Motor Row District

The Motor Row District is a historic district in Chicago’s Near South Side community area. Motor Row includes buildings on Michigan Avenue between 2200 and 2500 south, directly west of McCormick Place convention center, and 1444, 1454, 1737, 1925, 2000 S. Michigan Ave., as well as 2246-3453 S. Indiana Ave., and 2211-47 S. Wabash Ave. The district was built between 1905 and 1936 by a number of notable architects.

Auto rows developed in numerous US cities shortly after 1900 as car companies sought to create districts where the sale and repair of cars could become an easy urban shopping experience. At its peak, as many as 116 different makes of automobiles were sold and repaired on Motor Row. Current-day marques that formerly had showrooms on Motor Row included Ford, Buick, Fiat, and Cadillac. Other marques with showrooms there that have since dissolved include Hudson, Locomobile, Marmon, and Pierce-Arrow. Currently, one car dealer (Ford) still stands in Motor Row while the remaining buildings have been or are being redeveloped into condominiums, nightclubs, and retail storefronts.

Read more about Motor Row District:  Architecture, Redevelopment

Famous quotes containing the words motor, row and/or district:

    This biplane is the shape of human flight.
    Its name might better be First Motor Kite.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    all afternoon
    Their witless offspring flock like piped rats to its siren
    Crescendo, and agape on the crumbling ridge
    Stand in a row and learn.
    William Stanley Merwin (b. 1927)

    Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.
    Rebecca West (1892–1983)