Montgomery Ward Company Complex

Montgomery Ward Company Complex

Industry	Retail, Mail order
Founded	1908
Headquarters	Chicago , United States
Products	Mail order retail services

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The Montgomery Ward Company Complex served as the original national headquarters for Montgomery Ward, recognized as the oldest mail order company in the United States. Situated at 618 W. Chicago Avenue along the North Branch of the Chicago River in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, this site was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978.

History

The complex's two earliest structures—the former Administration Building and the Mail Order House—were constructed using reinforced concrete. They were designed by architects Richard E. Schmidt and Hugh Garden, partners in the firm Schmidt, Garden and Martin.

The Administration Building, an eight-story facility encompassing approximately 400,000 square feet (37,000 m²), functioned as Montgomery Ward’s corporate headquarters until 1974. Its design includes sword and torch motifs at the base as well as on vertical piers that extend uninterrupted to a parapet adorned with similar decorative elements. In 1929, a four-story tower featuring a pyramidal roof was appended to the building’s northeast corner.

File:Spirit-of-Progress-01.jpg

The Spirit of Progress

Atop the Administration Building stands a 22.5 feet (6.9 m) bronze statue replica originally placed on the old Montgomery Ward Building located on Michigan Avenue. This statue, known as The Spirit of Progress, was created by the W. H. Mullins Manufacturing Company from Salem, Ohio, based on an earlier sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The figure represents the goddess Diana, depicted in flowing robes balancing on a globe while holding a torch in her right hand and a caduceus in her left. This design was adapted from statues that once adorned both New York’s Madison Square Garden and Chicago’s Agriculture Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Located about forty feet north of the Administration Building is the Mail Order House—also referred to as the Catalog House—a massive facility covering roughly 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²) that formed the operational core of Montgomery Ward. Completed in 1908, this eight-story structure features white-painted exterior walls and a flat roof. Inside, it housed extensive networks of chutes, conveyor systems, and storage lofts with ceiling heights varying between 12 and 17 feet (5.2 m). The building’s west-facing facade follows a curve along the riverbank, stretching nearly 1,100 feet (340 m) in length, with each floor occupying about 6 acres (2.4 ha) of space. Historically, it included its own postal branch and a ground-level shipping platform capable of servicing twenty-four railroad freight cars simultaneously. The Catalog House received designation as a Chicago Landmark on May 17, 2000.

Over time, Montgomery Ward expanded this complex by adding multiple warehouses and parking facilities. In 1972, they constructed a new 26-story office tower designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, renowned for his work on New York City’s former World Trade Center twin towers.

Currently

Following Montgomery Ward's bankruptcy in 2001, the original structures were transformed into high-end condominiums. This redevelopment adhered to the standards required for National Historic Landmark preservation, except for the addition of balconies on the administration building. In 2004, the office tower underwent a similar conversion and is now known as The Montgomery.

Today, the Mail Order House building accommodates a variety of tenants, including restaurants, the Big Ten Network, Wrigley, Echo Global Logistics, David Barton Gym, Allyu Spa, Groupon, Kingsbury Yacht Club boat slips, InnerWorkings, Uptake, Dyson Inc., along with 298 upscale condominiums. Bankers Life & Casualty maintained offices within this complex for several years until Groupon’s growth prompted their relocation in late 2011.

See also

• List of National Historic Landmarks in Illinois