Manhattan Building (Chicago, Illinois)

Significant dates

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″N 87°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]
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 as well as the 30th oldest building in the state. 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

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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.

Gallery

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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

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Manhattan Building (Chicago, Illinois).

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 15, 2006.
^ Manhattan Building. Archived 2007-02-03 at the Wayback Machine Chicago Landmarks (URL accessed 9 July 2006).
^ 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).
^ ^a ^b "Manhattan Building". Archived from the original on February 3, 2007. Retrieved March 2, 2007.

v t e Chicago Landmark skyscrapers
National Historic Landmark, National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Landmark	The Arc at Old Colony Auditorium Building Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Chicago Board of Trade Building Fisher Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Reliance Building Rookery Building
National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Landmark	860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments Gage Group Buildings Mundelein College Skyscraper Building One North LaSalle Palmolive Building The Blackstone Hotel Roanoke Building and Tower
Chicago Landmark	330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 35 East Wacker Allerton Hotel Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Carbide & Carbon Building Chicago Building Civic Opera House Heyworth Building Inland Steel Building London Guarantee Building Mather Tower New York Life Insurance Building The Palmer House Hilton Powhatan Apartments Pittsfield Building Richard J. Daley Center Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago
See also	Washington Block

v t e Chicago skyscrapers
Tallest buildings	875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly John Hancock Center) Aon Center Franklin Center St. Regis Chicago Trump International Hotel and Tower Two Prudential Plaza Willis Tower
Selected buildings with 20 or more floors	35 East Wacker 55 East Erie 71 South Wacker 77 West Wacker 110 North Wacker 111 South Wacker 151 North Franklin 155 North Wacker 181 West Madison 311 South Wacker 330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 333 South Wabash (formerly CNA Center) 333 Wacker Drive 340 on the Park 400 East Randolph 401 East Ontario 425 South Financial Place 541 North Fairbanks Court (formerly Time-Life Building) 540 West Madison 860-880 Lake Shore Drive 900 North Michigan 900 West Randolph 1700 East 56th Street Accenture Tower Aqua Bilandic Building The Blackstone Hotel BCBS Tower Boeing Building Builders Building Carbide & Carbon Building Chase Tower Chicago Board of Trade Building Chicago Place Chicago Temple Building City Hall Square Building Civic Opera House Coast at Lakeshore East Consumers Building Crain Communications Building Dirksen Federal Building Essex on the Park Field Building Fisher Building Grant Thornton Tower Harbor Point Hilton Chicago Home Insurance Building James R. Thompson Center Joffrey Tower Kluczynski Federal Building Lake Point Tower LaSalle–Wacker Building Legacy Tower Leo Burnett Building London Guarantee Building Lurie Children's Hospital Marina City Masonic Temple Mather Tower Metropolitan Tower Montauk Building NBC Tower NEMA Northwestern Memorial Hospital Olympia Centre One Bennett Park One Magnificent Mile One Museum Park One North LaSalle One North Wacker One Prudential Plaza Optima Signature Palmer House Hotel Palmolive Building Park Tower The Parkshore Peoples Gas Building Pittsfield Building Plaza 440 Powhatan Apartments Presidential Towers Regents Park Richard J. Daley Center River East Center Roanoke Building The Shoreham Skybridge Shirley Ryan AbilityLab The Buckingham The Fordham The Heritage The Grant The Pinnacle Three First National Plaza Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago Waldorf Astoria Chicago Warwick Allerton Water Tower Place Wolf Point East Tower Wrigley Building
Chicago Landmark skyscrapers with 12 or more floors	300 West Adams Building The Arc at Old Colony Auditorium Building Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Chicago Building Gage Group Buildings Heyworth Building Hilliard Towers Apartments Inland Steel Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Mundelein College Skyscraper Building New York Life Insurance Building Reliance Building Rookery Building Sullivan Center
See also	Architecture Art Deco Chicago City Hall Chicago School Washington Block
Buildings in italics have been demolished.

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Architecture

Gallery

See also

References