THE FISHER BUILDING

CREDITS

LOCATION
343 South Dearborn Street
The Chicago Loop

CLIENT
Lucius Fisher

ARCHITECT (Original Structure)  1896   
D.H. Burnham and Company
Charles Atwood, Partner-in-Charge of Design
E.C. Shankland, Engineer

ARCHITECT (Addition)  1907                        
Peter Weber with E.C. and R.M. Shankland Engineers

ARCHITECT (Lobby Renovation) 1920 (unconfirmed) 
Unknown


CONTRACTORS (Original)
Pioneer Fireproof Construction Company
Northwestern Terra Cotta Company
Rittenhouse & Embree Company
Evans Marble Comopany
Frank L. Davis
Winslow Brothers Company
L.H. Prentice Company
Grimshaw Company and General Electric
Alfred Barker
P. F. Corbin

LINKS
Chicago Landmarks
Historic American Buildings Survey.
Charles Bowler Atwood
Village Green

CURRENT MANAGEMENT
The Village Green

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The credits are just the beginning.  Each has a story.  Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the Fisher's structural innovations, its fireproofing, elevators, and interior finishes.  It's expression of the Chicago School of Architecture.  And its personal stories.  But today, we celebrate the FISH.....

 

Lucius Fisher, I think,  must have had quite a sense of humor.  Fish... Fisher....  Get it ??

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For more photographs of CHARLES ATWOOD's work in Chicago,

 LINK HERE

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DANIEL BURNHAM. An Education

Summarizing Daniel Burnham's move toward, and education in Architecture --1) At Chicago's Central High he learns he can draw (thank you Miss Starr for noticing). 2) At the New Church Academy in Waltham, Mass, he is taught by  young Swedenborgian Harvard graduate Joseph Worcester (who, later, becomes central to the Arts and Crafts Movement in San Fransisco. 3) In Cambridge, he is tutored by Hayward Brown Tilley who introduces him to the philosophies of William Morris, John Ruskin and WPP Longfellow. 4) In Chicago, he works for Sanford Loring (terra cotta expert and later, president of Chicago Terra Cotta) and William LeBaron Jenney (structural innovator and classmate at the Ecole Centrale of Gustave Eiffel. 5) He works for John van Osdel (Chicago's first architect) and W.B. Wheelock (Chicago old school architect and sometime partner of W. W. Boyington). 6) He works for Asher Carter (architect of Old St. Pat's) William Drake and Peter B. Wight (inventor of multiple advanced fire proofing systems.)

Art. Inspiration. Philosphy.  Building Materials. Structural Engineering.  A grounding in Chicago's Culture of Architecture.  And a course in advanced Fire Proofing. 

If this is attributable to his luck, Daniel Burnham was a lucky man. And if to his Faith, its time to learn to spell (correctly) Emanuel Swedenborg!  And there was more good fortune to follow:  Margaret Sherman and John Wellborn Root --- and that elusive Harvard Degree.

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I've spent some weeks researching Daniel Burnham's early life and education --   Next week I'll begin again with his Architecture -- and a discussion of the FISHER BUILDING. 

 

 

Interior Stair.  THE FISHER BUILDING

 

 

Chicago School vs. a Classic renovaton.  Structural Innovations and Fireproofing Systems.  Elevators.  Handcrafted ornament.  The amazing kindness of Daniel Burnham.  Lucius Fisher. Misplaced credits.....and rumors of a Hookah Pipe. 

So, what's not to like?

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DANIEL BURNHAM's Uncle Joe

Joseph Worcester 1836-1913

Daniel Burnham left Chicago in 1863 to study at Thomas Worcester's Swedenborgian School in Waltham Massachusetts. Here, he met Thomas' son, Joseph, who would become his teacher, mentor and lifelong friend.

Daniel's time with Joseph was short -- less than two years. But when Daniel returned to Chicago (after that little side trip to Nevada) he knew he wanted a career in architecture. But this post is not about Daniel Burnham. It is about "Uncle Joe."

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Joseph Worcester was born in 1836 in Waltham Massachussetts. He graduated Harvard studying divinity (and architecture and drawing at Lawrence Scientific School) where he had been strongly influenced by William Morris , John Ruskin, William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Emanuel Swedenborg.) In 1864 he left Waltham to visit the San Francisco Bay area (traveling via schooner, rounding Cape Horn) . He returned to stay --after a trip to Europe -in 1867.

The Swedenborgian Church under Joseph Worcester's leadership became the center of the Bay Area's arts community. Worcester's own views on architecture significantly advanced the Arts and Crafts movement in California . Names that fall within Worcester's Circle include Bernard Maybeck, A. Page Brown, Willis Polk, Julia Morgan, Phoebe Hearst, William Keith, John Muir, Frederick Law Olmsted.

Worcester sat on Boards that reviewed the architecture and master plans for Berkeley and Stanford. And, with Willis Polk, Worcester encouraged Daniel Burnham to submit a Master Plan for the City of San Fransisco. And if not for that Earthquake.....

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In 1888 ideas were afoot to match New York's Statue of Liberty at the mouth of San Francisco Bay. Daniel Burnham REALLY wanted that commission.

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In 1892, when Daniel Burnham was nearly buried in Chicago's Columbian Exposition, he still found time to correspond with "Uncle Joe" regarding the architecture of the new Swedenborg Church in San Francisco.

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Edward Bennett was from California, educated at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris with a gift from Phoebe Hearst (where he met Peirce Anderson) . Bennett worked with Burnham, Worcester, and Polk on the Plan of San Francisco.  Peirce got Washington DC.

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H.H. Richardson left Lawrence Scientific in 1860 -- where he might well have been Worcester's classmate. (Unconfirmed). Worcester's Papers at Berkely include photographs of Richardson's work at Trinity Church in Boston.

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Joseph Worcester's major life achievements were still in the future when he taught young Daniel Burnham, fresh from Central High. But a man of this intellect, optimism, confidence and creativity --and Faith -- could certainly have shown him "possibilities." 

Daniel may not have been "educated" in Waltham.  But he knew the way.

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DANIEL BURNHAM. The Civil War

              

               When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d,

               And the great star early droop’d

               in the western sky in the night,

               I mourn’d—and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

               O ever-returning spring! trinity sure to me you bring;

               Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west,

               And thought of him I love.

               Walt Whitman  1865

Walt Whitman.  Credit Novel House Inn.

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Every generation has its War. Mine was Viet Nam, though I never fought. My father's was World War II, though he never spoke of it. It was some years before I found that my parents belonged to the "Greatest Generation." And that there were personal stories in the words "Bataan" and "Corregidor" I only knew that I lived in a very comfortable suburban home with oak trees in the back yard, maples on the street and a sandy beach just over the hill. And that in the basement, in the storage room, on the top shelf, there was a Japanese ceremonial sword in a velvet box.

The lessons of war seem not to pass from generation to generation. They simply and quietly define those who learn them, live with them. And are lost by sons and daughters.

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Daniel Burnham volunteered to fight in the Civil War when he was 15 years old. How could he not? Chicago was alive with Union Patriotism and the Underground Railroad. His father's wholesale drug business was booming. (What better wartime business than drugs?) Talk of war was everywhere.   Ten thousand Confederate soldiers were imprisoned at Camp Douglas.  (Three times that amount were rumored at Andersonville.) And Lincoln, after all, was from Illinois.

Edwin Burnham, Daniel's father, "de-enlisted" 15 year old Daniel, by reason of age.   And by the time Daniel was of draftable age, Elizabeth, his mother, had sent him to Thomas Worcester's Swedenborgian School in Waltham Massachusetts.

I don't know if Daniel was in Chicago when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Or when Abraham Lincoln's draped coffin was carried from the Illinois Central Station on Randolph Street to City Hall.

But whether he saw it, or read of it, these tragedies, doubled by the Great Fire that soon destroyed his home town, would leave scarred memories for a lifetime.

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President Grant. The Panic of 1873. Railroads. The election of Rutherford B. Hayes. Western expansion. Reconstruction. For the next twenty years the Civil War and its denouement shaped the country. These are the years when Daniel Burnham honed his craft. And imagined possibilities.

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This is when Daniel Burnham "began."  And we should not be surprised, if we look closely, to see echoes from this time past in his  planning, architecture, aspirations and morality.

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I've completed the photography for a second look at D.H. Burnham and Company's  Fisher Building -- to be featured in future posts.  But, there is always "one more mystery."  Reviewing the varied work of Charles Atwood, the Burnham design partner credited with Phase I of the Fisher, I am unsure if Atwood was a versatile and prolific architect, in control of his work  -- or if assistants Peter Weber and Fred Dinkelberg repeatedly covered for him.  Right up to the end.  I'd be glad for any of your thoughts.  Contact me HERE with fact or opinion.  Thanks.

DANIEL BURNHAM. Central High

After leaving the Garden City Institute, Daniel Burnham was enrolled in Chicago Public Schools. He attended Jones to finish his elementary education, and went on to Central High, at the corner of Monroe and Halsted. At Central, Burnham made lifelong friends (and business connections) including Nevada prospecting partner Edward Waller. (We'll hear more about him when we blog the Rookery).Link here for the state of the CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS in 1879 and before. ( It looks like one of the Swedenborgian Snows may followed Daniel from the GCI to Central.) 

CENTRAL HIGH.  Halsted Street at Monroe. Credit CPS.



While researching Daniel Burnham (while researching anyone, for that matter) I look for things we might have in common -- Chicago, for example. But the Chicago of Daniel Burnham's youth bears little resemblance to my Chicago.  We are separated by 6 Wars and  Fire.  Chicago in the late 1850's was preparing for War with the South.  Stephen A. Douglas (of the Lincoln/Douglas debates) had recently donated a portion of his Oakenwald to the University of Chicago.
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OLD UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. Cottage Grove near 34th

Archival Photographic Files, [apf2-05352], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Look at those towers!  The Building was done by W. W. Boyington.  John Root couldn't resist a good tower either.... look at Lynn Becker's post describing Burnham and Root's Church of the Covenant. 

CAMP DOUGLAS AND THE OLD UC. 35th  near Lake Shore

Archival Photographic Files, [apf2-05364], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

By 1860 Camp Douglas had been established to train new Civil War recruits.  By 1861 the Camp had become more ominous....as a prisoner of war camp for captured confederates.  Link HERE for more on the Lincoln/Douglas debates.,

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I highly recommnend the University of Chicago Archival Photographic Files....but only when you've got some time!  Link HERE.

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We're in the process of proofing, refining and obtaining permissions for the publication of  our newest project.  Preview the work here.

MARTINY. 1893

The Parthenon Frieze

Photography by Gregory H. Jenkins AIA


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DANIEL BURNHAM. Swedenborg

In 1854 eight year old Daniel Burnham was enrolled in the Garden City Institute, a Swedenborgian Academy founded by Jonathan Scammon and administered by H. Orville Snow. Two years later the building burned and Daniel was enrolled in public school.

Burnham's Swedenborgian influence did not end with the Institute. Father, Mother, Uncle, Grandfather, Brother and Sister were signators to the Swedenborgian Church in Chicago. Daniel was further educated in Waltham, Massachusetts by Joseph Worcester, son of Thomas, founder of the Swedenborgs in Boston. And finally he was tutored by Harvard Graduate and Swedenborgian Thomas Brown Tilley.

Central to Swedenborgian belief is Divine Providence and the concept of Usefulness. Plus 17 volumes of far ranging philosophy and science recorded by Emanuel Swedenborg 1668-1772. And while all of this is very interesting stuff -- and especially in tune with nineteenth century transcendentalism -- the connections that Daniel Burnham formed through his Church look to be every bit as important to his Architecture as the religion itself.

Jonathan Scammon, founder the of the Swedenborgian Community in Chicago, became one of the wealthiest men in America and was instrumental in the founding of the Chicago Historical Society. And with William Ogden in building the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad.

Joseph Worcester, in addition to running the Swedenborgian School in Waltham was an amateur architect. Soon after Daniel left Waltham, Joseph moved to San Fransisco founding the Swedeborgian movement on the Bay -- which included Architect Bernard Maybeck, and naturalist John Muir. Worcester was particularly interested in the Arts and Crafts Style and was familiar with the works and writings of John Ruskin, Viollet le duc, and William Morris. Daniel and Joseph remained lifelong friends.

Thomas Brown Tilley introduced Daniel to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's nephew, architect WPP Longfellow -- with Swedenborgian interests and a considerable knowledge of Architecture. And, with a short leap of faith --I will assume that Daniel also met Henry  -- whose use of Swedenborgian philosophy in poetry is well documented.

When Daniel Burnham returned to Chicago in 1871 he had seen what he wanted to be, knew what it looked like, and had picked up enough "Architecture" to know that when he met future partner, John Root, working in Peter Wight's office, that John was "the real deal."   I'd call THAT an education

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Swedenborg followed Daniel throughout his life. Steinway Hall. Phoebe Hearst. The Women's Building. The Masonic Temple. The Chicago Plan. Commissions and people entertwined with Daniel Burnham and his uncanny nack for lifelong friendships.  More on this to follow.

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The Saloon Building

The early Chicago Swedenborgians shared the Saloon building with the Chicago City Council, the Unitarians, the Chicago Lyceum, the US District Court and the Chicago Daily Journal.  The building was owned by Jonathan Scammaon.

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A Special Thanks is due the Swedeborgian Library here in Chicago at 77 West Washington Street.  

Link HERE.http://www.swedenborglib.org/  ..... where I have much more to learn.

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PREVIEW THE EXHIBIT

MARTINY.1893

THE PARTHENON FRIEZE

Photographs by Gregory H. Jenkins AIA

DANIEL BURNHAM. 1854

Elizabeth, Daniel Burnham's mother, kept the family in Henderson, New York as long as it took to care for her ailing father, Holland Weeks. But after Reverend Weeks' death, the family was ready to leave the quiet shores of Lake Erie. Edwin, Daniel's father, saw safe opportunity along the Erie Canal in Rome, NY. But Elizabeth insisted on Chicago. Daniel's rich Uncle Dyer had preceded them by two years and had developed a successful law practice. (Note to self. Where was Dyer when Edwin was fleeced in a late 1853 deal to buy a Joliet stone quarry?)

The Burnhams arrived in Chicago in 1854. Just in time for a cholera epidemic. Most of the town still occupied undrainable swamp. But the seemingly impossible task of raising street levels by ten feet (and jacking up the buildings that faced them) had begun. Chicago's population had doubled since 1850. Filth and growth were palpable. The Rock Island Line had just connected Chicago to the Mississippi via railroad. -- making even faster growth possible. And what seemed an impossible turn of events, the Chicago River was closed at Clark Street. A ship had rammed the bridge.

And there were Germans. Speaking German. Everywhere.

It's dangerous territory for a Blogger to guess what might have impressed or affected 8 year old Daniel Burnham most during these years. Although it is safe to assume that the move was not easy. I would look for familiar things. Amid the strangeness and chaos and filth.

The symbol of stability and comfort would be the fine, white clapboard houses. With columns. Greek Revival. Like rich Uncle Dyer's house, left behind in Sackets Harbor. Or the Widow Clarke's house in Chicago and the dozens like it.

The Widow Clarke House

Photo Credit Due the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance

It should be no mystery why, later in life, Daniel would so easily accept the classic columns, (albeit improved, and presented in stone) or why he would so thoroughly understand the need for a City Beautiful.

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Both Daniel Burnham and the Widow Clarke House took their place on South Prairie Avenue.  Though, some 100 years apart.

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Researching this post, I discovered that it was NOT Horace Greeley who said "Go West, young man....."  It was Hoosier newspaperman John Soule in 1851.  The same John Soule who ended up Pastor of the Highland Park Presbyterian Church.  He died in 1891.

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PREVIEW THE EXHIBIT

MARTINY.1893

THE PARTHENON FRIEZE

Photographs by Gregory H. Jenkins AIA

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