Dearborn Station is the oldest surviving railroad terminal in Chicago, easily recognized by its massive twelve-story clock tower and walls of red pressed brick and pink granite. Designed by architect Cyrus Eidlitz and completed in eighteen…
Printers Row Bookish Walk
This neighborhood walk traces the brick printing warehouses and historic landmarks of Printers Row, where Chicago's massive 19th-century publishing industry thrived. We will walk past historic publishing lofts, a classic independent bookstore, and impressive skyscrapers that once vibrated with the sound of printing presses.
Listen to this tour in the Mira app →Walk it in street view
1. Dearborn Station
2. The Lakeside Press Building
The Lakeside Press Building is marked by its heavy vertical brick piers and large, uniform windows separated by dark cast iron spandrels. Built in two phases starting in eighteen ninety-seven, this seven-story structure was designed by…
3. The New Franklin Building
The New Franklin Building at seven hundred twenty South Dearborn Street rises thirteen stories as a brick testament to the era when this neighborhood anchored Chicago’s printing and publishing industry. Completed in nineteen sixteen, it…
4. Sandmeyer's Bookstore
Sandmeyer's Bookstore occupies the ground floor of a former printing warehouse on South Dearborn Street, recognizable by its ornate storefront and windows that flood the interior with natural light. Founded in nineteen eighty-two by Ulrich…
5. Transportation Building Condo
The Transportation Building at six hundred South Dearborn Street is the tallest structure in the historic Printer's Row neighborhood, rising twenty-two stories on a narrow lot only sixty-seven feet wide. Designed by architect Fred V.…
6. Mergenthaler Linotype Building
The Mergenthaler Linotype Building, located at five hundred thirty-one South Plymouth Court, is defined by its massive, light-filled windows and heavy masonry walls designed to support the weight of industrial printing machinery. Built in…
7. Old Franklin Building
The Old Franklin Building at five twenty-one South Dearborn Street stands as a survivor of the eighteen eighties, when this neighborhood began its rapid development as the city’s printing hub. Unlike the much larger, fourteen-story…
8. Manhattan Apartments
The Manhattan Building at four hundred thirty-one South Dearborn Street is recognizable by the row of distinctive, projecting bay windows that create a rhythmic, jagged pattern up its sixteen-story facade. Completed in eighteen ninety-one,…