Printing House Row District
The Printing House Row District is a National Historic Landmark District encompassing four architecturally important buildings on South Dearborn Street, between Jackson Boulevard and Ida B. Wells Drive, in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row Historic District and listed as a National Historic Landmark as South Dearborn Street – Printing House Row North Historic District on January 7, 1976. The district includes the Monadnock Building, the Manhattan Building, the Fisher Building, and the Old Colony Building.
The Manhattan Building (far right), the Fisher Building (far left), and the Old Colony Building (middle-left), three of the four buildings in the district.
The Monadnock Building is a 16-story skyscraper located at 53 West Jackson Boulevard in the south Loop area of Chicago. The north half of the building was designed by the firm of Burnham & Root and built starting in 1891. At 215 feet, it is the tallest load-bearing brick building ever constructed. It employed the first portal system of wind bracing in the United States. Its decorative staircases represent the first structural use of aluminum in building construction. The later south half, constructed in 1893, was designed by Holabird & Roche and is similar in color and profile to the original, but the design is more traditionally ornate. When completed, it was the largest office building in the world. The success of the building was the catalyst for an important new business center at the southern end of the Loop.
Building seen from Dearborn Street in 2005. The north half in the foreground is the earliest section (1891).
1885 sketch of preliminary design showing a smaller, more ornate building with Egyptian-style detailing
Sketch of vastly simplified 1889 design, abolishing ornamentation entirely in favor of plain contoured brick
The decorative cast aluminum staircases, shown here in 1893, were the first use of aluminum in building construction.