Living Landmarks of Chicago

Description

Living Landmarks of Chicago goes beyond the what, when, and where to tell the how and why of 50 Chicago landmarks. From the parlor used as a meat locker to the fight over the Field Museum, history comes to life in this non-traditional guidebook. 

History lines Chicago’s sidewalks. Stroll down LaSalle or Dearborn or State and you’ll see skyscrapers that have been there for a century or more. It’s easy to scurry by, to dismiss the building itself, but a hunt for placards turns up landmarks every few feet, it seems. Here’s a Chicago landmark; there’s a National Historic landmark. They’re everywhere.

Ironically, these skyscrapers keep the city grounded; they illustrate a past where visionaries took fanciful, impossible ideas and made them reality. Buildings sinking? Raise them. River polluting the lake and its precious drinking water? Reverse it. Overpopulation and urban sprawl making it challenging to get to work? Build up. From the bare to the ornate, from exposed beams to ornamented facades, the city’s architecture is unrestrainedly various yet provides a cohesive, beautiful skyline that illustrates the creativity of necessity, and the necessity of creativity.

In this nontraditional guidebook, Theresa L. Goodrich tells the stories of fifty landmarks in Chicago. Each chapter is a vignette that introduces the landmark and brings it to life, and the book is organized chronologically to illustrate the development of the city’s distinct personality. 

These fifty landmarks weave an interconnected tale of Chicago between 1836 and 1932 (and beyond). I’ve chosen each for a reason. If your favorite is missing, I am developing a companion website to include more landmarks and stories (eventually!).

You might notice there are several hotels. That’s because so many wonderful old buildings have been adapted in that manner. It’s pretty cool to be able to spend the night in a building designed by Jenney or Burnham.

Landmarks listed as Current Name (Original Name – where applicable)

1. Clarke House
2. Grant Park (Lake Park)
3. Lincoln Park (Lake Park)
4. Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (Charles Hull House)
5. Water Tower & Pumping Station
6. Page Brothers Building
7. Palmer House
8. Delaware Building (Bryant Block)
9. Driehaus Museum (Nickerson Mansion)
10. Fine Arts Building (Studebaker Brothers’ Lake Front Carriage Repository)
11. Rookery Building
12. Glessner House
13. Auditorium Building
14. Monadnock Block
15. Charnley-Persky House (James Charnley)
16. Macy’s (Marshall Field and Company Building)
17. Museum of Science & Industry (Palace of Fine Arts)
18. Art Institute of Chicago
19. Newberry Library
20. Kimpton Gray (New York Life Insurance Building)
21. Tree Studios
22. Harry Caray’s (Chicago Varnish Company)
23. Chicago Cultural Center (Chicago Public Library)
24. Sullivan Center (Schlesinger & Mayer)
25. Symphony Center (Orchestra Hall)
26. CIBC Theatre (Majestic Building and Theater)
27. The Blackstone Hotel
28. Hotel Julian (Federal Life Building)
29. Hotel Monaco (D.B. Fisk & Company)
30. Navy Pier (Municipal Pier #2)
31. DuSable Bridge (Michigan Avenue Bridge)
32. The Drake Hotel
33. Wrigley Building
34. Field Museum of Natural History
35. The Chicago Theatre
36. LondonHouse Hotel (London Guarantee Building)
37. The Chicago Temple
38. Union Station
39. Tribune Tower
40. Hotel Allegro (Bismarck Hotel)
41. James M. Nederlander Theatre (Oriental Theatre)
42. Hilton Chicago (Stevens Hotel)
43. InterContinental Chicago (Medinah Athletic Cub)
44. Civic Opera House
45. Pendry Chicago (Carbide and Carbon Building)
46. Shedd Aquarium
47. Adler Planetarium
48. Chicago Board of Trade Building
49. The Merchandise Mart
50. Chicago History Museum (Chicago Historical Society)