bill book 1 and 2: images of original ledgers from the architectural firm of jenney, mundie, & jensen

the discovery of several books, photographic prints, drawings, and papers - including two completely intact and well-maintained ledgers from architectural firm of jenney, mundie, & jensen, was nothing short of one of the more remarkable finds i've run across in recent years. hidden away and forgotten for decades, the ledgers (a peak inside provided through images in this blog entry) contains both hand-written and typed information pertaining to any and all commissions executed by this firm between 1909-1935.

the firm's architects:

major william lebaron jenney founded the firm, first named loring & jenney, in 1868 with sanford e. loring. jenney has been called “a pioneer of modern architecture” and the “father of the skeleton steel frame”. his most well known accomplishment is the design of the home insurance building (1884-1931), the first skyscraper built with skeleton steel construction.

other distinguished works include leiter i (1879-1972), leiter ii (1891-present), the ludington building (1891-present), the manhattan building (1891-present), the fair department store (1891-1985) and the new york life insurance building (1894-present). during the 1893 world’s columbian exposition in chicago, jenney designed the horticultural building and mackaye’s spectatorium (not finished). in addition to his advancements in engineering and architecture, jenney was also instrumental in the design of humboldt, douglas, and garfield parks as well as town planning for riverside illinois. many influential architects were trained in jenney’s office including william holabird, martin roche, louis sullivan and daniel burnham. the varied talents and teachings of william lebaron jenney were an important piece in the evolution of 19th century architecture.

william bryce mundie was hired by william le baron jenneY in 1884. in 1891, he was promoted to partner and the company name changed to jenney & mundie. through the 1890’s, mundie worked with jenney on prominent projects including leiter ii (1891-present), the ludington building (1891-present), the horticultural building at the 1893 world’s columbian exposition and the new york life insurance building (1894-present).

upon william le baron jenney’s retirement, mundie promoted elmer jensen to be his partner and the firm operated under the name mundie & jensen from 1907-1936. during this time, many impressive buildings were designed including the lake view building (1906-present), the union league club (1926-present) and the west town state bank (1930-present).

elmer jensen was hired by william le baron jenney in 1884 at the age of 14 as an office boy. upon jenney’s retirement in 1905, william bryce mundie selected jensen to be his partner. the firm operated under the name of mundie & jensen from 1907-1936. during this time, many commercial buildings were designed including the consumers building (1913-present), the lemoyne building (1915-present) and singer on state (1926-present). in addition, mundie & jensen were also active in the burgeoning motor row district designing showrooms for packard, rambler, locomobile and pierce arrow.

following mundie’s passing in 1939 and the hiring of edward halstead, the firm name became jensen & halstead as it is today

when time permits, i will continue digitizing the historically important cache of materials (currently housed in the bldg. 51 museum archives) in the hopes that it can be disseminated through proper channels to aid researches, scholars, historians, etc., in further advancing their understanding of this firm and its body of work.