Marshall Field Garden Apartments
- Architect
- Andrew J. Thomas
- City
- Chicago, IL
Marshall Field Garden Apartments is a subsidized housing complex spanning two full city blocks in the Near North Side, built in 1929 to be the largest moderate-income housing development in the country: 628 units across 10 buildings. It was financed by the estate of Marshall Field, the department-store magnate, and directed by his grandson Marshall Field III, with architect Andrew J. Thomas designing a project meant to house people affordably while sparking renewal of the surrounding blocks.
the building
Modeled on the Dunbar. The complex was one of two large philanthropic housing developments built in Chicago in 1929, alongside the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments at 47th and Michigan; both were modeled after the Dunbar Apartments, built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in Harlem in 1926.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the time of its construction it was the largest moderate-income housing development in the United States. It was meant to be the first of three or four similar projects, but the Great Depression halted those plans.
nearby
- Carling Hotel
- Eugenie Lane Apartments
- Clark-Netsch House
- Henry Gerber House
- Three Arts Club
- Albert F. Madlener House