23 Apr richard nickel images of adler and sullivan’s kennedy company cracker factory (1884) during its demolition in 1970
the facade of f.a. kennedy and company’s rebuilt six-story factory complex was executed by adler and sullivan in 1884. the brick facade featured four divided structural bays with uninterrupted piers expressing the building’s vertacality. the cornice was punctuated with a series of arched windows surrounded and/or flanked by projecting sandstone endcaps with a simple “bullseye” design motif. the differences in floor and window height reflected the various phases of the baking process assigned to each floor.
when the national biscuit company acquired kennedy in 1890, the building was sold to the printing firm p.f. pettibone and company, which occupied it until the building’s demolition in 1970. richard nickel thoroughly documented the exterior and interior shortly before and during its demolition. the images below were selected from nickel’s contact sheets chronicling the building’s destruction. nickel managed to salvage a small number of largely intact sandstone pier caps, cast iron storefront i-beam rosettes and turn of the century lithographic prints of the factory left behind in a built-in office vault. the bldg. 51 archive acquired one of the lithographic prints from john vinci, who along with nickel, scoured the building for information and/or artifacts pertaining to its history as bakery and later printing press.
kodachrome series also taken by richard nickel:
the recently digitized contact sheet images courtesy of ryerson and burnham, art institute of chicago.