(Former) Chicago Historical Society Building
- Architect
- Henry Ives Cobb
- Year
- 1892
- Style
- Romanesque Revival
- City
- Chicago, IL
Completed in 1892 on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets, this granite-clad building was designed by Henry Ives Cobb as a home for Walter Loomis Newberry, founder of Chicago's Newberry Library. It became headquarters of the Chicago Historical Society after the society's original building burned in the Great Chicago Fire, serving that role until the society relocated to Lincoln Park in 1931.
the building
Life after the society. Once the Historical Society moved out, the building cycled through a magazine publisher, the Works Progress Administration, the Loyal Order of Moose, and the Chicago Institute of Design from 1946 to 1956, followed by recording studios in the 1950s and 60s. Since 1985 it has operated as a string of nightclubs, including Peter Gatien's Limelight from 1985 to 1989, and today houses Tao Asian Bistro's Chicago location.
the style
Cobb worked in the heavy, masonry-forward Romanesque idiom popularized by Henry Hobson Richardson, cladding the building entirely in granite.
More on Romanesque Revivalsignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 as the Old Chicago Historical Society Building, and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1997.
nearby
- Tree Studios, Annexes and Courtyard
- Ransom R Cable House
- Medinah Temple
- Boyce Building
- St. James Cathedral, Chicago
- Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago