“UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR LOUIS…”
This is not at all how Louis H. Sullivan’s 150th birthday was meant to be celebrated. First, it was the Pilgrim Baptist Church, when on January 6th of 2006, a fire destroyed all but portions of the walls of this awe-inspiring Adler-Sullivan landmark. Now, on October 25th – little more than 10 months later, yet another Adler-Sullivan landmark has succumbed to fire. This time, not even vestiges of the walls remain. The Wirt Dexter building, having stood at 630 South Wabash for 119 years, is no more.

TRAILBLAZING ARCHITECTURE
To the average eye, one would not immediately recognize the Wirt Dexter as a work of Sullivan. It did not bear all the earmarks typically associated with his designs – the leafy ornamentation that adorns the northwest entrance of the Carson Pirie Scott store, the almost spiritual-bound archways prevalent in the Auditorium Building. But the Wirt Dexter did typify the kind of ground-breaking sentiments of Adler and Sullivan that paved the way towards modern architecture.

Commissioned by Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter, the eponymous six-story commercial loft structure was built in 1887 to house a furniture factory and showroom. With its exoskeleton of steel bracing on the rear of the building, and a façade that exemplified the openness and lightness of the early Chicago School of simplicity, the Dexter was a precursor for the 20th century skyscraper, one of Chicago’s most influential contributions to architecture worldwide.

A CHICAGO HOT SPOT
In the 1950’s and ‘60’s, the street-level floor of the Dexter was home to George Diamond’s Steakhouse. In its heyday, the 600-seat eating establishment was a vortex of Chicago nightlife, where a flashy red carpet, red leather booths and kitsch velvet paintings played host to a Who’s Who parade of celebrities and politicians. When Diamond passed away in 1982, the building was inherited by current owner Lorraine Phillips. But by that time, the surrounding neighborhood started to deteriorate, taking the Dexter and Diamond’s upscale restaurant along with it.

The building was designated a landmark in 1996, and for several years, Phillips had tried without success to obtain funding to rehab it. Vacated since February of ’06, Phillips hired a scrap-metal salvage crew to cut apart an old boiler in the basement. To do the job, it appears an acetylene-oxygen torch was used – the very same type of torch that was the source of the fire that gutted the Pilgrim Baptist Church.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION
There is no irony to this. Only tragedy. And it goes beyond the fact that yet another Sullivan landmark has been reduced to cinders. “This fire likely could have been prevented,” says Preservation Chicago’s Vice President, Mike Moran. Since the Pilgrim Baptist fire, Preservation Chicago has been pushing the City to draft a new ordinance that protects landmark buildings from these needless fires. Adds Moran, “There has to be additional personnel standing by and additional fire extinguishers at the ready.” If the City's current level of monitoring continues, “we will eventually be sweeping up the ashes of other historic buildings.”

Preservation Chicago will continue pressing for changes in the landmark ordinance. Our history does not need, nor should we tolerate, any more Great Chicago Fires.

« Lost Buildings The Harvey House »