| Address | 417 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL |
|---|---|
| Built | 1899; 1945 (Terra-Cotta Exterior Remodeling) |
| Architect | Simeon B.Eisendrath; W. Scott Armstrong |
| Status | Designated Chicago Landmark |
| Designation Date | December 14, 2016 (Final) |
| Neighborhood | Loop |
| Type | Office and commercial building |
| Landmark ID | L-342 |
Direct quotes from the Chicago Landmark Designation Report
“The main body of the building, finished on both facades in vitrified pressed brick, was divided into three bays and regularly fenestrated with paired, double-hung wood windows. THE SULLIVANESQUE ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Eisendrath's use of Sullivanesque ornament for the Plymouth Building appears to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of such ornament by an architect other than Sullivan.”
“The Building's terra-cotta window decoration and Plymouth-facing cast-iron storefronts are among the earliest, if not the earliest, examples of Sullivanesque-style ornament created by an architect other than Louis Sullivan himself.”
“The Building's later Collegiate Gothic-style terra-cotta was produced by Chicago's Northwestern Terra Cotta Company, one of the United States' major terra-cotta companies and the producers of terra-cotta cladding and ornament for such significant Chicago buildings as the Auditorium Building, the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, the Marquette Building, the Chicago Theater, the Civic Opera House, and Wrigley Field.”
“The Sullivanesque ornament on the Plymouth Court elevation is among the first examples of this style of ornamentation first developed and popularized by Louis Sullivan. The later addition in 1945 of terra-cotta Gothic cladding at the building's base and crown, designed by engineer W. Scott Armstrong (1890-1965), exemplifies its educational use as the headquarters of the LSEU from 1945 to 1978 and reflects the continued appeal of the Collegiate Gothic style in educational buildings in mid-twentieth century Chicago.”
“These buildings were among the first in a long line of noteworthy Chicago structures that adopted the Sullivanesque style. The Plymouth Building served as home to a variety of printing concerns, commercial artists, advertising agencies, printing-related manufacturing concerns and other small businesses including the Presto Publishing Company, Office Appliances Periodicals, and the Tint Kraft Company (which produced transfers).”
“LSEU maintained all of its correspondence facilities within the Plymouth Building until 1978, when it moved to Wilmette, Illinois, to the site of the National Register Publishing Company, a division of Macmillan, Co., which had purchased the university in the 1960s.”
“The Plymouth Building is identified as an “orange”-rated building in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey and is within the boundaries of the South Dearborn Street-Printing House Row Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
“The building's original 1899 design by Simeon Eisendrath combined handsome brick, terra cotta, and decorative metal in a manner that exemplified better-quality commercial loft buildings of the period.”
“Architecturally, the Plymouth Building is an unusual mix of early steel-frame construction and an early example of cast-metal Sullivanesque ornament with later terra-cotta Collegiate Gothic ornament added in 1945, when the building became LSEU's headquarters.”