I looked at LaSalle Street briefly back in June of 2008, taking photos of the Rookery, Chicago Board of Trade and another bank. In July of 2008 I featured a skyscraper that had been “chopped off” and replaced with a more modern tower. But let’s look at the Rookery first, which like the Wainwright Building…
Tag: Beaux-Arts
The Chicago River and Civic Identity
I would argue that the approximate one mile from the Lake Shore Drive Bridge to Wolf Point, where the Chicago River splits into its North and South branches, is easily one of the most famous vistas in the world. Along it you will see the Wrigley Building, the Tribune Tower and many others you’d recognize…
Civic and Retail Monuments, Chicago
I was always intrigued how for decades, the Cook County Building/Chicago City Hall stared at the Marshall Fields Department Store across the Daley Plaza and Block 37. Then, several years ago, Block 37 was redeveloped, Marshall Field’s became a Macy’s, and that grand urban vista was blocked and altered, most likely forever. While it looks…
Churches Around the Courthouse Square, Decorah, Iowa
The ensemble of buildings around the Winneshiek Courthouse in Decorah is extraordinary in that churches fill a full two dies of the square, and the remaining two are partially filled with civic buildings. Starting on the west side and working in a counter-clockwise direction, we see St Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church. As is common with…
Winneshiek County Courthouse, Decorah, Iowa
One of the more spectacular courthouses I’ve seen lately is the Winneshiek County Courthouse in Decorah, Iowa, located in the northeastern reaches of the state. Replacing the first permanent courthouse on the site, and costing $125,000 to build, it was designed by A.C. Kinney of Minneapolis and completed in 1904. I suppose I would describe…
Around Downtown, Galesburg, Illinois
Whiting Hall the Italianate style building above and below, was originally part of Knox College and functioned as a women’s seminary. The central core is from 1854-7, with the east wing added in 1885 and the west wing added in 1895, when it received its current name. It is now senior housing. The Knox County…
Downtown Springfield
Downtown Springfield is dominated by a public square at the intersection of two major cross streets. While for much of its history during the Twentieth Century it was a morass of open pavement, in what looks to be the 1970s it was converted into a park and traffic was routed into a single lane that…
Bolivar, Polk County
We visited Bolivar in Polk County, both of which were indirectly named after two famous people. Bolivar was named after a city of the same name in Tennessee where many early settlers came from, which of course was named after the famous liberator of many South American countries, Simon Bolivar. Polk County was not named…
Bates Street North of St. Matthew’s Cemetery
While St. Matthew’s Cemetery, which I looked at back in January of 2021, was distant from the central city for much of its history, it still needed housing for its workers, and there are many older wood frame houses on Bates Street north of the burial ground that I suspect once housed its employees, such…
Bowling Green, Pike County
Constructed in 1917, the Pike County courthouse sits in the middle of the square in downtown Bowling Green. There is a veterans’ memorial on the southwest corner of the building. It’s in a reserved Beaux-Arts style, typical of the time. Apparently Champ Clark, Speaker of the House served from this part of the state. You…