New Acquisitions

the following images feature important architectural ornament, artifacts, objects and ephemera recently added and/or digitized to the bldg. 51 museum collection and archive.  highlights include a benjamin lindauer house terra cotta chimney panel, elmslie and purcell letterhead, and interior la salle hotel rookwood faience winged cherub. all images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive. all rights...

excuse the half-assed brain dump... images and ephemera from "louis sullivan and the architecture of free enterprise" exhibit held at the art institute in 1956.   note the two adler and sullivan jewelers building (1881) columns flanking the entrance of the exhibit - they were found in the building's basement around the time of the show.  the installation was handled...

SEVEN FRAGMENTS FROM CHICAGO'S PAST: seven historically important fragments salvaged from chicago buildings designed in the 19th and early 20th century. every building has been demolished and largely forgotten. mosaic tile fragment from one of two interior staircase landings. schiller building (1892), adler and sullivan, architects. the fragment was salvaged by john norris, richard nickel and john vinci during the...

 the pabst building was a 14-story neo-gothic style commercial building (1891) designed by architect s.s. beman as the headquarters for milwaukee beer baron frederick pabst. it was the city’s  first skyscraper and the tallest building prior to the completion of milwaukee’s city hall, completed four years later in 1895. the building was demolished in 1981. the 14-story was built with...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 70,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of FEBRUARY, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.  images and ornament...

examples of early commercial and residential ornamental terra cotta executed by northwestern terra cotta works (true, brunkhorst & co., lake view terra cotta & brick company, and the chicago terra cotta company acquired by urban remains and the bldg. 51 musuem. the majority of the exterior red slip architectural terra cotta dates to the early 1880s. several chicagoans have been...

the following images and accompanying descriptions highlight the bldg. 51 museum archive's universe of rare out-of-print period architectural and/or building trade catalogs awaiting to be fully scanned and made available on the bldg. 51 website within the next few years.  rare depression-era profusely illustrated softbound sargent hardware catalog offering a detailed selection of art deco or moderne designed hardware for...

a virtual gallery of carefully sourced and meticulously documented museum-quality 19th and early 20th century ornamental metalwork from historically important american commercial and residential structures housed in the bldg. 51 museum archive. the majority of the ornament, including custom-designed builders' hardware, comes from chicago buildings erected by prominent architectural firms of the late 19th century, including, but not limited to...

new york, a.j. bicknell & co., architectural book publishers, 1873 full sub-title (set in a dazzling array of different typefaces)! "showing a great variety of designs for cornices, brackets, windows, window caps, doors, piazzas, porches, bay and dormer windows, observatories, towers, chimney tops, balconies, canopies, scrolls, gable and sawed ornaments, fences, stairs, newels, architraves, mantels, plaster finish, etc., etc. including...

the following five bottles and/or bottle fragments were culled from the bldg. 51 museum "unearthing chicago" project archive based on their captivating narratives. images of the bottles and the links to their forgotten histories are found below.          MID-19TH CENTURY BOTTLES UNEARTHED DURING THE DEMOLITION AND SUBSEQUENT EXCAVATION OF CHICAGO'S "S CURVE" THOUSANDS OF ARTIFACTS UNEARTHED BEHIND...

the following objects, culled from various ongoing projects, were selected and assembled as a hodgepodge cohered by the single theme of being utilitarian objects from chicago's past. when we can flesh out the context in which these originally existed, they take on a new meaning as functional pieces of a larger whole, and are harder to discard. even so, objects...

the bldg. 51 museum recently aquired an original buff-colored ornamental and tapered buff-colored terra cotta column from the otto strack-designed pabst beer pavilion built for the world's columbian exposition of 1893. the pavilion was located in central hall of the fair's agricultural building, designed by designed by charles mckim of mckim, mead & white. the historically important terra cotta structural...

it is well known that louis sullivan spent the last two decades of his life and career mired in dire poverty. the architect responsible for defining chicago's architectural ethos, and for raising some of the most exceptional skyscrapers would find himself in dismal poverty, reliant on close friends for financial support (including frank lloyd wright and dankmar adler's son) as...

as demolition of the early 20th century building housing the storied pacific garden mission - more commonly known as the "old lighthouse" - was drawing to a close, a battered and broken floor safe was found in the rubble. the diminutive, baked enameled black safe, with wood compartmentalized interior, was partially hidden under a field of old blank stationary, bibles and...

some of the most unique artifacts in the bldg. 51 collection (and for sale in the urban remains warehouse) are rescued from non-extant theaters hearkening to the early 20th century theater boom. aside from remarkable light fixtures, seating, decorative plaster and exterior elements from these long gone movie palaces, the technological gadgetry from atmospheric theaters count among the more easily overlooked...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 70,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of JANUARY, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.  ALL IMAGES COURTESY...

throughout 2021, the bldg. 51 museum amassed several historically important architectural fragments and objects, in addition to the evolving archive, consisting of period photographs, books, documents, drawings, blueprints, models, and other related materials that will prove invaluable to bolster the narratives of the museum's architectural ornament for future exhibitions. several hundred artifacts and ephemera have been archived and/or documented and...

  the following digitized and edited photographic images presented below were selected from hundreds of pieces of ephemera housed at ryerson and burnham, art institute of chicago, john vinci collection, and bldg. 51 museum collection.  while i've spent several months combing through the richard nickel committee archive, focusing on nickel's documentation of salvage operations (e.g., adler and sulivan's garrick theater...

late 19th and early 20th century historically important chicago building architectural ornament housed in the bldg. 51 musuem collection. artifacts and images courtesy of the bldg. 51 museum collection. all rights reserved. 2021. 

the following image gallery offers some of latest american architectural builders' hardware aquired over the past month. the salvaged chicago residential and commerical hardware dates to the late 19th and early 20th century.  images courtesy of urban remains and eric j. nordstrom. all rights reserved. 2021.