List of Chicago Landmarks - History

History

In Chicago, the historic preservation movement initially sought to ensure the survival of individual buildings of special significance. However, the movement has evolved to include districts and neighborhoods and even encompasses distinctive areas of the natural environment. Preservation is now an integral element of urban planning and design. Three trends led to popular support of the formalization of the movement in response to extensive and far reaching destruction of Chicago's environment:

1. government-sponsored “urban renewal”, which had resulted in destruction of some residential areas;
2. construction of high-speed, limited-access expressways financed largely by federal highway funds, which divided neighborhoods; and
3. the real estate boom in response to the demand for increased office space in the Loop.

In 1957, Chicago City Council 5th ward Alderman Leon Despres began the landmark preservation movement in Chicago, by adopting the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House. This led to the formation of the City Landmarks Commission, who chose 39 buildings as "honorary" landmarks. That body evolved into the present Commission on Chicago Landmarks which was empowered by Despres's 1968 city ordinance to select and protect 12 important buildings as the inaugural official Chicago Landmarks. Although the movement was unable to save either Louis Sullivan's Garrick Theater in 1960 or Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange Building in 1972, the efforts spawned the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois in addition to the municipal Commission.