21-May-20 – Fifteen buildings in River North and Streeterville, built shortly after the Great Chicago Fire, are now an official landmark district.

The Chicago City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to protect the buildings from significant alteration or demolition.

The Near North Side Multiple Property Landmark District is bounded by Chicago Avenue, Fairbanks Court, Grand Avenue, and LaSalle Drive. It includes single-family homes, row houses, and apartment buildings, built between 1871 and 1923, that were once fashionable homes for the well-to-do in a neighborhood known as McCormickville. The buildings are a time capsule of architectural styles popular at the time, including Colonial Revival, Italianate, Romanesque Revival, Second Empire, and Queen Anne.

“Despite the great fire, which essentially leveled the neighborhood, its residents rebuilt and attracted new families to the area and enabled its continued growth and opulent development during the Gilded Age,” according to a report published by the city’s Department of Planning and Development.

(Above) Locations of the 15 buildings in the Near North Side Multiple Property Landmark District. 1 - 642 North Dearborn Street, 2 - 17 East Erie Street, 3 - 14 West Erie Street, 4 - 110 West Grand Avenue, 5 - 1 East Huron Street, 6 - 671 North State Street, 7 - 9 East Huron Street, 8 - 10 East Huron Street, 9 - 16 West Ontario Street, 10 - 18 West Ontario Street, 11 - 212 East Ontario Street, 12 - 222 East Ontario Street, 13 - 716 North Rush Street, 14 - 42 East Superior Street, 15 - 44-46 East Superior Street.

Among the properties that are now protected are three buildings on East Superior Street that had been slated for demolition to make way for a skyscraper. The 60-story Carillon Tower was proposed by New York-based developer Symmetry Property Development but was not approved by the city.