Well kids, you're looking at the southeast corner of Madison & Damen, incidentally the nearest parking lot to the United Center. Naturally, it wasn't always like that— this site was once a dense urban environment with the Lewis Institute building as one anchor. Built by the estate of hardware merchant Allen C. Lewis in 1895 as a school for liberal arts, engineering, and science, the Lewis Institute operated independently until a 1940 merger with Bronzeville's Armour Institute brought about the Illinois Intitute of Technology (IIT). That campus has, of course, been reestablished in Bronzeville. And since the 1960s, the presence established in the Near West Side (west of Ashland) has been that of subsidized housing complexes, a stadium, and stadium parking.
·Hint: This College Building and Everything Around it is Gone [Curbed Chicago]
·United Center Coverage [Curbed Chicago]
·The Sermon and the Institute [IIT]
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