Sears, Roebuck and Co. District

“In the 1920s the company augmented its catalog business with retail stores to cater to an increasingly mobile and urban population. By the 1960s, Sears was the largest retailer in the world and was the first to achieve $1 billion in monthly sales.”

“The new Administration Building was described in promotional literature as a "beautiful building with its large, well-lighted and perfectly ventilated offices, is an ideal office structure, with every convenience and every office appliance designed to facilitate the prompt and accurate handling of the business transacted here." For 1906, the first full year in the new facility, Sears had 9,290 employees working at the North Lawndale campus, and sales were more than $50 million.”

“Richard Warren Sears was company president from its founding in 1892 until 1908, when he became chairman of the board, remaining as a director until 1913. He developed his fledgling mail-order watch business into the largest and best-known mail-order company in the world.”

“Rosenwald also moved Sears forward through innovative product testing, the manufacturing of Sears-built product lines such as Kenmore appliances and Craftsman tools, and by providing generous benefits and amenities to Sears employees.”

“Designed by the same Chicago-based architectural firm and all constructed between 1905 and 1907, the buildings in the District display a distinct overall visual unity based on the use of materials, architectural style and detailing, and served to form a cohesive corporate image that the Sears, Roebuck and Co. actively cultivated in the first decades of the twentieth century.”

“Nimmons also believed good design could improve working conditions for employees, and alleviate what Nimmons referred to as “the most troublesome and costly feature of modern industries, viz. the turnover of labor." The firm's most important commission came halfway through their existence, when, in 1904, they were awarded one of the largest architectural commissions in Chicago to that date: the Sears, Roebuck and Co. headquarters complex in the North Lawndale area of Chicago, said to be the largest mercantile establishment in the world.”

“In addition to employing thousands, Sears' popular catalogs and retail stores were iconic symbols of American commerce and consumption in the 20th century. From this massive headquarters on Chicago's West Side, millions of orders were sent across the country by rail and truck over a period of more than 80 years.”

“District is a significant complex of office, laboratory, utility and other buildings purpose-built for Sears, one of the most historically-important companies in the history of Chicago and the United States.”

“The success of his watch business convinced Sears to leave the railroad and North Redwood for Minneapolis, where he established the R. W. Sears Watch Company. He marketed through newspaper advertisements and by sending direct mail flyers that revealed his talent for writing persuasive ad copy, a skill which later would help Sears when he published the first Sears mail-order catalog in 1893.”