Cairo Supper Club Building

“Gerhardt was Cook County architect during the early 1910s and was the designer of the Cook County Hospital, a monumental Beaux-Arts building located on Chicago's West Side (listed on the National Register of Historic Places).”

“The Cairo Supper Club Building retains very good physical integrity on its exterior, displayed through its historic location, overall design, historic materials, details and ornamentation. The building retains its historic multi-colored terra-cotta front facade and common-brick side and rear walls.”

“Changes to the Cairo Supper Club are relatively minor and do not impact the building's historic and architectural significance. The most important change to the building's exterior is a newer storefront, slightly recessed within the historic terra-cotta facade, which “frames” it.”

“The building's finely-crafted terra cotta exemplifies the importance of the terra-cotta industry to Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the context of small-scale commercial architecture in Chicago, the Cairo Supper Club Building is a visually-unusual example of the Egyptian Revival style, with its exotic Egyptian ornament rendered in vividly-hued terra cotta.”

“Northwestern's regular clients included prominent Chicago architects such as Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and Albert Kahn, and the company manufactured terra-cotta detailing for many of the city's important buildings, including the Auditorium Building, the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, the Marquette Building, the Civic Opera House, the Gage Building, the Fisher Building, the Chicago Theater, the Wrigley Building, and the Steuben Club Building.”

“Gerhardt came to Chicago in 1893 and soon started his own architectural firm, taking on various residential, commercial, and industrial projects. Prolific in the first decade of the twentieth century, his list of projects listed in the American Contractor, a trade publication, alone numbers nearly 70 between 1898 and 1910.”

“Soon after, the Cook County Board announced that a new county hospital building would be constructed. As county architect, Gerhardt drew up designs for the new building, a visually impressive Beaux Arts-style building that remains on Chicago's Near West Side along W. Harrison St.”

“Although Paul Gerhardt, Sr., is best known for his municipal and school designs, he was a pioneer in industrial architecture for his efforts to increase the glazed wall area of reinforced concrete buildings.”

“Gerhardt's Winston Building (1917, demolished), located at 341-349 E. Ohio St., was a seven-story industrial building of flat slab construction that is considered the first structure to use this construction method.”

“Gerhardt is best known for his work as Cook County Architect in the 1910s, which included the Cook County Hospital building (listed on the National Register of Historic Places).”