revisting william phillip doerr's jeffery theater (1923) lobby as it appeared in 2014: Historical analysis: AI has likely been used to research and summarize information about the theater's history, architecture, and its impact on the South Shore neighborhood. Entertainment industry analysis: AI is fundamentally changing the live...
a collection of original and historially important late 19th and early 20th century 8 x 10 glass plate negatives of seldom seen interior views of both northwestern terra cotta company and the american terra cotta company modeling rooms featuring sullivanesque style building ornament - both...
note: any and all images in this post are raw and unedited and will be left that way. posted on december 14, 2015: as the year comes to a close i look back in amazement at the amount of disruption and damage done by demolitions of late...
raw and unedited demolition images of john voltz hall (1881), located at 800 north wells street, chicago, il. john voltz came to chicago with a wave of germanic immigrants during the 1850's and 1860's. voltz was an entrepreneur and nearly a decade after the great fire...
"phoenix rises." rare photographic prints of downtown chicago's "burnt district" taken after the great chicago fire of 1871. the albumen prints demonstrate how quickly chicago began to rebuild itself after the great conflagration fueled by the extensive use of salvaged building materials (i.e., brick, iron, etc.) ...
massive library of rare and out-of-print frank lloyd wright-related books formerly owned by taliesan architect aquired by bld. 51 archive. ...
original linen-backed period photographic images of graven and mayger’s mayan revival style 3500-seat fisher theater in albert kahn’s fisher building (1928), located at 3011 west grand blvd., detroit, mi. the theater was completely gutted in 1961 - replacing the...
raw, unedited interior and exterior images of otto strack's 1890-91 pabst tavern (later known as metropolitan hall), located at 537-541 west clarke street, milwaukee, wisc. the images were taken shortly before and during the building's demolition in 2006. the three salvaged cathedral roll solid colored...
the following images represent a well-rounded cross section of historically important architectural ornament, artifacts, objects and ephemera recently added and/or digitized to the bldg. 51 museum archive in the fall of 2025. the image gallery below offers a preview of bldg. 51's latest acquisitions: ...
recent photographic survey of the nicely worn reliance building (atwood, burnham and root, 1895) interior gothic style staircase, fabricated in cast iron with bower-barff "rust-proof" finish largely intact by william winslow's chicago-based winslow brothers foundry. steel-frame construction: the reliance building was one...
eric j. nordstrom of urban remains and the bld. 51 museum archive has spent nearly a year carefully photodocumenting the interiors and exrteriors of prime group's portfolio of historic buildings located in downtown chicago. a small selection of images from the nearly year-long (ongoing) project...
images of henry ives cobb’s 17-story chemical building (1896), located on the ne corner of 8th and olive streets, st. louis. mo. the building’s annex was designed by st. louis-based firm of mauran, russell, and garden in 1903. the ornamental cast iron was executed by christopher...
unique cast bronze and oak wood paperweight fabricated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of ernest flagg’s singer tower (1897-1908), located at 149 broadway street, new york city, ny. the paperweight is a replica of the building’s bronze window cleaner...
this month marks the 15th year anniversary of the bld. 51 museum and archive and 10th year anniversay of the publication of the museum's historically important building fragment collection (note: tens of thousands of artifacts have been added to the ever-expanding museum collection since publication...
it's been nearly six years since john vinci, timothy j. samuelson, and i visited richard nickel's collection of architectural ornament housed in the university's "shed." not much has changed since that time other than having...
a photographic survey of george d. mason and zachariah rice's richardsonian romanesque style first presbyterian church (1889), located at 2930 woodward avenue, detroit, mich. mason and rice modeled the rusticated cut redstone church after h. h. richardson's trinity church (1872-77) located in boston. when woodward avenue...
cool copshop revisited in october, 2025. exterior images of edward c. van leyen’s beax-arts style three-story brick and bedford limestone third precinct station (1896), located at 2200 hunt street, detroit, mich. the carved limestone portico is quite unique, featuring the...
photographic survey of h.h. richardson's bagley memorial fountain (1885), located at cadillac square, detroit, mich. the pink bragville granite fountain was modeled after a ciborium located in st. mark's basilica in venice. the centrally located carved lionheads distribute the water (the original was stolen between the...
the bldg. 51 museum and archive secured an original healy and millet-designed oversized leaded stained glass skylight window salvaged from adler and sullivan's 1889-90 auditorium theater. the hinged window has been releaded within a newly-built solid oak wood frame. the original centrally located ruby red...
a recent exterior and interior photographic survey of the abandoned but largely intact stanley hong’s mannia cafe, located at 265 east baltimore street, detroit, mich. the stanley hong’s mannia café building in detroit, built in 1969, was designed by african american architect nathan johnson. ...