Page Brothers Building
- Architects
- John M. Van Osdel Hill & Waltersdorf, 1902 facade
- Year
- 1872
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Page Brothers Building at 177-91 North State Street was built in 1872 by architect John Mills Van Osdel, one of the city's leading post-Fire architects. Its north facade, facing Lake Street, carries the last remaining cast-iron front left in Chicago, a construction technique common before the 1871 Great Chicago Fire that mostly vanished afterward, since many existing iron fronts had melted in the fire's heat.
the building
Last cast-iron front. The Lake Street facade is the sole surviving cast-iron front in Chicago, built in 1872 after the Great Chicago Fire even though the technique had been the pre-fire norm.
1902 State Street remodel. In 1902 the west facade facing State Street was remodeled and a floor added, a change that tracked the shift of commercial activity in the Loop from Lake Street toward State Street.
the style
The building's cast-iron facade represents a construction technique that was standard before 1871 but rare afterward, making this a physical holdover from pre-Fire Chicago building practice.
the architect
John Mills Van Osdel was a prominent architect working in Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire, known for buildings in the Jewelers Row District and for Old Main at the University of Arkansas.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 1975, and individually designated a Chicago Landmark (L-40) on January 28, 1983. The building stands next to the Chicago Theatre, another Chicago Landmark.
nearby
- Chicago Theatre
- Nederlander Theatre
- 35 East Wacker Building
- Old Dearborn Bank Building
- Virgin Hotels Chicago
- Oliver Building