LaSalle Street between Washington and Randolph

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Found in Tour: Heart of the Downtown, 1: The Court House and Environs

Landmark Images:

View from Court House Cupola, Northwest; Alexander Hesler, Photograph, 1858 (ichi-05725)

The view here, looking northwest over the intersection of LaSalle and Randolph streets, shows substantial commercial buildings and flimsy frame structures--some crowded two to a city lot--in close proximity to each other near the local center of government. On the northwest corner of Randolph and Lake is the Metropolitan Block, whose third floor contained Metropolitan Hall, which Frederick Francis Cook recalled as "the most capacious place of assembly in the city." In the years before the fire, this building also was the home of the Young Men's Association Library and Reading Rooms, precursor to the Chicago Public Library.

View from Court House Cupola, West; Alexander Hesler, Photograph, 1858 (ich-05726)

This stretch of LaSalle Street, with Washington Street on the left, reveals the striking contrasts in land use (and non-use) right next to the Court House at this time. In the foreground, an alley separates a modest undertaking establishment and an undeveloped lot. The large building in the upper right is the Lind Block, the only finished South Division building in the path of the fire that escaped destruction. Large boats are visible on the South Branch of the Chicago River.

LaSalle Street from Courthouse Square; Louis Kurz for Jevne & Almini, 1866-67 (ichi-63070)

As this view attests, the west side of LaSalle between Washington and Randolph underwent many changes between the 1850s and the 1860s. The Metropolitan Block is still on the northwest corner of LaSalle and Randolph, but LaSalle between Washington and Randolph is now filled with new office buildings. Their primary tenants were banks and insurance brokers.

Northwest View from the Courthouse after the Fire; Copelin & Hine, Glass Lantern Slide, 1871 (ichi-64359)

The view is actually more north/northwest than north, so we do not see LaSalle Street below Randolph. It graphically reveals how completely this area was obliterated. A few temporary buildings have arisen amid the rubble.

La Salle Street from the Southeast Corner of Washington Street; J. Sherwin Murphy, Photograph, 1954 (ichi-21499)

This is one of Murphy's mid-twentieth-century views of Chicago from the same vantages used by Jevne & Almini. A second Metropolitan Block stood on the northwest corner of Randolph and LaSalle streets from shortly after the fire until 1923.

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