| Address | Various |
|---|---|
| Built | Various |
| Architect | Various |
| Status | Designated Chicago Landmark District |
| Designation Date | September 29, 2004 (Final)City Council Journal of the Proceedings, p. 31957 |
| Neighborhood | Lincoln Park |
| Type | Residential district |
Direct quotes from the Chicago Landmark Designation Report
“The Mid-North District Extension, including the Cobden and Benson apartment buildings, exemplify the high-quality residential architecture constructed on the Chicago's North Side in the Lincoln Park neighborhood during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
“The Mid-North District Extension, including the Cobden and Benson apartment buildings, exemplifies the historic theme of the existing Mid-North District as a group of high-quality 19thand early 20th-century residential buildings of significance to Chicago history.”
“The Mid-North District Extension possesses excellent exterior physical integrity, with its buildings retaining their original siting and relationship to the surrounding Lincoln Park neighborhood, and their original overall form and most exterior details.”
“It is clad with rusticated pink granite on the first floor and deep red molded brick on upper floors. Commercial storefronts occupy the building's Clark Street frontage, while apartments and apartment entrances dominate the first floor of the Belden facade.”
“The Cobden and Benson apartment buildings are fine examples of the Romanesque Revival and Classical Revival styles, both styles of significance to Chicago architecture. The buildings exhibit fine craftsmanship in both materials and detailing, utilizing brick, stone, pressed metal, and terra cotta.”
“Only a couple of wood-frame buildings built before the Chicago Fire of 1871 may still survive in the district, while residences from the 1870s were designed in the Italianate style with elaborate cornices and window surrounds.”
“The building is composed of two sections, detailed with brick-faced bays, that flank a deep, narrow courtyard extending north from Belden. Built three years after the Cobden in 1895, the Benson reflects the new popularity of the Classical Revival style with Classical-style ornament around entrances and along building corners and rooflines.”
“The Queen Anne style, with its variety of colors, textures, and details, later gained popularity in the district in the early 1880s, soon followed by the rough-faced stone buildings of the Romanesque Revival style.”