Sunday, May 11, 2008

How to Make a Silver LEED Gold, plus the last of the Merchandise Mart Indians

photograph courtesy of our anonymous correspondent . . .
And speaking of political correctness and the Merchandise Mart, here's a photo from The Box House blog showing one of the indian heads that once graced the facade of the center tower.
The blog reports:
There were once fifty six terra cotta American Indian chiefs that circled the center tower of the Mart; they were three and a half feet wide and seven feet tall. Unfortunately, they were all removed and, according to the Merchandise Mart history page, destroyed in 1961 to put up clean-looking and modern concrete plates. We found "Chief" at an estate sale; the woman's father had been involved in the demolition of the terra cotta facade, and managed to save this piece.
Here's a photo from the Merchandise Mart's website architectural history page showing how the chiefs looked in their original location.
The Box House blog features posts on "How two generations of a family are working to make an Evanston two-flat into a home." There's also some great historical stuff, like this post on Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 visit to Evanston.

2 comments:

Joanne said...

Lynn, Thanks for the link to The Box House!

Anonymous said...

Look what I found! http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2014/05/22/lost-pieces-of-merchandise-mart-found-in-a-suburban-garden/