Manhattan Building (Chicago, Illinois)

Manhattan Bidon Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Chicago Landmark
Manhattan Building at the northeast corner of Dearborn St. and Ida B. Wells Drive.
Location	Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41°52′33″N87°37′45″W / 41.87583°N 87.62917°W / 41.87583; -87.62917
Built	1888
Architect	William LeBaron Jenney
Architectural style	Skyscraper
NRHP reference No.	76000697 [1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	March 16, 1976
Designated CL	July 7, 1978

The Manhattan Building is a 16-story building at 431 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by architect William Le Baron Jenney and constructed from 1889 to 1891. ^[2] It is the oldest surviving skyscraper in the world to use a purely skeletal supporting structure. ^[3] It is the sixth oldest surviving building in the city. The building was the first home of the Paymaster Corporation, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976, and designated a Chicago Landmark on July 7, 1978. ^[4]

Architecture

The distinctive bow windows provide light into the building's interior spaces, and the combination of a granite facade for the lower floors and brick facade for the upper stories helps lighten the load placed on the internal steel framework. ^[4] The north and south walls of tile are supported on steel cantilevers that carry the load back to the internal supporting structure.

The versatility and strength of metal frame construction made the skyscraper possible, as evidenced by this structure, which reached the then-astounding height of 16 stories in 1891. The first to ever do so in America. Its architect, William LeBaron Jenney, was a pioneer in the development of tall buildings.

The Manhattan Building at its original 317-321 Dearborn Street address, 1890s.

Gallery

• 
  The Manhattan Building anchors an impressive row of historic skyscrapers along South Dearborn Street
• 
  Looking South along South Dearborn Street
• 
  Facade Detail
• 
  Window Detail
• 
  Window Detail

See also

• Chicago architecture

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
2. Manhattan Building. Archived 2007-02-03 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Landmarks (URL accessed 9 July 2006).
3. Manhattan Building, Chicago. ^[usurped] Emporis Buildings (URL accessed 9 July 2006).Manhattan Building, 431 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Cook County, IL. American Memory from the Library of Congress (URL accessed 9 July 2006).
4. "Manhattan Building". Archived from the original on February 3, 2007. Retrieved March 2, 2007.