Welcome to CornerSpotter, Curbed's regular game in which you, fair readers, consult archival streetscape photos or postcard illustrations to identify the building(s) and/or location presented. Time to tap that reservoir of urban minutiae and flaunt it before your fellow readers. Fire away in the comments, and we'll reveal the correct identity and backstory tomorrow.
An early Italianate in downtown Chicago, this debonair structure rose in place of its virtually identical predecessor of the same name following the Great Fire's clean sweep. The same architect was behind both. The second take, which stands before you, went up almost immediately after the Fire. Flames may have proved too fierce for the first, but the replacement building survived many a political machination (as it was a favorite stopover for scheming politicos) to last well into to 20th Century. The steady vertical climb of downtown was its undoing. As is often the case with upheavals of the distant past, the tower which took this building's place is now itself a landmark — one recently assigned a new purpose. Alright folks, do your thing.
·CornerSpotter [Curbed Chicago]
Loading comments...