Osdel, 1872; Hill & Woltersdorf (State Street facade), 1902. The cast iron Lake Street facade of the Page Brothers Building designed in 1872 by John Mills Van Osdel, Chicago's first professional architect, serves as the lone reminder that Lake Street was Chicago's earliest major commercial street. In the 19th century, cast iron was traditionally used for bridges and the internal structure of buildings, but because of its flexibility and light weight, it was also applied to the fronts of buildings, imitating stone, Rows of cast iron front buildings, designed in the Italianate style, lined Lake Street from 1856 through the early 1870s, yet this is one of only two remaining cast iron front buildings in Chicago. Its State Street facade was modernized in 1902, as State Street was becoming more fashionable. 3. Chicago Theater, 175 North State Street, Rapp & Rapp, 1921. The opening of the Chicago Theater, on October 21, 1921, heralded the appearance of the largest and most lavish movie palace in Chicago. Built by Balaban and Katz for $4 million, it was a far cry from the storefront nickelodeons of a decade earlier, Parisian influence dominated the architectural design, with the six-story entrance arch modeled after the Arc de Triomphe and the grand lobby and furnishings in the elaborate style of King Louis XIV. Inside the 3800-seat auditorium, the movie goer entered a world of fantasy and romance -- on screen and off -- enjoying the finest first-run movie, a cartoon or short feature, a news reel, and a live stage show. Once facing demolition, the theater was restored in 1986 by Daniel P. Coffey & Assoc. to its former opulence and again features the best of live entertainment. 4. Marshall Field & Co., 111 North State Street, D. H. Burnham & Co., 1902-14. In 1868, Field, Leiter and Co., which became Marshall Field & Co. 13 years later, established its first department store on State Street. Convinced by their former partner and real estate developer Potter Palmer, Field and Levi Leiter built a six-story store sheathed in white Connecticut marble. When it was destroyed in 1871 by the Chicago Fire, the company merely rebuilt a similar building, palatial in size and French in character, with stately mansard roofs. In 1902, Marshall Field employed D. H. Burnham & Co. to build a more modern looking 12-story steel frame building with a grand two-story neoclassical State Street entrance -- to remind the shopper that Fields was the grandest of the grand emporiums. The store continued to expand, reaching its current form in 1914. Always the store to "give the lady what she wants," as Marshall Field himself said, Marshall Field & Co. prided itself on serving the discriminating customer, offering the world's first personal shopping service and initiating a multilingual information desk. 5. Reliance Building, 32 North State Street, Burnham & Root, 1890; D. H. Burnham & Co., 1894. Today dwarfed by surrounding taller structures, the 14-story Reliance Building epitomizes the early development of the Chicago skyscraper. Exterior walls of glass and glazed white terra cotta serve merely as a curtain for the building's underlying skeletal frame. Because leases on the upper floors of the old building on the site did not expire until 1894, the Reliance was constructed in two stages. In 1890, the upper floors of the old building were supported on jackscrews so the lower story could be demolished and the ground floor of the new building built. The new space was immediately leased to the rapidly expanding Carson, Pirie Scott & Co., who fitted their new store with mahogany woodwork and alabaster walls inlaid with gold. When the old leases ran out, the upper floors were demolished, a 10-story steel skeleton was built in 15 days, and State Street saw a handsome new speculative office building containing one of the city's finest department stores. 6. Boston Store Building, 22 West Madison, Holabird & Roche, 1905-1917. This 17-story department store building, occupying half a city block, was erected in several stages between 1905 and 1917. It was commissioned by the founder's widow, Mollie Netcher Newbury, who became known as the "Merchant Princess of State Street." Ironically, the last stage involved demolition of the Champlain Building, also designed by Holabird & Roche. The Boston Store Building was built of steel frame construction and clad in smooth-surfaced terra cotta and polished gray granite to prevent dirt and soot from lodging. The store featured a variety of unusual amenities including several small factories to manufacture goods sold in the store like ice cream and cigars, chemical laboratories for testing products, a staffed children's play room and a tennis court on the roof for employees. According to a sales brochure, it was the first State Street store with moving stairways. Today the building's 20 acres accommodate stores, display space, and offices. 7. Charles A. Stevens Building, 17 North State Street, D. H. Burnham & Co., 1912. This stately white terra cotta building topped by five richly ornamented arches has "Stevens Building" engraved across the top. Charles A. Stevens arrived in Chicago in 1886 with bolts of fine silks and soon transformed his business as a silk merchant into a prestigious store featuring ready-to-wear clothing. Promoting elegance, the store put on Chicago's first fashion shows, had a doorman to welcome customers on a red carpet, and featured "dark rooms" so that women could examine gowns under dim ballroom light. The first floor was built with an arcade or "style alley" extending from State Street to Wabash. To bring smaller shops to a street famed for department stores, Stevens leased the top 11 floors of its 19-story building to other retailers. 8. Mandel Brothers Building, 1 North State, Street, Holabird & Roche, 1912. Designed by Holabird & Roche, one of Chicago's most significant and prolific architectural firms, and completed in 1912, the Mandel Brothers Building was restored to its former appearance in 1991 by Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl. This 15-story steel frame structure was built to house a retailing operation that dates back to 1855, when the four Mandel Brothers opened a small dry goods store on south Clark Street. After moving several times, the Mandels expanded their Wabash Street store and built an elegant building on State Street. Their granite "castle in the sky" was ornamented with terra cotta, and topped by a monumental arcade. With 10 acres devoted to selling and such conveniences as reading rooms, an English tearoom, and a 13th-floor hospital, the Mandel Brothers Store established itself as one of Chicago's most elegant and accommodating department stores. 9. Chicago Building, 7 West Madison Street, Holabird & Roche, 1905. Built as the Chicago Savings and Trust Co. Building when it was constructed in 1905, the 15-story Chicago Building was designed by Holabird & Roche. Throughout their career, Holabird & Roche, along with other Chicago School architects, experimented with defining the appropriate form for the tall office building, In the Chicago Building, the interior steel framework forms the basis for the building's exterior grid-like design, with vertical piers and horizontal bands of rich brown terra cotta surrounding large Chicago windows. These windows, which consist of a large single pane of glass flanked by two operable side openings, fill the three bays from floors 2 through 14 on the 48-foot State Street frontage. The Chicago Building is one of the best remaining examples of a Chicago School office building. 10. Carson Pirie Scott & Co., 1 South State Street, Louis Sullivan, 1899-1904; D.H. Burnham & Co., 1906 (five bays); Holabird & Root, 1961 (three bays). The, Carson Pirie Scott & Co. Building is regarded by many as architect Louis Sullivan's greatest masterpiece. It was his last large commission and the ultimate achievement of the Chicago School of Architecture. The upper floors, sheathed in cream-colored terra cotta and filled with Chicago windows to flood the interior with light, express the building's underlying steel frame. At ground level, there is lavish original ornament of intricate flowers and leafy vines surrounding window displays like an ornate picture frame. The first section of the store, built in 1899, stood nine stories and faced Madison Street. Sullivan's 12-story section replaced the old store at the comer and was completed in 1904, the year Carson's bought out Schlesinger and Mayer, another dry goods retailer. In 1906, D.H. Burnham & Co. extended the store building five window bays. Holabird & Root added three more bays in 1961. The office of John Vinci completed a major restoration in 1980. 11. Mentor Building, 39 South State Street, Howard Van Doren Shaw, 1906. The dark gray brick Mentor Building, accented with cream-colored terra cotta trim, is a tall elegant structure reflecting architect Howard Van Doren Shaw's sensitivity to detail. Recessed horizontal bands of windows are framed in terra cotta and contain delicately ornamented piers. The 17-story building is one of few on the street that retains its original cornice at the top of the building. Shaw designed the R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. Building, the Burnham Library of the Chicago Art Institute, Market Square in Lake Forest, and numerous townhouses and country homes for many of Chicago's most influential businessmen. He practiced alone from the time he left the office of William Le Baron Jenney in 1893 until his death in 1926. 12. North American Building, 36 South State Street, Holabird & Roche, 1911. The North American Building was conceived as an early mixed-use building with several floors of vertical shopping. In 1911, Stumer, Rosenthal and Eckstein obtained a loan for $1 million and had plans drawn up by Holabird & Roche for a 19-story tower clad in cream terra cotta. The building was designed in the "Commercial Gothic" style derived from English 15th-century cathedrals, yet was of the most modern steel frame construction, with high-speed elevators to provide prompt service. In the basement was the North American Restaurant, described in a promotional brochure as "the handsomest restaurant in Chicago." The first 10 floors were devoted to retail shops while the floors above were sample rooms and offices for sales representatives. 13. Singer Building, 120 South State Street, Mundie & Jensen, 1926. The slender 10-story Singer Building, topped by a crown of fanciful Gothic detailing, was built as the Chicago headquarters of the Singer Sewing Machine Co. Completed in 1926, this 25' x 110' structure included a street-level retail show room, the company's "School of Dressmaking," their collections department, and corporate offices. The client's wish for a low-maintenance building with maximum natural light and a column-free interior was easily satisfied by this steel frame building sheathed in creamy terra cotta with very large windows. For, 50 years, it served admirably as a symbol of corporate stability for the country's foremost sewing machine company. 14. Palmer House Hotel, 101-129 South State Street, Holabird & Roche, 1927. Built in 1927 by Potter Palmer Jr., son of the real estate magnate responsible for State Street's emergence as the retailing center of the Midwest, this modern-looking Holabird & Roche design is Chicago's fourth "Palmer House." It replaced a massive seven-story granite-faced hotel built in 1875 by Chicago architect John M. Van Osdel. Designed with a gracious corner pavilion, Van Osdel's design was reminiscent of the domed corners of Parisian apartment houses. It was far too small, however, to accommodate the city's growing number of tourists and was supplanted in 1927 by this 2268-room hotel -- then the largest in the world. The interior features an opulent two-story interior lobby, elegant ballrooms, and a T-shaped shopping arcade. 15. Century Building, 202 South State Street, Holabird & Roche, 1915 The tall and dignified Century Building was built as a speculative office building and aggressively marketed, much as similar buildings are today. A promotional pamphlet was issued by the Buck and Rayner Co. describing it as a "modern translation of the Spanish." The cover of the pamphlet proclaimed that the name "Twentieth Century Building" was selected by popular vote from 6000 suggestions. Buck and Rayner intended to occupy the first-floor corner space and the entire basement for use as a retail drug store. The rest of the first floor was to be rented out to stores. The upper floors, because of the building's frame construction, could remain undivided or be subdivided as tenants wished. Although richly ornamented between the floors, this 16-story building has narrow vertical lines that proclaim its height and definition as a skyscraper. 16. Consumers Building, 220 South State Street, Mundie & Jensen, 1913. The 21-story Consumers Building, clad in white terra cotta, was designed by a relatively unknown but distinguished architectural firm, Mundie & Jensen. Their other works include several bank buildings and the Union League Club. William Bryce Mundie for many years practiced in the shadow of his former partner, William Le Baron Jenney, the prominent Chicago School architect best known as the father of skyscraper construction. On Jenney's death in 1907, the firm became Mundie & Jensen. Mundie's design for the Consumers Building continues in Jenney's tradition. Like Jenney's Second Leiter Building, the grid-like exterior clearly expresses the building's internal metal skeleton. Its sparse geometric ornamentation and use of the Chicago window (a large single pane flanked by two operable side openings) make it a fine example of Chicago School architecture. 17. Benson & Rixon Building, 230 South State Street, Alfred S. Alschuler, 1937. With its sweeping rounded corner and alternating bands of enameled metal applied to concrete block and glass brick, the 1937 Benson & Rixon Building continues to appear strikingly modern. As the Depression began to lift in the late 1930s, the world believed in mechanized progress and fell in love with speed, a notion reflected in the streamlined design of trains, ocean liners, airplanes, and cars of that time. It became such a vogue that streamlining was used to market items that were never designed with speed in mind. So, for Benson & Rixon, a clothing firm that specialized in selling a suit that came with two pairs of pants, to choose an avant-garde style was not so peculiar. Their architect was Alfred S. Alschuler, designer of the 1923 London Guarantee & Accident Building on Michigan Avenue, neoclassical and vastly different, but another highly distinguished building. 18. Henry C. Lytton & Co. Building, 228 South State Street, Marshall & Fox, 1913. When he opened his State Street store in 1887, Henry C. Lytton called his store "The Hub." Starting 20 years earlier as a retail merchant in Ionia, Michigan, Lytton invested $12,000 in his Chicago operation, spending over one third of that on advertising. Soon he ran a successful retail establishment that prided itself as being "The Leading Clothiers, Furnishers and Hatters of Chicago." The store's 1892 catalogue featured "The best goods at the lowest prices," offering long and stylish capes for $5 to $20. In 1913, he hired one of Chicago's most prestigious architects Benjamin Marshall, to design a new 19-story State Street store. Marshall later built the Drake and Edgewater Beach Hotels, numerous country houses, and set the standard for luxury apartment buildings. 19. Maurice L. Rothschild Building, 300 South State Street, Holabird & Roche, 1906, 1910; Alfred S. Alschuler, 1928. Maurice L. Rothschild, before he hired Holabird & Roche to build this State Street store, operated a successful retail clothing operation in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Taking advantage of the growth potential for department stores on State Street, he erected an eight-story building in 1906, added a section three windows wide along State in 1910, and four more floors in 1928 designed by Alfred S. Alschuler. The building's underlying steel skeleton made this expansion possible. It also allowed for large windows to maximize interior light and ventilation. The construction technique and design simplicity of the Maurice L. Rothschild Building makes it a fine example of the Chicago School of Architecture. The store kept its State Street operation until 1971. 20. A.M. Rothschild & Co. Building, 333 South State Street, Holabird & Roche, 1912. The initial "R" found in medallions centered between each arch reminds us that A.M. Rothschild & Co. once occupied this 10-story, block-long building (there is no relationship between A.M. Rothschild and Maurice L. Rothschild.) Organized as a department store from the beginning, A.M. Rothschild & Co. differed from all the other State Street retail establishments, which started as dry goods and clothing stores and added other merchandise as shoppers demanded. In 1911, as business grew, Rothschild demolished the several small buildings the store occupied (including a five-story section designed by Holabird & Roche) and hired Holabird & Roche to design this beautiful steel frame Chicago School building covered in gleaming terra cotta. From 1936 until the 198Os, it served as Goldblatt's flagship store. In 1993, the building was converted by Daniel P. Coffey & Associates into shopping, rental offices, and an expansion of the Loop campus of DePaul University. 21. Second Leiter Building, 401 South State Street, William Le Baron Jenney, 1891. The Second Leiter Building is internationally known as an early Chicago School skyscraper. It introduced a new age of architectural design with a simple grid-like exterior reflecting the building's interior metal frame construction. Its architect, William Le Baron Jenney, trained many of the city's eminent designers of Chicago School commercial buildings, including Louis Sullivan, William Holabird, Martin Roche, and Daniel Burnham. Occupying a full city block, this eight-story building was developed by Levi Leiter and first leased to the "Big Store," Siegel, Cooper & Co. Neither ornate nor exclusive, it offered a wide range of goods at low prices. Jenney's skeletal design, with unobstructed interior floor area, was easily adaptable for store use by Sears, Roebuck and Co. from 1932 until 1986 and for office use today. 22. The Harold Washington Library Center, 400 South State Street, Hammond, Beeby & Babka, 1991. Chicago's main library facility, named in memory of former mayor Harold Washington, takes its design cues from the city's rich architectural heritage, including State Street's historic department stores. On the exterior, this grand civic building has a bold presence. It stands 10 stories, with a rough-faced stone base like the Rookery and five-story-high arched windows reminiscent of Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Building. It extends right to the lot line and occupies an entire city block like its neighbor across the street, the Second Leiter Building. Much of the building's exuberant metal ornament is based on leafy forms like those that inspired Sullivan's elegant decorative treatment of Carson, Pirie Scott Co. Inside, browsing feels as familiar as in any department store on State Street. From escalators conveniently located in the building's center, the public can glide from floor to floor, catching glimpses of the various collections. Whimsy wasn't neglected in the building's design, with the head of the Windy City blowing air and huge owls symbolizing learning.