long-forgotten buildings of the crane brothers company designed by architets c.s. frost and louis sullivan

following a recent demolition alert for the public life insurance co. building, it seems appropriate to segue into another charles sumner frost-designed structure that was torn down long ago. as it happens, frost's work links us to the crane family (see the recent blog on the crane mfg. company's pre-fire factory building). shortly before he would design navy pier, charles sumner frost was the architect of richard teller crane jr.'s gothic mansion at the corner of north avenue and lakeshore drive. the 45-room residence was constructed in 1910 at a cost of $500,000, designed by frost as early as the 1890's for r.t. crane, son of the company's founder, and successor to the business.

the industrialist's mansion was eventually razed with plans to turn it into a parking lot, and the site was developed in 1957 into a 33-story luxury tower.

r.t. crane jr. became president of his father's company in 1914, after buying his brother's share in the company. wartime demand kept the manufacturing business thriving and they continued to expand. by 1920, the firm purchased trenton potteries company in new jersey and subsequently launched a successful line of new plumbing fixtures. crane is known to have created an innovative advertising campaign, utilizing color print and circulating full page ads for luxury bathrooms equipped with crane products. the push to create demand was so successful that the company sold fixtures for use in frank lloyd wright's imperial hotel in tokyo, the drake hotel, and the field museum, among other institutions. the crane company survived selling in this capacity into the 1970's, when a slow decline eventually lead to the sale of the plumbing division in 1990 to american standard brands.

charles sumner frost was not the only prominent architect employed by the crane company. in fact the life of the business seems to have been intertwined with those of several important chicago architects. six years before the frost-designed mansion reached completion, louis sullivan was employed by the crane company to create the company headquarters. this too would not survive the wrecking ball.

at the same time that the carson pirie scott department store construction neared completion, louis sullivan designed several industrial structures, including the office building at canal and 12th place, between 1903-1904 for the crane company's offices (and housing the firm's brass division). the simple 5-story brick building appears as a cubic block, devoid of ornament and with windows connected by continuous sills and lintels. the relatively austere building included a line of headers on every fifth course of brick that lent the surface some variation. following the precedent of a previous commission, the office building design resembled that of a foundry and machine shop built for the crane company at canal and roosevelt between 1899-1900. the office building marked a severe decline in commissions for sullivan during the last two decades of his practice; after the carson pirie scott, sullivan mostly worked on a handful of rural banks and suburban stores.

still, the crane company's role in sullivan's late career had an additional dimension. following the columbian exposition of 1893, chicago's building boom stagnated and adler and sullivan found themselves lacking work. in fact, at this time, the crane company offered dankmar adler a job selling crane elevators at a salary of $25,000 a year. adler (unhappily) accepted this position and the firm of adler & sullivan was dissolved.

henceforth, the architects worked independently of each other (except for the carson pirie scott building), arguably without the success found in their collaboration. the crane offices, as well as several other buildings sullivan designed for the company, were all demolished over the course of the twentieth century; the aforementioned offices met the wrecking ball prior to 1935, and a shopping center parking lot now occupies that site.

in drawing out the connections between frost, crane, and sullivan, it seems crucial to emphasize that the fame and craft of these turn of the century chicago figures is not enough to warrant preserving the structures they inhabited.