The first Briggs House, erected in 1856 on the northeast corner of Randolph and Wells streets, was five-story Italianate building designed by John M. Van Osdel. It was one of the many structures in the area that were raised several feet a few years later along with the grade of the streets. While the Briggs House was not as luxurious as the Sherman House or the Palmer House, a pre-fire observer could still comment that it “has always been celebrated for the comfort, neatness, quiet, and admirable order of its appointments, and also for the excellence of its table and the general hospitality of it proprietors.” Note the line-up of soldiers at attention, the Randolph Street and Milwaukee Avenue streetcars, and the well-dressed Chicagoans who populate so many Jevne & Almini views of the city in the mid-1860s.
