Franklin Building (Chicago)

For the Franklin Building on Remsen Street in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, see Parfitt Brothers.
Franklin Building

The Franklin Building is a 14-story brick building on Printer's Row in Chicago, Illinois, located at 720 South Dearborn Street. It is one of the historic buildings in the City of Chicago Printing House Row landmark district.[1] The building was designed by George C. Nimmons for the Franklin Printing Company and built in 1916 following on the company's previous building at 523 Dearborn, which was constructed in 1886. The current building is an example of Chicago School architecture. Oskar Gross, a painter from Vienna, Austria, did a mural over the main entrance and painted tiles for the building[2] depicting an artist, engraver, typesetter, bookbinder, and other artisans involved in the printing process.[3]

The decentralization of the printing process led to many buildings in the area, including the Franklin Building, being abandoned from their original uses.[4] The building housed presses until 1983 and was converted into 65 condominium loft apartments in 1989. It was the last major building on Printer's Row to be converted.[2]

  1. ^ "Printing House Row District" City of Chicago Landmark website
  2. ^ a b "Bldg History" The Franklin Building website
  3. ^ "Architectural Record". McGraw-Hill. March 8, 1915 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ Ji Suk Yi (June 27, 2018). "The Grid: Exploring the Printers Row neighborhood". Chicago Sun-Times.