Elks National Memorial Headquarters Building
- Architect
- Egerton Swartwout
- Year
- 1924
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks built this domed Beaux-Arts memorial and headquarters at 2750 North Lakeview Avenue to honor members of the order who served in World War I. Architect Egerton Swartwout won the commission through a design competition administered by the American Institute of Architects, and construction ran from 1924 to 1926.
the building
Stone from five countries. The building was assembled from marble shipped in from Greece, Austria, France, Belgium, and Italy alongside American stone from Vermont, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri, with limestone brought in from Indiana — a scale of sourcing that helped earn it descriptions as one of the most magnificent memorials in the world.
Sculpture and murals. The rotunda and grounds carry work by sculptors Adolph A. Weinman, Laura Gardin Fraser, and James Earle Fraser, and murals by Eugene Savage and Edwin Blashfield.
the style
Swartwout designed the memorial in the Beaux-Arts style, with a dome and colonnaded facade that give the World War I memorial the monumental, ceremonial character of the era's great civic buildings.
More on Beaux-Artsthe architect
Egerton Swartwout won the Elks Memorial commission through a national design competition administered by the American Institute of Architects, producing a building later described as one of the most magnificent memorials in the world.
significance
The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on October 1, 2003, as an individually protected structure across from Lincoln Park.
nearby
- Brewster Apartments
- Francis J. Dewes House
- Building at 320 West Oakdale Avenue
- Theurer-Wrigley House
- Building at 2440 N. Lakeview Avenue
- Building at 399 West Fullerton Parkway