of Planning and Development city of chicago
June 16, 2021
Chicago City Clerk-Council Bin.
2021JUN 16fm3:49
The Honorable Anna M. Valencia
City Clerk City of Chicago Room 107, City Hall 121 North LaSalle Street Chicago, IL 60602
RE: Recommendation for designation of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street as a Chicago Landmark
Dear Clerk Valencia:
We are fding with your office for introduction at the June 23, 2021, City Council meeting as a transmittal to the Mayor and City Council of Chicago the recommendation of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks that the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House be designated as a Chicago Landmark.
The material being submitted to you for this proposal includes the:
Recommendation of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks; and
Proposed Ordinance.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Kathleen E. Dickhut Deputy Commissioner
Bureau of Citywide Systems & Historic Preservation
ends.
Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr., 27th Ward (via email without enclosure)
121 NORTH LASALLE STREET, ROOM 1000, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60602
ORDINANCE
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House 1393-1399 West Lake Street
WHEREAS, pursuant to the procedures set forth in the Municipal Code of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), Sections 2-120-620 through -690, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") has determined that the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House (the "Building"), located at 1393-1399 West Lake Street, Chicago, Illinois, as more precisely described in Exhibit A, attached hereto and incorporated herein, satisfies three (3) criteria for landmark designation as set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (4), and (6) ofthe Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, the Building represents a distinct property type that conveys important themes from Chicago and American history from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the rise of vertically-integrated production and retail sales; the role of science and technology in the transformation of crafts into industries, including the brewery industry; increasing competition among businesses as the city and country grew; the nature and role ofthe neighborhood saloon; the role of ethnic immigrants as both leaders ofthe brewing industry and as consumers; and the national question about the role of alcohol in society which would later culminate in national Prohibition; and
WHEREAS, the Building conveys the economic prominence of the brewing industry in Chicago and Milwaukee during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, made possible by those cities' access to grain markets, fresh water, supplies of natural ice, and train transportation; and
WHEREAS, the Building is representative of the brewing industry founded and managed by German immigrants who were prominent businessmen active in the city's affairs; and therefore reflects the importance of ethnic immigration in Chicago's history and development in general and specifically the contributions of Chicago's German ethnic community, one of the city's largest ethnic groups; and
WHEREAS, the Building is one ofthe few remaining, earlier, larger brewery-tied houses in Chicago which were most commonly located on prominent corners of commercial streets well served by street cars or elevated trains and within neighborhoods settled by large ethnic and working class populations. As such, the building conveys the social character and leisure habits of these early residents of Chicago's neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, the Building was developed as the brewing industry's response to legislation and social pressure brought about by progressive reformers and manifests in built form the national debate about alcohol consumption and the "Dry" movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subsequent proliferation of drinking places under the tied house system consequently became a factor in the establishment of national Prohibition in 1919; and
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WHEREAS, the Building is one of a great number of buildings built in Chicago by the Schlitz Brewery, which may be traced back to the aftermath of the Fire of 1871, when the Milwaukee-based Schlitz brewery sent beer to the ravaged city, significantly expanding its customer base in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, the Building represents a distinct and recognizable building type in Chicago's neighborhoods typified by such features as its display of brewery insignia, its prominent corner location and entrance on a neighborhood commercial street, and its use of typically high-quality masonry construction and picturesque styles of architecture; and
WHEREAS, the Building exemplifies aspects of picturesque styles of architecture which included Queen Anne, German Renaissance Revival, and Tudor Revival. Popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these styles emphasize visually pleasing characteristics and motifs drawn from earlier periods and helped the brewery-tied houses to present a more legitimate and socially responsible image amidst growing opposition to drinking establishments; and
WHEREAS, the Building shows the influence of the Queen Anne style of architecture in Chicago during the last decades ofthe twentieth century with its highly decorative character seen in a mix of exterior colors, textures, and materials, including pressed brick, cut stone, cast iron, and pressed copper, and its asymmetric design featuring a corner turret and projecting bay; and
WHEREAS, the Building displays exceptionally fine craftsmanship and detailing in high-quality historic materials displayed through such features as its pressed brick and cut stone masonry including fan lunettes over the windows and a checkerboard spandrel panel and pressed-metal architectural ornament at the turret, bay window, and under the eaves; and
WHEREAS, the Building is part of a larger group of brewery-tied houses and associated buildings in Chicago that are a distinct building type which together represent an architectural, cultural, economic, historic, and social theme including: the rise of large, vertically-integrated commercial enterprises combining production and retail sales; the economic might of brewing companies in Chicago and Milwaukee; the nature and role of the neighborhood saloon; the role of immigration in brewing and ethnicity in beer consumption; and the brewing industry's attempt to project a more respectable, socially responsible image amidst growing opposition to drinking establishments which culminated locally in things like Sunday closure laws and nationally in Prohibition in 1919; and
WHEREAS, characteristic of Chicago's Schlitz Brewery-tied houses, historically the Schlitz font logo was featured on the exterior. Painted signage was seen on Schlitz Brewery-tied houses of every decade, though subsequent changes in ownership and taste typically meant such signage was lost over time. The Building displays a "ghost" Schlitz font logo on its east elevation. Although the Schlitz font logo remained a constant, some later tied house branding incorporated Schlitz's font and "belted globe" logo which was first used in 1892 by the company but was not widely popularized until the design was featured in an exhibit at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition. In time, the trademark or insignia of the brewing company rendered in carved stone, terra cotta, or pressed metal also developed as a common decorative motif of Schlitz Brewery-tied houses; and
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WHEREAS, Chicago's Schlitz Brewery-tied houses represent a distinct building type, and the individual examples of this type enhance the architectural character of diverse Chicago neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, consistent with Section 2-120-630 ofthe Municipal Code, the Building has a significant historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value; the integrity of which is preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express such historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value; and
WHEREAS, on June 3, 2021, the Commission adopted a resolution recommending to the City Council of the City of Chicago (the "City Council") that the Building be designated a Chicago Landmark; now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO: SECTION 1. The above recitals are hereby adopted as the findings ofthe City Council.
SECTION 2. The Building is hereby designated a Chicago Landmark in accordance with Section 2-120-700 ofthe Municipal Code.
SECTION 3. For purposes of Sections 2-120-740 and 2-120-770 of the Municipal Code governing permit review, the significant historical and architectural features of the Building are identified as:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building
The non-historic, one-story frame structure with fabric roof and vestibule at the rear of the building is excluded from the designation.
SECTION 4. The Commission is hereby directed to create a suitable plaque appropriately identifying the Building as a Chicago Landmark.
SECTION 5. If any provision of this ordinance shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the invalidity or unenforceability of such provision shall not affect any of the other provisions of this ordinance.
SECTION 6. All ordinances, resolutions, motions, or orders in conflict with this ordinance are hereby repealed to the extent of such conflict.
SECTION 7. This ordinance shall take effect upon its passage and approval.
EXHIBIT A
Building Address
1389-1399 West Lake Street (odds) 171-199 North Loomis Street (odds)
Permanent Index Number
17-08-324-001-0000
Legal Description
The west 22 feet ofthe North 125 feet ofthe east 233.15 feet of Lot 2 in Assessor's Division of a portion of that part south of Lake Street of Lot 3 of Circuit Court Partition of the southwest % of Section 8, Township 39 North, Range 14 east ofthe Third Principal Meridian, in Cook County, Illinois.
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CITY OF CHICAGO COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS
June 3, 2021
RECOMMENDATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL OF CHICAGO THAT CHICAGO, LANDMARK DESIGNATION BE ADOPTED FOR THE
(FORMER) SCHLITZ BREWERY TIED HOUSE 1393-1399 West Lake Street
Docket No. 2021-04 .
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago:
Pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code ofthe City of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") has determined that the (Former) Schlitz Brewery Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street (the "Building") is worthy of Chicago Landmark designation. Based on careful consideration of the history and architecture ofthe Building, the Commission has found that it satisfies the following three (3) criteria set forth in Section 2-120-620 of the Municipal Code:
/. Its value as an example of the architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social, or other aspect ofthe heritage of the City of Chicago, State of Illinois, or the United States.
4. Its exemplification of an architectural type or style distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship.
6. Its representation of an architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social or other theme expressed through distinctive areas, districts, places, buildings, structures, works of art, or other objects that may or may not be contiguous.
I. BACKGROUND
On December 2, 2020, the Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Planning and Development ("DPD") received an application to demolish the Building. The Building was rated "orange" in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey and was therefore subject to the 90-day Demolition Delay Ordinance. As is standard practice during Demolition Delay, staff evaluated the Building against the legal criteria for landmark designation and determined that it met criteria for landmark designation.
After notifying the applicant that the Demolition Delay Ordinance had been triggered by their application, the applicant requested an extension of the demolition delay for a month and the extension was granted. A second request for another month's extension was also granted.
The formal landmark designation process for the Building began on April 1, 2021, when the Commission approved a preliminary landmark recommendation (the "Preliminary Recommendation") for the Building as a Chicago Landmark. The Commission found that the Building meets three (3) of the seven (7) criteria for designation, as well as the integrity criterion, identified in the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance (Municipal Code, Section 2-120-580 et seq.). The Preliminary Recommendation, incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit A, initiated the process for further study and analysis of the proposed designation of the Building as a Chicago Landmark. As part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission identified the "significant historical and architectural features" of the Building as:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building.
The non-historic, one-story frame structure with fabric roof and vestibule at the rear of the building is excluded from the designation.
Also, as part of the Preliminary Recommendation, the Commission adopted a Designation Report, dated April 2021, the most current iteration of which is dated June 3, 2021, incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit B (the "Designation Report"). At the same meeting, the Commission voted to preliminarily deny the application for demolition of the property. Per the Municipal Code, the Commission's preliminary disapproval of the demolition application triggered expedited consideration of both the proposed landmark designation and the demolition permit application.
In a letter dated April 12, 2021, the Commission notified the applicant that the Commission's preliminary disapproval of the demolition application triggered expedited consideration of both the proposed landmark designation and the demolition permit application. The letter also notified owners that a virtual public hearing on the proposed designation as well as the preliminary disapproval of the permit application was scheduled for May 12, 2021, in accordance with the Landmarks Ordinance and the Rules and Regulations of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Notices of the time and date of the hearing were (a) posted on signs in front of the Building, and (b) published as a legal notice in the Chicago Sun-Times, as required by the Landmarks Ordinance. A notice was also posted on the DPD web site.
At its regular meeting of May 6, 2021, the Commission received a report from Maurice Cox, DPD Commissioner, supporting the proposed landmark designation ofthe Building. This report is incorporated herein and attached hereto as Exhibit C.
II. PUBLIC HEARING
The virtual hearing was convened, as scheduled and noticed, on Wednesday, May 12, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. via a Zoom webinar livestreamed via a link on the Commission's web page. Commission member Gabriel Dziekiewicz served as Hearing Officer, assisted by Michael Gaynor, Supervising Assistant Corporation Counsel of the Real Estate and Land Use Division of the City's Law Department, as legal counsel to the Commission. The hearing was conducted in accordance with the Emergency Rules Governing the Conduct of Public Hearings effective July
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27, 2020, as issued by the Chairman of the Commission in accordance with the Chairman's rulemaking powers pursuant to the ride adopted by the Commission on June 4, 2020. The Emergency Rules supersede any conflicting rules and regulations regarding the conduct of public hearings on designations or permit applications under Sections 2-120-800 and 2-120-820 of the Chicago Landmarks Ordinance as such rules and regulations are set forth in the Commission's Rules and Regulations, including but not limited to Articles IV and V of the regular rules. The Emergency Rules address the manner in which the Commission will conduct public hearings to comply with the recommended social distancing and social isolation practices to mitigate contagion and protect and promote the health and well-being of the general public, Commission staff, and members of the Commission.
The Commission staffs presentation recommending the proposed landmark designation was given by Kandalyn Hahn, Project Coordinator of the Historic Preservation Division. At the conclusion of the staff presentation the Commission's Rules and Regulations allow the property owner or their representatives to question the staff. The applicant's attorney asked staff to confirm whether a demolition permit had been issued in April 2016 for the subject property. Staff responded that, as confirmed with the Department of Buildings, no demolition permit had been issued in 2016.
The applicant's expert witness made a presentation on their report which included a discussion of the criteria for landmark designation. DPD's attorney cross-examined the expert witness. The applicant's attorney subsequently re-directed the expert witness. The hearing officer asked the expert witness whether there were other examples of Queen Anne style tied houses that did not bear the globe logo. The expert witness responded that several of them were shown in his presentation. The hearing officer also asked whether there was a mention of the ghost logo in his presentation and the expert witness responded that there was not.
Two members ofthe general public made statements in support of the proposed landmark designation.
The transcript (the "Hearing Transcript") and related exhibits from the public hearing are attached.
III. FINDINGS OF THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS
WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 2-120-690 of the Municipal Code, the Commission has reviewed the entire record of proceedings on the proposed Chicago Landmark designation, including the Designation Report, the DPD Report, the Hearing Transcript, and all of the information on the proposed landmark designation ofthe Building; and
WHEREAS, the Building meets the three (3) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (4), and (6) of the Municipal Code; and
WHEREAS, the Building represents a distinct property type that conveys important themes from Chicago and American history from the late nineteenth and early twentieth
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centuries, including the rise of vertically-integrated production and retail sales; the role of science and technology in the transformation of crafts into industries, including the brewery industry; increasing competition among businesses as the city and country grew; the nature and role of the neighborhood saloon; the role of ethnic immigrants as both leaders of the brewing industry and as consumers; and the national question about the role of alcohol in society which would later culminate in national Prohibition; and
WHEREAS, the Building conveys the economic prominence of the brewing industry in Chicago and Milwaukee during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, made possible by those cities' access to grain markets, fresh water, supplies of natural ice, and train transportation; and
WHEREAS, the Building is representative of the brewing industry founded and managed by German immigrants who were prominent businessmen active in the city's affairs; and therefore reflects the importance of ethnic immigration in Chicago's history and development in general and specifically the contributions of Chicago's German ethnic community, one of the city's largest ethnic groups; and
WHEREAS, the Building is one of the few remaining, earlier, larger brewery-tied houses in Chicago which were most commonly located on prominent corners of commercial streets well served by street cars or elevated trains and within neighborhoods settled by large ethnic and working class populations. As such, the building conveys the social character and leisure habits of these early residents of Chicago's neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, the Building was developed as the brewing industry's response to legislation and social pressure brought about by progressive reformers and manifests in built form the national debate about alcohol consumption and the "Dry" movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subsequent proliferation of drinking places under the tied house system consequently became a factor in the establishment of national Prohibition in 1919;and
WHEREAS, the Building is one of a great number of buildings built in Chicago by the Schlitz Brewery, which may be traced back to the aftermath of the Fire of 1871, when the Milwaukee-based Schlitz brewery sent beer to the ravaged city, significantly expanding its customer base in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, the Building represents a distinct and recognizable building type in Chicago's neighborhoods typified by such features as its display of brewery insignia, its prominent corner location and entrance on a neighborhood commercial street, and its use of typically high-quality masonry construction and picturesque styles of architecture; and
WHEREAS, the Building exemplifies aspects of picturesque styles of architecture which included Queen Anne, German Renaissance Revival, and Tudor Revival. Popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these styles emphasize visually pleasing characteristics and motifs drawn from earlier periods and helped the brewery-tied houses to present a more
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legitimate and socially responsible image amidst growing opposition to drinking establishments; and
WHEREAS, the Building shows the influence of the Queen Anne style of architecture in Chicago during the last decades of the twentieth century with its highly decorative character seen in a mix of exterior colors, textures, and materials, including pressed brick, cut stone, cast iron, and pressed copper, and its asymmetric design featuring a corner turret and projecting bay; and
WHEREAS, the Building displays exceptionally fine craftsmanship and detailing in high-quality historic materials displayed through such features as its pressed brick and cut stone masonry including fan lunettes over the windows and a checkerboard spandrel panel and pressed-metal architectural ornament at the turret, bay window, and under the eaves; and
WHEREAS, the Building is part of a larger group of brewery-tied houses and associated buildings in Chicago that are a distinct building type which together represent an architectural, cultural, economic, historic, and social theme including: the rise of large, vertically-integrated commercial enterprises combining production and retail sales; the economic might of brewing companies in Chicago and Milwaukee; the nature and role of the neighborhood saloon; the role of immigration in brewing and ethnicity in beer consumption; and the brewing industry's attempt to project a more respectable, socially responsible image amidst growing opposition to drinking establishments which culminated locally in things like Sunday closure laws and nationally in Prohibition in 1919; and
WHEREAS, characteristic of Chicago's Schlitz Brewery-tied houses, historically the Schlitz font logo was featured on the exterior. Painted signage was seen on Schlitz Brewery-tied houses of every decade, though subsequent changes in ownership and taste typically meant such signage was lost over time. The Building displays a '"ghost" Schlitz font logo on its east elevation. Although the Schlitz font logo remained a constant, some later tied house branding incorporated Schlitz's font and "belted globe" logo which was first used in 1892 by the company but was not widely popularized until the design was featured in an exhibit at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition. In time, the trademark or insignia of the brewing company rendered in carved stone, terra cotta, or pressed metal also developed as a common decorative motif of Schlitz Brewery-tied houses; and
WHEREAS, Chicago's Schlitz Brewery-tied houses represent a distinct building type, and the individual examples of this type enhance the architectural character of diverse Chicago neighborhoods; and
WHEREAS, consistent with Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code, the Building has a significant historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value, the integrity of which is preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express such historic, community, architectural, or aesthetic interest or value; now, therefore,
THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS HEREBY:
1. Incorporates the preamble and Sections I, II, and III into its findings; and
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Adopts the Final Designation Report, as revised, and dated this 3rd day of June, 2021, and
Finds, based on the Designation Report, DPD Report, the Hearing Transcript, and the entire record before the Commission, that the Building meets the three (3) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Sections 2-120-620 (1), (4), and (6) of the Municipal Code; and
Finds that the Building satisfies the "integrity" requirement set forth in Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code; and
Finds that the significant historical and architectural features of the Building are identified as follows:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the Building.
The non-historic, one-story frame structure with fabric roof and vestibule at the rear of the building is excluded from the designation; and
6. Recommends that the Building be designated a Chicago Landmark.|1010|
This recommendation was adopted 1 ~ O uuH^k-,> &"Rjg CjtY
EXHIBIT A
Resolution by the
Commission on Chicago Landmarks on the
Preliminary Landmark Recommendation for the
(FORMER) SCHLITZ BREWERY-TEED HOUSE 1393 West Lake Street April 1,2021
Whereas, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks (the "Commission") preliminarily finds that:
• The (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House (the "Building"), located at the address noted above, meets the three (3) criteria for landmark designation set forth in Section 2-120-620 (1), (4), and (6) of the Municipal Code of Chicago (the "Municipal Code"), as specifically described in the Preliminary Summary of Information (the "Preliminary Summary") submitted to the Commission on this 1st day of April, 2021, by the Department of Planning and Development; and
• the Building satisfies the historic integrity requirement set forth in Section 2-120-630 of the Municipal Code as described in the Preliminary Summary; now, therefore,
Be it resolved by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks:
Section 1. The above recitals are expressly incorporated in and made part of this resolution as though fully set forth herein.
Section 2. The Commission hereby adopts the Preliminary Summary and makes a preliminary landmark recommendation concerning the Building in accordance with Section 2-120-630 ofthe Municipal Code.
Section 3. For purposes of Section 2-120-740 of the Municipal Code governing permit review, the significant historical and architectural features of the Building are preliminarily identified as:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, ofthe Building.
The non-historic, one-story frame structure with fabric roof and vestibule at the rear ofthe building is excluded from the designation.
Section 4. The Commission hereby requests a report or statement from the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development which evaluates the relationship of the proposed designation to the City's governing plans and policies and the effect of the proposed designation on the surrounding neighborhood in accordance with Section 2-120-640 of the Municipal Code.
(Ernest C. Wong, Chaisfnan Commission on Chicago Landmarks
Dated:
EXHIBIT B
LANDMARK DESIGNATION REPORT
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House
1393-1399 West Lake Street
Final Landmark Recommendation adopted by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks June 3, 2021
CITY OF CHICAGO Lori E. Lightfoot, Mayor
Department of Planning and Development Maurice D. Cox, Commissioner
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks, whose nine members are appointed by the Mayor and City Council, was established in 1968 by city ordinance. The Commission is responsible for recommending to the City Council which individual buildings, sites, objects, or districts should be designated as Chicago Landmarks which protects them by law.
The landmark designation process begins with a staff study and a preliminary summary o f information related to the potential designation criteria. The next step is a preliminary vote by the landmarks commission as to whether the proposed landmark is worthy of consideration. This vote not only initiates the formal designation process, but it places the review of city permits for the property under the jurisdiction of the Commission until a final landmark recommendation is acted on by the City Council.
This Landmark Designation Report is subject to possible revision and amendment during the designation process. Only language contained within a designation ordinance adopted by the City Council should be regarded as final.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction|910|Location Map|910|Building Construction and Design|910|Tavern and Tenancy 12
Tied House Architecture in Chicago ' 15
Architectural Styles 19
Drinking Establishments and the Brewing Industry in Chicago 19
The Establishment of the Tied House System in Chicago 25
Criteria for Designation 31
Significant Historical and Architectural Features 34
Bibliography 35
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(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House 1393-1399 West Lake Street
Date of Construction: 1892 Architect: Not known
Original Owner: Edward G. Uihlein/Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. INTRODUCTION
Since 2011, nine Chicago brewery-tied houses and one Chicago brewery stable building have been designated as Chicago landmarks. Text from the following Designation Reports has been incorporated into this report:
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House later Winona Gardens (now the South-East Asia Center), 5120 N. Broadway
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House (now Mac's American Pub), 1801 W. Division Street
Five Schlitz Brewery Tied-Houses, 958 W. 69th St., 3456 S. Western Ave., 2159 W. Belmont Ave., 3159 N. Southport Ave 11400 S. Front Ave. and One Schlitz Brewery Stable Building, 11314 S. Front Ave.
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, 1944 N. Oakley Ave.
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, 9401 S. Ewing Ave.
Information from these reports provides a more detailed discussion of the historical and architectural significance of Chicago's brewery-tied houses.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a combination of intense competition among brewing companies and increasing legal restrictions and social pressures on public drinking establishments compelled brewing companies in Chicago to adopt the "tied house" system. Developed in Britain a century earlier, the tied house system involved the direct control of taverns (then known as saloons) not by independent entrepreneurs, but by large brewing companies that sold their products exclusively at their own establishments.
Brewery control ofthe tavern trade in Chicago began with the purchase of existing saloon buildings, but soon evolved into the acquisition of choice neighborhood real estate and the design and construction of tavern buildings. Over forty of these tied house buildings are known
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The (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, shaded in the above map, is located at the southeast corner of Lake and Loomis Streets within the Near West Side Community Area.
Y. lAke-st.* * e cor of Sheldon, n ff £?xl25 f t* dated March 16 (JL Sckreiber to B. G.
This real estate notice in the March 18,1891, Chicago Tribune, reflects the sale of 1393 West Lake Street by L. Schreiber to E.G. Nihlein (sic). Misspellings were not uncommon in real estate notices and the last name ofthe purchaser should have been Uihlein.
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to survive in the city. They were built by large Milwaukee-based brewers, most notably Schlitz, and by several local brewers such as the Atlas, Birk Brothers, Fortune Brothers, Gottfried, Peter Hand, Standard, and Stege breweries. In many cases, brewing companies employed high-quality architectural designs and popular historical styles of architecture for their tied houses to attract customers and try to convey a legitimacy and decency for the neighborhood saloon in the face of rising social opposition to alcohol consumption by the temperance movement.
In addition to the tied house's contribution to Chicago's historic neighborhood architecture, these buildings convey important aspects of Chicago and American history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the large influx of European immigrants; the growth ofthe vertically-integrated business model which sought to control all aspects of production from raw material to retail sale; and the increasing political power of anti-alcohol activists. The proliferation of tied houses in cities like Chicago was one of many factors that ultimately led to passage of the National Prohibition Act in 1919.
The (former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street is one of the earlier and more architecturally ornate examples of the Chicago taverns built by breweries around the turn ofthe twentieth century. It is a "store and flats"-style structure which incorporated three floors of flats for use as housing or commercial space above the ground floor saloon.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN Construction
Edward G. Uihlein purchased the 22' x 125' lot at the southeast corner of Lake and Sheldon Streets on March 16, 1891. Uihlein was vice-president of the Milwaukee-based Schlitz Brewing Company and the company's agent in Chicago. A permit was issued June 11,1892, to the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company for a 22' x 70' four-story store and flats at 479 West Lake Street (renumbered in the year 1909 to 1393 West Lake Street). The one-story frame structure seen in the March 1892 Insurance Maps of Chicago (Central Map, Survey, and Publishing Co.) had been replaced with a four-story brick building by the time the Atlas of Chicago was issued by the Rascher Insurance Map Publishing Company later that year. This map reflects the original construction. Markings indicated that the north elevation was clad in stone and a cornice extended from that elevation along the entirety of the west elevation. At the comer was a round projecting element and at the west elevation a bay window. At the south elevation there was a frame porch.
Aside from the revision of the generic "Store" label (likely given as the ground-floor commercial space had not yet been built out) to the "Saloon" label, the only other change seen on the structure by the time the 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map was issued was he addition of a fire escape at the west elevation. However, the elevated railway running east to west along Lake Street, now owned by the Chicago & Oak Park Elevated Railway Company, had added an elevated station (the Sheldon stop) in 1893 at the intersection and this is now visible on the
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The north (Lake Street) and east (side) elevations of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House located at 1393-1399 West Lake Street, 1987. The faded paint of a sign including the trademark Schlitz font logo can be seen on the east elevation. (Survey card, Chicago Historic Resource Survey)
The west/Loom is Street elevation of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House located at 1393-1399 West Lake Street, 1987. (Survey card, Chicago Historic Resource Survey)
Cast iron structural members frame the original storefront opening including a decorative pier, lintel, landings, and sills. Photo ofthe north elevation. (Photo by Patrick L. Pyszka)
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map. Stairs from the station crossed directly in front of the building to the Lake Street sidewalk for passengers ascending to or descending from the station.
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of 1950 shows that Sheldon Street has been re-named Loomis Street but indicated no further changes to the structure except its re-labelling as a Store and the division of the much larger corner lot upon which the building sat. The neighbor to the east, the C. Doering & Son Sheet Metal Works, visible on the 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, had bought the intermediate property and constructed a one-story brick building for use as a sheet metal shop.
Design
Although repair work has changed its appearance slightly, overall the building looks much like it did when constructed. It stands four stories tall and its dimensions match those of the permit. The north facade is clad in rock-faced, coursed limestone and the west elevation is a smooth red brick. Yellow-hued common brick is used at the east and south elevations. A frame, four-story service porch with egress stairs is attached to the south elevation.
Still visible on the common brick of the east elevation is the faded paint of a sign with the trademark Schlitz font logo. The original cornice at the north elevation had been removed by the 1980s and was replaced by a projecting, standing-seam copper mansard roof similar to the mansard roof at the west elevation, also re-clad in standing-seam copper. Original scrolled brackets supporting the eaves remain along the west elevation, continuous along the turret but purposely interrupted at every window bay along the elevation.
The Queen Anne Style was popular in American architecture between 1880 and 1900. Although it encompasses a great deal of variation and can include elements of other styles, several elements unite it, namely the prominent use of decoration, asymmetrical composition, and variety of form, color, texture, and materials. Towers, turrets, tall chimneys, projecting pavilions, bays, and wrapping porches or verandas were frequently incorporated into Queen Anne-style structures.
The 1393-1399 Lake Street tied house displays the fundamental characteristics of the Queen Anne style. Its most striking feature is a lone turret with a conical roof projecting from the corner. The turret rests on a base supported by three curved brackets extending from a central shaft balanced atop a single cast iron column. The corner entry is recessed behind the central profiled column and framed by two simpler cast iron columns. Cast iron structural members frame the original storefront opening at the north and west elevations. The decorative piers at either end feature concentric circles centered in squares with filigree-adorned projections at the base and top. A single door at the east end of the north elevation is recessed. The current storefront is non-historic.
A rectangular, three-story, copper-clad bay window with a hipped roof projects from the west elevation. It features scalloped detailing with flower panels and a segmental arch lunette with' decorative fan detail. Panels with an anchor-like detail trim the top of the bay window and continue along the entire elevation and turret just under the eaves. These likely continued along
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The corner turret ofthe (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, 1393-1399 West Lake Street. Replacement panels with a slightly raised "X" pattern are inserted at the second and third floors in between windows, leaving decorative spandrel panels, moldings, and window frames intact. At the third floor, portions of the window frame and the decorative fan lunette above were reproduced to match the existing. (Photo by Patrick L. Pyszka)
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The bay window at the west elevation of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, 1393-1399 West Lake Street. Copper cladding features scalloped detailing with flower panels and a segmental arch lunette with decorative fan detail. Panels with an anchor-like detail trim the top ofthe bay window and continue along the entire elevation and turret just under the eaves. (Photo by Patrick L. Pyszka)
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the north elevation and the missing panels have been replaced with simple metal panels of a matching size.
Replacement panels with a slightly raised "X" pattern are also visible on the turret, inserted at the second and third floors in between windows, leaving decorative spandrel panels, moldings, and window frames intact. At the third floor, portions ofthe window frame and the decorative fan lunette above were reproduced to match the existing. The bay window received a similar treatment with new panels inserted between windows as well as the re-creation of decorative window frame elements to mimic the historic scheme. The projecting skirts of the turret and bay window were re-clad in standing-seam copper.
Windows at the west elevation have simple limestone sills and lintels. They are absent between the bay window and turret where an exterior fire escape connects to windows at the side of the bay. Further south along the elevation, windows are grouped in vertical bays set apart by varying widths. A non-historic, one-story, frame structure with a fabric roof extends south of the building to the neighboring brick structure. A smaller attached vestibule covers the rear 4' of the west elevation.
At the north elevation, the west elevation scheme of fan-detailed lunettes set above third-floor windows continues in slightly simpler form in limestone. The string course between third and fourth floors also morphs from the metal egg-and-dart pattern of the turret to a leafy variation in limestone. The facade's variations in plane, texture, and pattern of limestone elements, including a checkerboard spandrel panel between the second and third floors, enliven the elevation. Overall, the building's highly decorative character seen in a contrasting variety of materials and treatments throughout its asymmetric design create a striking Queen Anne-style tied house.
TAVERN AND TENANCY
The 1893 Chicago City Directory lists Anthony D. Rocca as the proprietor of a saloon at the building, suggesting he may have been the first saloonkeeper chosen by the company to operate a tavern in the building. Within a few years the establishment is listed as Rocca & Co. Upper floors are advertised as furnished rooms for rent, but commercial uses are also in evidence with ads for a woman's hospital located at the building.
In a 1906 Chicago Tribune ad Frank Rocca offers the saloon for sale and the following year the City Directory lists Frederick Jacobs as the new proprietor of a saloon at the building. Mr. Jacobs runs the saloon for the next decade. An article in the October 4, 1916, Day Book lists Mr. Jacobs as one of seventeen saloon owners violating the Sunday closure law, resulting in the revocation of licenses and a promise by then-Mayor Thompson that they would not be returned.
The pressure that had finally pushed Mayor Thompson to enforce the Sunday closure law continued to gain momentum. With the entrance of the United States into World War I in 1917, the Food and Fuel Control Act outlawed the use of any grains or foodstuffs for producing distilled spirits. By December of that year, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law an act
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The Lake Street fagade incorporates variations in texture, plane, and pattern.
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Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at SE corner of Ashland Avenue and Fulton Street, built 1891. At left, ca. 1920 (Photo courtesy Chicago History Museum); at right, 2021.
Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1870 South Blue Island, built 1899. At left, ca. 1920; at upper right, close-up of entrance, ca. 1920 (Photos courtesy Chicago History Museum); at bottom right, ca. 2010.
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making the production of beverages with more than .2.75 percent alcohol by volume illegal. These Acts laid the groundwork for passage of the Eighteenth Amendment outlawing liquor altogether in the United States by 1920. With legal liquor sales a thing of the past, the ground-floor space could no longer function as a tavern. A tenant listed in a 1911 Chicago City Directory as Wallace N. Key, druggist may have occupied one of the upper floors at that time, but by 1928 W.N. Key Drugs is the first entity listed at 1393 West Lake Street, suggesting he may have established a commercial presence on the ground floor.
TIED HOUSE ARCHITECTURE IN CHICAGO
The (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street is representative of a distinct building type in the city. Previous research has documented over forty brewery-tied houses that survive in Chicago, and there may be others not yet identified. Although Schlitz built the majority of them, a host of other breweries built taverns in Chicago, including the Milwaukee-based Blatz, Pabst, and Miller breweries, as well as local brewers such as the Atlas, Birk Brothers, Fortune Brothers, Gottfried, Peter Hand, Standard, and Stege companies.
In such a fiercely competitive environment, advertising became an important part of the brewery-tied house buildings in Chicago. Aside from storefront signage, initially this was done by painting large-scale signs on the buildings themselves. As noted, 1393-1399 West Lake Street shows evidence of this on the east elevation and there very well may have been another painted sign on the west elevation underneath the bay window. Photographic documentation of Schlitz Brewery-tied houses from around the turn of the twentieth century shows this was common. Although the sign on 1393-1399 was painted on common brick, likely due to the unimpeded view ofthe east elevation adjacent to a vacant lot (compared to obscured views of the front facade due to the Lake Street elevated tracks), many if not most of the painted signs were on finished elevations.
One example of a Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, located at the southeast corner of Fulton Street and Ashland Avenue, shows a sign painted on the north elevation facing the intersection for maximum visibility. Current photos of the extant building show that all traces of the sign are now gone. Changing tastes and changing uses of the building meant such painted Schlitz logo signs were not likely to last as new owners wanted their business advertised and eventually taste for such visually dominating signs faded. At 1393-1399 West Lake Street, by virtue of the sign not being on a primary elevation, it has survived.
Edward G. Uihlein had purchased the property at Ashland and Fulton on November 26, 1890 {Real Estate and Building Journal, January 17, 1891, p. 88). The following year he commissioned architect Henry T. Kley to design a four-story store and flat building for this corner {Real Estate and Building Journal, February 21, 1891, p. 25). Another former Schlitz-Brewery Tied House which still stands is located at 1870 South Blue Island. On May 24, 1899, Edward Uihlein took out a permit to build a three-story, brick, store and flats building there. A saloon was in operation at that location at least until 1918 when Jaroslav Zastera is identified as the saloon-keeper at this address {The Economist, 17 August 1918). The ground-floor shows
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ANNUAL CAPACITY« ONB MILLION 0ARRBL6 OF BEER.
An 1892 Schlitz Brewing Company ad with an illustration of its Milwaukee manufacturing facility. Also visible is the Schlitz font logo and the new Globe logo, first used in 1892. (Photo courtesy Uwe Spiekermann from Milwaukee's Great Industries)
A "ghost sign" shows the recognizable curves ofthe cursive Schlitz font used by the company (visible above the graffiti).
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both a Schlitz font logo sign painted on the masonry as well as stained glass transoms incorporating the Schlitz trademark. The ground floors of both this tied house and the one at Ashland and Fulton have been infilled and many of the architectural features on the latter are missing entirely. In comparison, 1393-1399 West Lake Street is one of the best-preserved early examples of the Schlitz Brewery-Tied House still standing today.
Though the earlier buildings were a product of their Victorian time in terms of ornament, Schlitz Brewery-Tied Houses nevertheless retained remarkable uniformity over the decades in multiple aspects including design, location, and intent. Compared to the independent shopkeeper or saloonkeeper, the brewing companies possessed substantially larger budgets for acquiring prime real estate and using higher-end building materials. In the hands of brewers, the common "store and flat" building was elevated through well-designed architecture to attract customers and promote the brewer's brand. No doubt brewers also opted for attractive and sometimes cheerfully picturesque architecture to deflect criticism from their "Dry" opponents who saw the saloon as a moral threat.
These custom-built store and flat Schlitz Brewery-tied houses are most commonly found at prominent and highly visible corners of at least one, if not two, neighborhood commercial streets, typically with streetcar or nearby elevated train service. Brewing companies favored locating in neighborhoods that historically were working class, often with industrial complexes in walking distance. While many of these neighborhoods had large immigrant populations, there is no indication that brewers located their taverns to serve specific ethnic groups. Contemporary observers of the Chicago saloon at the turn of the twentieth century noted that it was one ofthe few places where immigrants from several ethnic groups mingled, although most neighborhoods were predominantly inhabited by one or a few ethnic groups.
The overall form of the Schlitz Brewery-tied house is based on the common "store and flat" building, with retail space at the street level and private apartments on the second and, in some cases, the next one or two stories. In some instances the rear portion of the tavern included an attached one-story hall. Structurally, the tied houses typically consist of load-bearing masonry exterior walls with a wood-frame interior structure and a flat roof. Generally rectangular in plan, the tied houses typically measure 25' wide with depths ranging from 75' to 120'.
With their corner locations, these tied houses have two street-facing elevations. Ornamentation is typically concentrated on the narrow front elevation, with the longer side elevation being less ornamented to plain. The utilitarian rear elevation and the interior side elevation, often obscured by a neighboring structure, are most characteristically unadorned common brick.
The street-facing elevations are typically clad in face brick, often in two contrasting colors arranged in attractive patterns or tapestry bonds. Though less common, limestone cladding is also found at the front elevations of some tied houses in combination with a face brick side elevation. Limestone is also used for carved ornamentation, sills, string courses, and as contrasting accents in arched brick openings. Pressed metal, either painted galvanized steel or patinated copper, is used for bay and turret cladding, finials, cornices, copings, and other
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ornamental details such as around more elaborate window openings.
When 1393-1399 Lake Street was built, there was already an elevated line running along Lake Street and the new Sheldon elevated station would have been going up around the same time. The architect designed the narrow front, views of which were severely impeded by the elevated tracks, with decorative and textured limestone but the more detailed copperwork on the bay window and turret were placed on the other street-facing elevation where it could be seen by many more people.
The primary entrance to Schlitz Brewery-tied houses is most commonly located at a chamfered corner ofthe building, often marked with a projecting bay or turret above it. The front elevation often originally featured large storefront windows lighting the tavern interior and a separate entrance leading to the second-floor apartments. The longer side-street elevation of the first story commonly includes relatively large window openings and a secondary entrance to the tavern.
Architectural ornamentation on tied houses is generally concentrated at the upper stories and parapet. Upper-story bay windows or corner turrets, often clad with pressed metal decoration and topped with conical or bonnet roofs, are often located at the corner. A second or even third window bay is also commonly found on side elevations. Parapets frequently include false gables, often stepped or scrolled, and crenellation. In addition to horizontal stringcourses, narrow brick piers with stone or metal finials are also common. Patterned and tapestry brick, blind arches, corbelling, and pressed-metal and carved limestone decoration are often used in various combinations on the upper stories of tied houses. Depending on the individual building, and perhaps reflecting the character ofthe surrounding neighborhood, the use of ornamentation ranges from restrained to more elaborate. In some of the more elaborate designs, complex rooflines and ornamentation are characteristic, including window openings at upper stories framed with pressed metal and carved limestone decoration that projects from the wall surface.
Painted signage was seen on Schlitz Brewery-Tied Houses of every decade. In time, the trademark or insignia ofthe brewing company rendered in carved stone, terra cotta, or pressed metal developed as a common decorative motif. Perhaps the most recognizable is Schlitz's "belted globe." The design is based on sculptor Richard Bock's design for Schlitz's exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. Bock described it in detail in his memoirs which were later published by his daughter in 1989:
There was an exhibition piece I needed to do for the Manufacturer's Building, the Schlitz Brewery trademark of a huge globe with a buckled belt around it. This globe was supported by four female figures in playful poses representing the four hemispheres. At their feet were gnomes. Flanking this centerpiece were four pedestals constructed of beer kegs, three to a pedestal, and on top of each a herald blowing a trumpet.
Franz Rugiska, a sculptor who had also worked with Louis Sullivan, assisted Bock with the piece.
Other brewing company insignia found on Chicago's tied houses include the trademarks of Stege, Peter Hand, Standard, Blatz, and Birk Brothers breweries. Painted signs have faded or been erased, making it more of a challenge to spot the tied houses which featured them, but the masonry Schlitz belted globes remain and provide an easily-seen clue regarding the history of the structure.
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ARCHITECTURAL STYLES
The former Schlitz Brewery-tied house at 1393-1399 West Lake Street was designed in the Queen Anne Style. Eclecticism is the hallmark of this style which was popular in Chicago during the 1880s and 1890s. The name was coined in nineteenth-century England to describe architect Richard Norman Shaw's innovative designs which freely combined medieval and classical forms and ornament. Shaw influenced American architects who began applying Queen Anne design to suburban houses and seaside resort cottages, but it quickly became a popular style for both brick and wood-frame urban residences.
The Queen Anne style was also applied to commercial buildings. Both residential and commercial buildings in this style typically included projecting towers, turrets, or bays; steep rooflines often incorporating gables; and a mixture of exterior building materials including brick, stone, and metal. Features are arranged to create an asymmetric ensemble and variation in color, texture, and pattern is emphasized. Although on too narrow a lot to include gables in its steep roof, the tied house at 1393-1399 West Lake Street incorporates the common elements of the Queen Anne style.
Later Schlitz Brewery-tied houses in Chicago were influenced by Queen Anne architecture but their design began to shift more often toward its close relative, the German Renaissance Revival style. Later additions and alterations employed a rustic Tudor Revival style. These three styles employ a combination of colors, forms, materials, textures, and ornamentation to create a visually pleasing effect, and all three borrow motifs from various strands of earlier historical styles to simulate an aged and established appearance.
An exotic relative ofthe Queen Anne, the German Renaissance Revival style developed in nineteenth-century Germany and was adopted in America for buildings with a strong German ethnic association, such as residences of successful brewers, turnvereins, and brewery-tied houses. Examples ofthe style are typically confined to cities with large German ethnic populations such as Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.
It may be that the waning popularity of the Queen Anne style contributed to this shift. It is also possible that the economics of building highly-ornamented structures were not sustainable. Whatever the case, the 1393-1399 West Lake Street tied house stands as one of the earlier examples in the development of this subset of commercial architecture in Chicago.
DRINKING ESTABLISHMENTS AND THE BREWING INDUSTRY IN CHICAGO The Origins of Drinking and Brewing Establishments in Chicago
Today the term "saloon" conjures images from films about the "Old West." However, from the nineteenth century until Prohibition, all public drinking establishments in Chicago, including tied houses, were referred to in common usage as "saloons." After the repeal of
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Prohibition in 1919, the term "saloon" was legislated out of existence in favor of "bar" or "tavern," terms which remain in use today.
The origins ofthe public drinking establishment in Chicago go back to the city's days as a pioneer settlement when in the 1830s taverns that offered lodging, meals, and alcohol were first established. One of the earliest was Mark Beaubien's Hotel Sauganash, built in 1831 (its site at the corner of West Lake Street and Wacker Drive is a designated Chicago Landmark). Other early Chicago taverns include James Kinzie's Green Tree Tavern, Elijah Wentworth's Wolf Point Tavern, and Samuel Miller's Fork Tavern.
Saloons which focused primarily on the sale of alcohol for on-premise consumption began to appear in Chicago in the 1840s. By 1849, there were 146 such licensed establishments in Chicago and an estimated twenty-six unlicensed ones. Saloons appeared first in the center of the city and later in neighborhoods populated by immigrants, particularly German, Irish, and other European ethnic groups who brought with them the custom of social drinking outside the home.
Prior to the establishment of brewery-tied houses in the late 1800s, Chicago's neighborhood saloons were usually architecturally undistinguished from other "store and flat" buildings in the city. They were typically located on corners with street-level storefronts with large display windows. Separate entrances led to upper-floor apartments which often housed the saloonkeeper and his family. George Ade, a Chicago journalist and author, drew on his personal experience to describe a typical Chicago saloon in the 1880s:
When you had visited one of the old time saloons you had seen a thousand. Very often it stood on a corner as to have two street entrances and wave a gilded beer sign at pedestrians drifting along from any point of the compass. The entrance was through swinging doors which were shuttered so that anyone standing on the outside could not see what was happening on the inside. The windows were masked by grille work, potted ferns, one-sheet posters and a fly specked array of fancy-shaped bottles.
Just as saloons had a long presence in the Chicago, so too did brewing. In 1833, William Haas and Andrew Sulzer arrived in Chicago from Watertown, New York, and established the city's first brewery, producing English-style ales and porters. Haas and Sulzer soon moved onto other enterprises, but the brewery they founded thrived under the management of several executives, including William Ogden, who was also served as the city's first mayor. By 1857 the brewery was led by William Lill and Michael Diversey and was brewing enough ale at its brewery at Chicago Avenue and Pine Street (now North Michigan Avenue) to ship to Buffalo, New Orleans, and St. Paul. While Lill and Diversey could claim "lineage" back to the city's first brewery, other breweries successfully established themselves in Chicago in the 1840s and 1850s including James Carney, Jacob Gauch, Reiser & Portmann, Jacob Miller, Conrad Seipp, and John A Huck.
Huck deserves special mention in that in 1847 he introduced Chicago to German-style lager at his brewery and attached beer garden at Chicago Avenue and Rush Street. Huck was one of several immigrants with knowledge of German brewing methods who started brewing lagers in
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cities with large German populations, including Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee. Unlike the traditional English-style beers, German lager had a light and crisp character with carbonation and lower alcohol content.
From the 1860s to 1870s, sales of lager beer began to outpace English-style beers, distilled spirits, and wines, and by the end of the nineteenth century lager would dominate the alcohol trade in America, giving rise to a large brewing industry. A brewer's trade association described lager as a "light sparkling beverage peculiarly suited to the domestic palate," and praised lager's relatively lower alcohol content. By 1890 the thirst for beer in Chicago was so great that the Saloon Keeper's Journal boasted that the per capita consumption of beer in Chicago was 49 gallons, more than twice the amount then consumed by residents of Germany.
The Growth of Brewing as an Industry
To satisfy the seemingly insatiable demand for beer, brewing evolved into one of America's and Chicago's largest manufacturing industries. In addition to its large immigrant population of beer drinkers from Germany, Bohemia, Ireland, and Scandinavia, Chicago's proximity to natural resources made it an ideal location for brewing. As the central market for the vast amount of grain harvested in the Midwest, Chicago offered brewers access to barley, the key ingredient in beer. Fresh water was another important ingredient in brewing and was abundant in Chicago. The production and aging of lager consumed large amounts of ice, and the city's cold winters provided natural ice which could be harvested from lakes and stored in ice houses to allow brewing in warm weather prior to the invention of mechanical refrigeration.
Just as it attracted other industries, Chicago's central location within the national rail network was attractive to breweries, especially the large "shipping breweries" based in Milwaukee which were producing far more beer than Milwaukeeans and Chicagoans could consume. Edward G. Uihlein, who led Milwaukee-based Schlitz Brewery's operations in Chicago, observed that the "expansion ofthe railroads throughout the U.S. made Chicago the freighting center for Schlitz, which opened up the market. The business, literally, exploded."
Chicago was also an important center for technological and scientific developments in the brewing industry. Chicago brewers were early adopters of mechanical refrigeration in the 1870s, allowing brewing to occur at any time of year. In 1872 German-trained chemist Dr. John E. Siebel founded the Zymotechnic Institute to test and analyze beer and yeast samples for Chicago brewers. He went on to establish Siebel Institute of Technology, which continues to offer courses in brewing in Chicago. Several trade publications for the brewing and saloon trades were based in Chicago in the late nineteenth century, including The Western Brewer which served as a sounding board for the brewing interests as the temperance and prohibition movement gained strength.
The growth of the brewing industry in Chicago led to intense competition between an evergrowing numbers of brewers, especially after the completion of the Chicago & North Western Railway connection in 1857 which allowed Milwaukee brewers to ship beer to Chicago. The Best Brewery (later Pabst) of Milwaukee began selling in Chicago that year, with Blatz and Schlitz following in the 1860s. Historian Perry Duis observed that the industry had a "David
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and Goliath" quality with a few large breweries with huge production capacity contrasting with a great number of small-scale upstarts hoping to cash in on Chicago's market.
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed five ofthe city's then twelve breweries and much of its drinking water infrastructure. Some sources suggest that in the immediate aftermath of the Fire, the Schlitz brewery sent trainloads of beer and drinking water to aid residents of the ruined city. One thing is clear—with local breweries unable to provide beer, Schlitz's sales in the city had doubled by 1872. Schlitz would become the most prolific builder of tied house saloons in Chicago.
Despite the damage wrought by the Fire, and the establishment of outside competitors like Schlitz, the brewing industry in Chicago recovered. By 1890 Chicago had 34 breweries with 2,051 employees and payrolls of more than $1.4 million. Ten years later, in 1900, Chicago breweries produced over 100 million gallons of beer per year. The industry was dominated by entrepreneurs of German origins (74% of all Chicago brewers in 1900), followed by immigrants from England and Canada. The ranks of Chicago brewers included such well-known names as Peter Schoenhofen, Joseph Theurer, Francis Dewes, Conrad Seipp, Fridolin Madlener, and Michael Brand.
These brewers were we 11-respected members of Chicago's large and wide-spread German-American community. Most were members of the Germania Club (a designated Chicago Landmark), Chicago's premiere club for Chicagoans of German origin or descent. Schoenhofen upon his death left $75,000 to various charitable organizations in Chicago, including the Alexian Brothers' Hospital, the German Old People's Home, the Evangelical Lutheran Orphan Asylum, and St. Luke's Free Hospital. Theurer, who was Schoenhofen's son-in-law, served as president of the American Brewers' Association and was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and several clubs, including the Chicago Athletic Club. Although his wealth was made in America, Dewes came from a well-established family in Germany, where his father was a member of the first German Parliament in 1848. In Chicago, he was a member of the Chicago Athletic and.Union League clubs. Seipp was an abolitionist before the Civil War and a staunch Republican in the years after. Madlener, whose son married a daughter of Seipp, was a supporter of Chicago's turnvereins (gymnastic societies) and sangvereins (singing societies). Brand was a member of the Illinois legislature from 1862-63 and was later a Chicago alderman from 1873-74. He was a member of the Iroquois Club as well as the Chicago Board of Trade. (The two buildings that were part ofthe Schoenhofen Brewery as well as the homes of Theurer, Dewes and his brother, and Madlener's son are all Chicago Landmarks.)
Beginning in 1889, Chicago's brewing industry faced new challenges due to investments and mergers arranged by British speculators who purchased several breweries and merged them into syndicates. The investors hoped that syndication would reduce competition and create advantageous economies of scale in the purchase of grain and transportation costs. Rather than reducing competition, the syndicates were undermined by independent brewers who slashed wholesale prices resulting in the so-called "Beer Wars" of the 1890s which drove barrel prices from six dollars down to three.
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During the same period, brewers found themselves in an increasingly antagonistic relationship with Chicago's independent saloon owners. Prior to the introduction ofthe tied house system, brewery salesman pursued aggressive sales strategies with saloons to ensure that their beer was placed in the retail market. In order to secure orders from saloon owners, breweries undercut their competitor's wholesale barrel prices. Brand loyalty was apparently not a consideration. In addition, brewery salesmen offered free samples, glassware, signs, and other gratuities to garner a saloon keeper's loyalty. The intense competition allowed saloon owners to play rival beer salesmen against each other, readily switching suppliers for a lower barrel price.
It was in this environment of cut-throat competition and declining profits in the 1890s that brewing companies would be drawn to the tied house system as a business strategy to guarantee retail outlets for their products. Increased regulation of saloons by "dry" reformers would have the unintended effect of further encouraging the tied house system.
The "Dry" Movement
The development of the tied house system in Chicago owes just as much to opponents of alcohol as it does brewers and drinkers. As early as 1833, Chicago supported a local chapter of the American Temperance Society, made up of so-called "drys" who assailed the social disorder caused by drinking. Temperance began as part of a religious movement which encouraged moderation in alcohol consumption. Beer and wine were regarded as temperate substitutes to hard liquors (a theme which brewers would advocate up to Prohibition). Throughout the nineteenth century, the dry movement became more rigid, evolving from a position of moderate consumption to complete abstinence, and from moral persuasion to political pressure.
One pillar of the temperance movement was to force saloons to adhere to night-time closing hours and Sunday closure. George Ade recalled that during the 1890s saloons were "open all night and on Sunday. One ofthe most familiar statements in playful circulation was to the effect that when a drink parlor was opened in the loop, the proprietor went over and threw the key into the lake. The more famous hang-outs had not been closed for a single minute for years and years." A Sunday closure law was passed by the State of Illinois as early as 1851, but in Chicago no attempt to enforce the law was made until the election of Mayor Levi Boone in 1854.
Boone had been elected by supporters of the Know-Nothing Party, a coalition of "dry" and anti-immigrant voters. Once in office, Boone raised the annual saloon license fee from $50 to $300 and called for the enforcement of the state's Sunday closure law. Thirty-three saloon owners who did not close on Sunday were arrested and scheduled for trial on April 21,1855. A gathering of protestors at the courthouse on the day of the trial clashed with police resulting in one death and dozens of arrests. This first outbreak of civil unrest in the city's history became known as the "Lager Beer Riot." For the city's working-class immigrant communities, particularly the Germans and Irish, Boone's policies were seen as an attack on their culture
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and leisure. They were joined by brewers and saloon owners whose profits were threatened. In the following city election, German and Irish voters drove Boone out of office, and his reforms were reversed. Alcohol would remain a volatile political issue in the city for decades.
Attempts in 1874 to again enforce Sunday closure met with similar opposition, which in turn led to the watering down of the legislation to allow saloons to remain open on Sunday as long as windows remained shaded and the front door closed, though rear or side doors could be opened for customers. The "compromise" ordinance placed a premium on corner locations, as evidenced by the remaining brewery-tied houses.
A second pillar of "dry" reformers focused on the licensing of drinking establishments, specifically restricting the number of licenses to discourage the establishment of new licenses. Dry's also advocated a "high license" movement which would increase the annual saloon license fee to raise revenue for police and social programs necessitated by alcohol abuse. The higher fees were also hoped to force small tavern owners out of business. In 1883 the Illinois State legislature passed the Harper High License Act which raised the annual saloon license fee from $103 to $500.
Facing bankruptcy, saloon keepers turned to brewers for help in paying the higher license fees. To keep their retailers in business and selling their beer, brewers subsidized saloon owners by paying part or all of the increased license fees. In exchange, brewers compelled the saloon keeper to sell exclusively their beer. After passage of the Harper legislation, 780 of Chicago's 3,500 saloons closed, yet in the next year 516 new saloons opened with subsidies from brewing companies. These efforts by temperance advocates to regulate public drinking establishments had the unintended effect of increasing the role of breweries in the retailing of their product, which led ultimately to brewers taking direct control over saloons in the tied house system.
The Role of the Saloon in Chicago's Neighborhoods
Despite being increasingly hedged in by legal restrictions and demonized by dry reformers, the Chicago saloon proved to be a remarkably resilient part ofthe social fabric of Chicago's neighborhoods. An abundance of writing by temperance advocates and sensational press articles portrayed the saloon as a haven for gambling, prostitution, political corruption, and a host of other social ills. A few contemporary authors, however, took a more scientific approach to understanding what role the neighborhood saloon played in the social fabric of Chicago's neighborhoods.
One such study of the saloon in Chicago was prepared by The Committee of Fifty for the Investigation of the Liquor Problem, a non-governmental body led by the presidents of Harvard and Columbia universities and which included academics, progressives social reformers, anti-alcohol campaigners, and industrialists. In 1900 the Committee published an in-depth study of saloons clustered near the Chicago Commons settlement house in the West Town neighborhood. While the Committee promoted temperance and prohibition, its study recognized that the saloon was the "social and intellectual center of the neighborhood."
The researchers found that the saloon offered a range of legitimate creature comforts with the purchase of a five-cent glass of beer. Compared with the unpleasant dwellings occupied by the
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working class, the saloon interior provided comfortably furnished and heated rooms where newspapers, music, and billiards were often available. The study also found that the ubiquitous free lunches offered by saloons distributed more food in Chicago than the combined efforts of charities fighting hunger at the time. Check cashing, telephones, and restrooms were other benefits cited by the study.
More importantly, the study found that the saloon also offered camaraderie, information about job opportunities, a safe place for the discussion of politics that would not be tolerated in the workplace, and the assimilation and mixing of members of different ethnic immigrant groups. It was not uncommon for weddings and funerals to be held in the back rooms of saloons.
It should be noted that social norms ofthe period strongly discouraged women from patronizing saloons. The social benefits of the saloon were available only to men. Indeed, women bore the brunt ofthe domestic upheaval caused by alcohol abuse, and historians suggest that the suffrage movement was largely driven by women who wanted a voice in alcohol policies.
The Committee's study concluded that the saloons in West Town in 1900 were social clubs for the immigrant working class, and that while vice did exist in saloons, it had been greatly exaggerated by dry advocates and sensationalist journalism. Rather than continuing ineffective legal restrictions on saloons, the Committee recommended greater support for substitutes for the saloon such as turnvereins, trade unions, church societies, settlement houses, and public libraries.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TIED HOUSE SYSTEM IN CHICAGO
The term "tied house" first appeared in eighteenth-century London where it referred to taverns owned by breweries where they sold only their brand of beer. The system was a form of "vertically-integrated"'production by which breweries expanded their business beyond mere production to also include the wholesale distribution and retail sale of their product. Intense competition among brewers combined with government policies which sought to restrict saloons compelled brewers to embrace the tied house system in nineteenth-century Chicago. The tied house system reflects broader economic patterns of the time that encouraged the growth of large business enterprises such as industrial corporations and department stores.
The tied house system offered brewers numerous advantages. The greatest of these was that retail outlets for their product could be assured. This was especially attractive to brewing companies in Chicago which were reeling from price wars and aggressive sales practices by competitors. Securing retail establishments was also advantageous to brewers because beer was perishable and impossible to stockpile during downturns. Similarly, the system allowed the brewer to control how their beer was stored and served to maintain the brand's reputation.
At its inception, the tied house system also appealed to dry reformers. In 1892, the Chicago Tribune observed that it "would be of much advantage to the city from the standpoint of the social economist, because it means a reduction in the number of saloons and raises their character by putting ample responsibility behind them." Indeed, brewing companies also hoped
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that they could improve the image ofthe saloon in the face of growing criticism from social reformers and temperance advocates. The Chicago Brewers Association planned "to place the licensed places where their product is sold on such a basis of respectable conduct that the community will have no cause to complain of their existence."
The tied house system in Chicago evolved gradually. As previously noted, brewers began to invest capital in saloons by subsidizing the license fees of saloon owners in 1883. At the same time, brewers established rental programs which offered fixtures, equipment, and furniture for rent to saloon owners. The scale of these programs ranged from a few pieces for an established saloon to the complete outfit of a new saloon ranging from the bar itself all the way to the kitchen sink. A key feature of these rental agreements prohibited the saloon owner from selling beer from any other brewer, and the brewer's beer prices were non-negotiable.
Brewers took the next step toward the tied house system when they began to rent commercial property and establish saloons selling only their products. Rather than dealing with independent saloon owners with little loyalty, the brewers employed their own agents to run the establishment. Compared to an independent saloonkeeper, the brewing company had more substantial financial resources, allowing it to rent choice storefronts in highly desirable locations.
Outright ownership of saloons by breweries began in Chicago in 1892 when two large brewery syndicates, the English-backed Chicago Brewing & Malting Company and the local combined to become the Milwaukee & Chicago Breweries Ltd., established a fund of $6 million to buy already-built saloons as well as land for new ones. In 1892, the Tribune reported that the first twenty saloons purchased by the conglomerate were located in "manufacturing districts occupied by a foreign-born population," and the newspaper hoped that the character of these saloons would improve with the ample responsibility of the breweries behind them. By 1893 nearly half of the city's seven thousand saloons were tied to breweries. While some of these were pre-existing saloons, the majority were new buildings purpose-built as tied houses. Milwaukee-based Schlitz was the most prolific tied house builder, though other Milwaukee brewers built in Chicago including Blatz, Pabst, and Miller. Local brewers also built tied houses in Chicago such as the Atlas, Birk Brothers, Fortune Brothers, Gottfried, Peter Hand, Standard, and Stege companies.
The tied house system transformed saloonkeepers from independent business owners to dependency on, and employment by, the controlling brewery. An entrepreneur wishing to start up a saloon with a brewer's sponsorship could set up a tied house with a small investment. However, his job security depended on turning a sufficient profit for the brewer; underperforrning saloonkeepers were frequently replaced. Edward G. Uihlein of the Schlitz Brewery portrayed the tied house system as protecting both the interests ofthe brewer and the saloon keeper, who was now his employee:
For our own purposes we often invested funds by financing our customers [saloon keepers]. In this manner we not only reached higher sales figures, but we also insured our clients against the competition. We could set our own prices, but of course we never took advantage ofthe situation. When we rented to a merchant who handled our product exclusively we were very sure of his reputation and his compliance with all laws and ordinances. A respectable merchant need not fear an increase in rent unless an increase in taxes or cost of maintenance made it necessary. Needless to say, our policies were not
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highly regarded by the competition. However, after some time, when we had achieved a reputation for keeping our contracts and the most inconsequential of promises we had no. problem renting all available space. The final result was the respect of the whole business sector in Chicago.
While dry reformers initially believed that the tied house system would lead to improvements in the character ofthe saloon in Chicago, they must have been appalled to observe how the system encouraged the proliferation of drinking establishments. Rather than one saloon selling multiple brands of beer, the tied house system created multiple saloons, each selling only one brand of beer. In 1906 the Tribune reported that "wherever one (brewing company) started a saloon to sell his beer exclusively, his rivals felt constrained to start saloons of their own in the neighborhood. The result has been a costly multiplication of drinking places." George Ade observed that "new saloons were opened whenever there seemed to be a fair chance of attracting a group of bar-drinkers. They grew in number along the main thoroughfares, filtered into side streets, and invaded residential districts."
In his 1890 description of Chicago's then predominantly Czech and Slovak Pilsen neighborhood, religious missionary John Huss wrote that he "counted 72 liquor saloons on one side ofthe St., and presume there were as many more on the other side, within a distance of about one and a half miles." A year later the Women's Christian Temperance Union, founded in Evanston by Frances Willard, counted 5,600 saloons in the entire city, enough "if placed side by side on a St. they would form a stretch of saloons 10 miles long."
Both contemporary observers and historians of the tied house period in Chicago suggest that the lack of job security and increased competition between the ever-growing number of saloons forced some saloon keepers to host vice on their premises in exchange for kickbacks. According to Ade, "it was not until the saloons multiplied until each one had to resort to 'rough stuff in order to get money in the till that the urban proprietor who wished to run a 'nice, quite place'... became lost in the shuffle."
While the tied house system offered brewers advantages in distribution and sale of their product, the system was flawed in that it laid the social problems associated with alcohol and saloons on the brewer's doorstep. Rather than merely brewing beer, breweries began to be regarded as giant and soulless monopolies. The brewing companies' failure to respond the complaints of dry advocates against saloons would give the Prohibition movement greater traction in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Like all other liquor sellers, the tied house was legalized out of existence by Prohibition in 1919. Yet, unlike other alcohol retailers, Federal regulations explicitly prohibited the reestablishment of the tied house system after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Tied house buildings that re-opened as taverns in 1933 were owned or leased by independent tavern keepers.
Schlitz Brewery's Tied House System in Chicago
Though not the first tied house builder in Chicago, Schlitz was the most prolific, and in some instances its architectural legacy is readily identifiable by the brewery's "belted globe" insignia which survives on many of its tied houses. The origins of the Schlitz Brewery go back to August Krug who emigrated from Germany to Milwaukee in 1848. With his wife he established "Little Germany," a restaurant and tavern catering to Milwaukee's large German population.
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Krug brewed small batches of lager for the tavern, which gained such popularity that he established the August Krug Brewery in the tavern's basement.
In 1850, Krug adopted his eight-year-old nephew August Uihlein who had arrived from Germany. Once settled in Milwaukee, the young August went to school and was trained in the brewing business by his uncle. Also in 1850, German-born Joseph Schlitz was hired by Krug to serve as bookkeeper for the growing brewery. August Krug's brewery continued to prosper until his death in 1856. Joseph Schlitz took over the brewery's interests through marriage to Krug's widow, and changed the name of the business in 1858 to the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. August Uihlein, who by then was 16 and attending St. Louis University in Missouri, returned from school and persuaded Schlitz to hire him as bookkeeper.
In 1860, August Uihlein left Schlitz to take a higher paid position at the Ulrig Brewery in St. Louis. In following years, August's brothers—Henry, Edward and Alfred Uihlein—immigrated to the United States and found work in the brewing industry. It was Edward who would build Schlitz's tied houses in Chicago.
Edward G. Uihlein (1845-1921) was 18 years old when he arrived in St. Louis in 1863 and soon started a small metal manufacturing company which proved so successful that he moved to Chicago where he opened a second factory and retail store. Uihlein's business survived and thrived after the Fire of 1871, however, the following year he accepted Joseph Schlitz's invitation to be the brewery's manager for its expanding Chicago market.
On May 7, 1875, Joseph Schlitz perished in a shipwreck off the English coast while en route to Germany. Prior to his journey, he made out his will ,which left the four Uihlein brothers with a controlling share of the brewery's stock. Edward was appointed as vice-president of the brewery, but remained in Chicago to manage Schlitz's operations there. The quartet of Uihlein brothers would use their entrepreneurial and managerial talents to raise Schlitz to a globally recognized brand by the turn of the twentieth century. During the tied house period, Schlitz vied with fellow Milwaukee brewer Pabst and St. Louis-based Anheusher-Busch for the spot as the largest brewer in the United States, taking first place by 1902.
Like other "shipping breweries," Schlitz brewed their beer in Milwaukee and shipped it to its Chicago plant (1903, Fromann & Jebsen, demolished) near the tracks of the Chicago and North Western Railway at West Ohio and North Union Streets. From there it was shipped by the barrel to saloons, and bottled when that technology became available.
Under Edward Uihlein's management, Schlitz began to build tied houses in the early 1890s. During the period from 1897 to 1905, the company built fifty-seven tied houses in the city at a cost of $328,800. They were mostly located on corners of commercial streets in immigrant working-class neighborhoods. The location of the Schlitz's saloons provides no indication that the brewery catered to a specific ethnic group, focusing instead on areas with large concentration of industrial workers. For example, in 1904 Uihlein purchased a ten-acre site opposite the planned industrial town of Pullman, which had banned alcohol. It was a prime location to attract the thirsty workers of Pullman, and Uihlein constructed "Schlitz Row," a two -block-long stretch that included three tied houses, a stable building, and housing for managers employed by the brewery. The tied house at 11400 South Front Avenue (1906) and the stable at 11314 South Front Avenue (1906) remain from "Schlitz Row," as well as some additional buildings.
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SEVENTEEN SALOON PERMITS REVOKED BY MAYOR
Seventeen more saloons got a kick in the slats Tuesday when Mayor Thompson revoked their licenses. "The owners will never get them back," says the mayor.
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All of the licenses were taken away for violations of the Sunday closing law. They are the first to be' hit since Thompson announced his new policy of refusing to- restore a license to a man guilty of this offense. This is the list:
J. L. Lowenthal 5038 Lincoln av.; Peter Nietok'ojczyncki. 5115 Lincoln av.; John KieUan, 5145 Lincoln av.: Blender and Adams, 1364 W. Madison; Joseph Baslle, 1401 W. Congress; W. E. Hereog, 1300 W. Van Buren: Jac-. Putzlnger. 1248 Carroll ov.; |Fred Jacobs, 1393 W. Lake:|
Alex Koda, bl48 Lincoln av.; Joseph r-noin1iJ1ii 1440 Carroll av.; M. E. , 5556 N. Clark; James Dillon, V. Harrison; Leo Fogel, 449 N. ; Michael Murphy, 2177 Ogden Mike Conlglio, 455 W. Oak; : J. Novotny, 1418 S. Crawford ind J. J. Aliman, 9213 Commer-v. o—o
ilDENT JO AGAIN URGE "PEACE INSURANCE"
In World War I, rationing was introduced in the United States to ensure soldiers had the food they needed. The August 1917 Food and Fuel Control Act made it illegal to use grain or foodstuffs to produce distilled spirits. Propaganda was used to inspire Americans to submit to such hardships by extolling such behavior as patriotic.
FOOD WILL WIN THE WAR.
You came here seeking Freedom You must now help to preserve it
WHEAT is needed for the allies Waste nothing
A f.)M I N i ST O AT 1 ON
With growing anti-German sentiment, propaganda included posters such as this one, targeted at immigrants. It reflected the fearful attitude of people who supposed German-Americans, among others, might act to subvert victory. For some, drinking beer was seen not just as a waste of valuable grain, but as enriching those with ties to Germany, not to mention the ills of intoxicating soldiers who needed to be fit for war. The largest breweries in the United States had German names so Prohibition advocates took advantage of this fear to pass new or insist on enforcement of existing laws outlawing liquor sales such , as Chicago's Sunday closure law. (Source: "World War I Played Key Role in Passage of Prohibition")
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Prior to the tied house period, saloons in Chicago neighborhoods were often indistinguishable in function and appearance from common "store and flat" buildings. However, tied house brewers in general, and Schlitz in particular, maintained a much higher standard of architectural design and construction for the saloons they built. Uihlein commissioned established Chicago architects to design the Schlitz-owned tied houses, including Fromann & Jebsen, Kley & Lang, and Charles Thisslew. It can only be assumed that breweries like Schlitz chose high-quality architecture not only to compete for customers, but more importantly to project an image of propriety in the face of growing criticism of saloons and drinking.
In addition to his successful career with Schlitz, Edward Uihlein was a prominent and socially active figure in Chicago's German-American community, serving on the boards of charitable, arts, and ethnic organizations including the Chicago Historical Society and the Germania Club. Uihlein was also an avid horticulturalist and served a term as a commissioner of Chicago's West Parks Commission. He was also vice president of the Horticultural Society of Chicago, which is the predecessor of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois.
The End of the Tied House System
Even as tied houses were being constructed in Chicago in the 1890s through 1910s, the dry movement intensified. The multiplication of saloons under the tied house system contributed to the growing political resistance to public drinking establishments. During this period, dry reformers gained strength through the Anti-Saloon League, a very successful political action group which vowed that "the saloon must go."
By 1906 the political influence of the Anti-Saloon League was evident in Chicago when the city passed ordinances which doubled the annual license fee for saloons and capped the number of licenses until the population doubled, m 1915, Mayor Thompson finally enforced the Sunday closure laws. Three years later, during World War I, the U.S. Congress passed wartime prohibition to conserve grain for food supplies. During the war, Schlitz, like many other breweries, was attacked in the press for the German heritage of its founders and managers. A dry politician named John Strange told the Milwaukee Journal that "we have German enemies across the water. We have German enemies in this country too. And the worst of all our German enemies, the most treacherous, the most menacing, are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz and Miller."
The National Prohibition Act passed in 1919 and remained in effect until 1933. At the beginning of Prohibition, there were 1,345 breweries in America. Schlitz was one of only thirty-one breweries that survived the "noble experiment." Like other breweries, Schlitz sustained itself by selling malt syrup, ostensibly for baking but which was widely used as a beer starter for home brewers. Schlitz's "cereal beverage" Famo, or de-alcoholized beer, sold well only in the first years of Prohibition.
After the repeal of prohibition in 1933, revised state and federal regulations of the alcohol industry prohibited breweries from owning or having financial interests in retail establishments, thus preventing the re-establishment of the tied house system and monopolies. The system was replaced with the current "three-tier system," with an independent wholesale distributor placed between the brewer and the tavern owner. Despite the end of the tied house system, Schlitz was one ofthe nation's largest brewers up to the 1960s when the brand declined after the recipe for its beer was changed. In the 1970s, the company and brand rights were bought by Pabst which continues to brew Schlitz beer.
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CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION
According to the Municipal Code of Chicago (Sect. 2-120-690), the Commission on Chicago Landmarks has the authority to make a recommendation of landmark designation for a building, structure, object, or district if the Commission determines it meets two or more of the stated "criteria for landmark designation," as well as possesses a significant degree of its historic design integrity. The following should be considered by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in determining whether to recommend that the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street be designated as a Chicago Landmark:
Criterion 1: Critical Part of the City's History
Its value as an example of the architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social, or other aspect of the heritage ofthe City of Chicago, State of Illinois, or the United States.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street represents a distinct property type that conveys important themes from Chicago and American history from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the rise of vertically-integrated production and retail sales; the role of science and technology in the transformation of crafts into industries, including the brewery industry; increasing competition among businesses as the city and country grew; the nature and role of the neighborhood saloon; the role of ethnic immigrants as both leaders ofthe brewing industry and as consumers; and the national question about the role of alcohol in society which would later culminate in national Prohibition.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street conveys the economic prominence of the brewing industry in Chicago and Milwaukee during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, made possible by those cities' access to grain markets, fresh water, supplies of natural ice, and train transportation.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street is representative of the brewing industry founded and managed by German immigrants who were prominent businessmen active in the city's affairs; and therefore reflects the importance of ethnic immigration in Chicago's history and development in general and specifically the contributions of Chicago's German ethnic community, one of the city's largest ethnic groups.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street is one of the few remaining, earlier, larger brewery-tied houses in Chicago which were most commonly located on prominent corners of commercial streets well served by street cars or elevated trains and within neighborhoods settled by large ethnic and working class populations. As such, the building conveys the social character and leisure habits of these early residents of Chicago's neighborhoods.
Developed as the brewing industry's response to legislation and social pressure brought about by progressive reformers, the Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake
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Street manifests in built form the national debate about alcohol consumption and the "Dry" movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The subsequent proliferation of drinking places under the tied house system consequently became a factor in the establishment of national Prohibition in 1919.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street is one of a great number of buildings built in Chicago by the Schlitz Brewery, which may be traced back to the aftermath of the Fire of 1871, when the Milwaukee-based Schlitz brewery sent beer to the ravaged city, significantly expanding its customer base in Chicago.
Criterion 4: Important Architecture
Its exemplification of an architectural type or style distinguished by innovation, rarity, uniqueness, or overall quality of design, detail, materials, or craftsmanship.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street represents a distinct and recognizable building type in Chicago's neighborhoods typified by such features as its display of brewery insignia, its prominent corner location and entrance on a neighborhood commercial street, and its use of typically high-quality masonry construction and picturesque styles of architecture.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street exemplifies aspects of picturesque styles of architecture which included Queen Anne, German Renaissance Revival, and Tudor Revival. Popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these styles emphasize visually pleasing characteristics and motifs drawn from earlier periods and helped the brewery-tied houses to present a more legitimate and socially responsible image amidst growing opposition to drinking establishments.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street shows the influence of the Queen Anne style of architecture in Chicago during the last decades of the twentieth century with its highly decorative character seen in a mix of exterior colors, textures, and materials, including pressed brick, cut stone, cast iron, and pressed copper, and its asymmetric design featuring a corner turret and projecting bay.
The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street displays exceptionally fine craftsmanship and detailing in high-quality historic materials displayed through such features as its pressed brick and cut stone masonry including fan lunettes over the windows and a checkerboard spandrel panel and pressed-metal architectural ornament at the turret, bay window, and under the eaves.
Criterion 6: Distinctive Theme
Its representation of an architectural, cultural, economic, historic, social, or other theme expressed through distinctive areas, districts, places, buildings, structures, works of art, or other objects that may or may not be contiguous.
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The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street is part of a larger group of brewery-tied houses and associated buildings in Chicago that are a distinct building type which together represent an architectural, cultural, economic, historic, and social theme including: the rise of large, vertically-integrated commercial enterprises combining production and retail sales; the economic might of brewing companies in Chicago and Milwaukee; the nature and role of the neighborhood saloon; the role of immigration in brewing and ethnicity in beer consumption; and the brewing industry's attempt to project a more respectable, socially responsible image amidst growing opposition to drinking establishments which culminated locally in things like Sunday closure laws and nationally in Prohibition in 1919.
Characteristic of Chicago's Schlitz Brewery-tied houses, historically the Schlitz font logo was featured on the exterior. Painted signage was seen on Schlitz Brewery-tied houses of every decade, though subsequent changes in ownership and taste typically meant such signage was lost over time. The Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West lake Street displays a "ghost" Schlitz font logo on its east elevation. Although the Schlitz font logo remained a constant, some later tied house branding incorporated Schlitz's font and "belted globe" logo which was first used in 1892 by the company but was not widely popularized until the design was featured in an exhibit at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition. Tn time, the trademark or insignia of the brewing company rendered in carved stone, terra cotta, or pressed metal also developed as a common decorative motif of Schlitz Brewery-tied houses.
Chicago's Schlitz Brewery-tied houses represent a distinct building type, and the individual examples of this type enhance the architectural character of diverse Chicago neighborhoods.
INTEGRITY CRITERIA
The integrity ofthe proposed landmark must be preserved in light of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and ability to express its historic community, architectural, or aesthetic value. The (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street retains excellent physical integrity, displayed through its siting, scale, overall design, and historic relationships to its surrounding neighborhoods. It retains the majority of its historic materials and original detailing and imparts a strong sense of its original visual character. The building features the majority of its physical characteristics that define its historic and architectural significance, including historic wall materials in brick and limestone, highly decorative metalwork on its corner turret and bay window, the contrasting variety of materials and treatments throughout its asymmetric design, and its corner entrance to the tavern.
The original storefront is gone, but the decorative cast iron elements that frame the location of the storefront remain. Some rust is evident and there is minor damage including a break at the top of one pier and the edge of the corner landing, but overall they are in excellent condition considering their age. Portions ofthe original cornice and roof have been replaced as have sections ofthe corner turret's and bay window's metalwork but this work was undertaken in a
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relatively sympathetic manner and does not significantly detract from the overall appearance of the structure. The storefront, windows and doors have been replaced but these are considered reversible changes.
SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES
Whenever a building, structure, object, or district is under consideration for landmark designation, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks is required to identify the "significant historical and architectural features" of the property. This is done to enable the owners and the public to understand which elements are considered most important to preserve the historical and architectural character of the proposed landmark. Based upon its evaluation of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street, the Commission recommends that the significant features be identified as follows:
All exterior elevations, including rooflines, of the building.
The non-historic, one-story frame structure with fabric roof and vestibule at the rear of the building is excluded from the designation.
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I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Central Map. Survey and Publishing Co., Insurance Maps of Chicago, Volume 17, March 1892.
Chicago Reader.com , "Can a Division Street cocktail bar truly capture the spirit of Nelson Algren?," Posted By Bill Savage on June 13, 2018.
City of Chicago, Department of Housing and Economic Development, Bureau of Planning & Zoning, Historic Preservation Division, "Landmark Designation Report, (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House later Winona Gardens (now the South-East Asia Center), 5120 N. Broadway." February 3, 201 I.
City of Chicago, Department of Housing and Economic Development, Bureau of Planning and Zoning, Historic Preservation Division, "Landmark Designation Report, (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House (now Mac's American Pub), 1801 W. Division Street," March 3, 2011.
City of Chicago, Department of Housing and Development, Bureau of Planning and Zoning, Historic Preservation Division, "Landmark Designation Report, Five Schlitz Brewery Tied-Houses, 958 W. 69th St., 3456 S. Western Ave., 2159 W. Belmont Ave., 3159 N. Southport Ave., 11400S. Front Ave. and One Schlitz Brewery Stable Building, 11314 S. Front Ave.," April 7,2011.
City of Chicago, Department of Housing and Economic Development, Bureau of Planning and Zoning. Historic Preservation Division, "Landmark Designation Report (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, 1944 N. Oakley Ave.," July 7, 2011.
City of Chicago, Department of Planning and Development, First Deputy Commissioner's Office, Historic Preservation Division, "Landmark Designation Report, (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House, 9401 S. Ewing Ave.,'' August 2020.
Klatt, Mary Beth, "The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous Built a Piece of Chicago," Chicago Tribune, September 5, 2000.
National World War 1 Museum and Memorial. "Beer and World War I," accessed March 22, 2021, at .
Rascher Insurance Map Publishing Co., Adas of Chicago, Volume 6, 1892.
Robinson's Adas ofthe City of Chicago, Volume 4, 1886.
Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Chicago, Illinois, Volume 6, 1916; Revised to June 1950.
Spiekermann, Uwe, "Marketing Milwaukee: Schlitz and the Making of a National Beer Brand, 1880-1940," Bulletin ofthe German History Institute 53, Fall 2013, accessed March 22, 2021, at 3_marketing-milwaukee.pdf.
Uihlein, Edward G, "Edward G. Uihlein reminiscences," [manuscript], 1917, courtesy the Chicago History Museum.
White, Clair, "World War I Played Key Role in Passage of Prohibition," accessed March 22, 2021, at .
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CITY OF CHICAGO
Lori E. Lightfoot, Mayor
Department of Planning and Development
Maurice D. Cox, Commissioner
Kathleen Dickhut, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Citywide Systems and Historic Preservation
Project Staff
Kandalyn Hahn (Project Manager, research, and writing) Matt Crawford (editing)
DPD would like to thank Patrick Pyszka, Principal Photographer, City of Chicago Department of Assets, Information and Services for the professional photography featured in this report.
DPD would also like to thank Preservation Chicago for requesting and sharing additional research by Diane Gonzalez and Matt Wicklund. Thanks also to Richard Poemape for locating photographs used in this report.
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Actor Steve McQueen struggles atop a moving elevated train in the 1980 movie The Hunter with 1393-1399 West Lake Street visible in the background (at right). (Photo courtesy Rastar Pictures from Richard Poemape)
COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS
Ernest C. Wong, Chair
Gabriel Ignacio Dziekiewicz, Vice-Chair
Maurice D. Cox, Secretary
Paola Aguirre
Suellen Burns
Tiara Hughes
Lynn Osmond n Alicia Ponce Richard Tolliver
The Commission is staffed by the:
*DPD
' Department of Planning and Development
Department of Planning and Development
First Deputy Commissioner's Office
Historic Preservation Division
City Hall, 121 North LaSalle Street, Room 1000
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Telephone: 312.744.3200
April 2021, revised and reprinted June 2021
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EXHIBIT C
Department of Planning and Development
city of chicago
May 6, 2021
Report to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks on the
(Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House 1393-1399 West Lake Street
The Department of Planning and Development (DPD) finds that the proposed landmark designation of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street supports the City's overall planning goals for the surrounding Near West Side Community Area and the Central Planning Region and is consistent with the City's governing policies and plans.
The (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street was built in 1892 for the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. In response to increasing competition, legal restrictions, and social pressures on public drinking, multiple brewing companies adopted a "tied house" system where they controlled taverns outright and sold only their brand of beer. It is one of the earlier and more architecturally ornate examples ofthe Chicago taverns built by breweries and is a "store and flats"-style structure which incorporated three floors of flats for use as housing or commercial space above a ground-floor saloon.
The former tied house is in the Near West Side Community Area in the 27th Ward. The structure was rated orange in the Chicago Historic Resources Survey. The lot is zoned Cl-3 (Neighborhood Commercial District). The building fronts Lake Street along which the elevated tracks of the Chicago L's Lake Branch are situated and sits at the northwest corner of a block whose western half is occupied by one- to three-story buildings, most of which were built around the turn of the twentieth century. The eastern half of the block is occupied by a recently constructed 13-story high-rise.
A Fulton Market Innovation District Plan was initially adopted by the Chicago Plan Commission in 2014 for the area roughly bounded by Hubbard Street on the north, Halsted Street on the east, Randolph Street on the south, and Ogden Avenue on the West. It consisted of a land use map, general design guidelines, a suite of public investments, and recommendations for preserving historic buildings and providing more food-oriented programming. Expanding several blocks beyond those boundaries, in 2017, the Plan Commission also adopted the West Loop Design Guidelines which contained General Strategies for Design Excellence including "preserve and integrate adjacent and on-site historic buildings in a complementary manner into new developments." Tremendous land use and market demand changes in and around the Fulton Market Innovation District since the initial 2014 plan prompted an update which was approved
121 NORTH LASALLE STREET, ROOM 1000, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS C0602
by the Plan Commission in February of 2021. One of three main goals identified in the updated plan was to "Protect and Enhance Historical and Cultural Assets" by continuing to "support the Fulton Randolph Market Landmark District and other historic assets."
Maurice D. Cox, Commissioner Department of Planning and Development
Therefore, the Department of Planning and Development finds that the proposed landmark designation of the (Former) Schlitz Brewery-Tied House at 1393-1399 West Lake Street ' supports the City's overall planning goals for the surrounding Near West Side Community Area and the Central Planning Region and is consistent with the City's governing policies and plans.