The Monadnock Building: Chicago's Last Great Masonry Skyscraper

By Solomon Rokowsky

October 27, 2026

The Monadnock Building's full facade. Photo: David K. Staub. Source. CC BY-SA 2.5. Resized.

Most skyscrapers of the 1890s reached for the sky with ornament. The Monadnock Building did the opposite. At 53 West Jackson Boulevard, its northern half rises sixteen stories as a smooth brown wall of brick with no carved cornice, no columns and no decorative frieze. The only relief is a gentle curve where the wall flares at the base and again at the top. Louis Sullivan, who rarely praised his rivals, called it "an amazing cliff of brick work, rising sheer and stark."

That is the quoted line in the City of Chicago's own landmark report, and it gets at what makes the building unusual. The Monadnock is both the last and the tallest of the great masonry skyscrapers, and the moment when Chicago started to build in a different way. Its southern half, added only two years later, is a steel frame behind a similar-looking face. Standing on the sidewalk, you can look at both ideas in one block.

Four mountains, two halves

The Chicago landmark report points out that the Monadnock was built as four buildings in two parts by two teams of architects. Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root designed the first and more famous northern half, finished in 1891. The Blueprint Chicago history of the building adds that the northern part was originally two sections: the Monadnock, and the Kearsarge to its north.

The southern half is by Holabird & Roche and dates to 1893. It carries the names Katahdin and Wachusett. All four are the names of New England mountains. The choice fits the developers, who came from Boston. At one time the complex was thought to be the largest office building in the world, according to Wikipedia, and the seams between the two halves are still visible if you know where to look.

A vintage Curt Teich & Co. postcard of the Monadnock Building seen from Van Buren Street. Photo: Curt Teich & Co.. Source. Public domain. Resized.

Brothers from Boston and a manager with opinions

The developers were Peter and Shepherd Brooks of Boston, and their Chicago manager was Owen Aldis, the same Aldis who ran the Marquette Building project a few years later. The Chicago Architecture Center and the landmark report describe a relationship in which the owners hired well-known architects and then pushed them toward economy.

According to the landmark report, letters between the Brooks brothers and Aldis began in 1885, but the plan was put off until 1888. Burnham & Root's working drawings were finished in the summer of 1889, and the building went up between 1889 and 1891. Root did not see it completed. He died in January 1891, aged 41.

The landmark report says Aldis charged the architects with designing a simple, unornamented box, and rejected the first couple of designs Root put before him as too ornate. Root was frustrated at first, then slowly came around. The report says he found his inspiration in ancient Egyptian pylons. Like a pylon, the building rises simply and without ornament.

The thickest wall

The reason the walls look so heavy is that they are. The Monadnock is a load-bearing masonry building. Blueprint Chicago and Wikipedia both report that the walls are about six feet thick at the base and taper to 18 inches at the top. The building is about 215 feet tall and roughly 70 by 200 feet in plan. The landmark report calls it the highest and heaviest masonry wall-bearing building of its time.

Thick walls have a cost. The thicker the wall at ground level, the less rentable space the building has, and the higher you go the worse the problem. The Monadnock sits at the limit of what the method could do. Wikipedia also says the building sits on a floating foundation and was expected to settle about eight inches, but by 1948 it had settled about 20 inches.

The lobby and stair of the Monadnock Building. Photo: Nasty Housecat. Source. Public domain. Resized.

Not so simple after all

The legend of the Monadnock is that it is purely a masonry building. Thomas Leslie, writing for the Canadian Centre for Architecture, argues that this is not so. An 1885 scheme for the site used cast iron columns. The final design, he explains, uses steel portal braces and straps to resist wind, which helps explain how a masonry building could rise so high. The title of his essay is "The Monadnock Is Not So Simple."

That nuance does not make the building less impressive. It means the Monadnock sits on a hinge. Its walls look like the past and some of its internal structure looks like the future. By 1893, when Holabird & Roche designed the southern half, the choice was made. That half has a steel frame, and its walls can be thin because they carry no load.

A ceiling lamp in the Monadnock Building. Photo: Nasty Housecat. Source. Public domain. Resized.

Inside the building

The outside is austere, but the lobby rewards a look inside. The photographs in this article show the stairs and a ceiling lamp, both of which carry more detail than the street front. The building sits in the Printing House Row district south of the Loop, and the sources mention long-running tenants such as Frank's Barber Shop. Wikipedia reports that a $125,000 remodeling was planned by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1938, and that the building was sold in 1966.

Rescued and restored

The Monadnock's greatest danger came in the 1950s and 1960s, when buildings of its age were often seen as obsolete. The Chicago Commission on Architectural Landmarks recognized it early. Its designation in 1958 was one of the first five in the city, according to the landmark report. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, designated a Chicago Landmark in 1973, and included in the Printing House Row National Historic Landmark district in 1976.

In 1979 the building was sold and a restoration began that Wikipedia says lasted 13 years, led by Donnell and Vinci. The work was honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987. Part of the effort involved finding the original drawings, which turned up at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The south entrance on West Jackson Boulevard. Photo: Zol87. Source. CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized.

Visiting the Monadnock

You can see the Monadnock from the street, from Jackson Boulevard, from the Dearborn Street side, and from the Loop's elevated tracks. The south entrance is on Jackson. The sources used for this article do not list regular lobby hours, though the building has taken part in Open House Chicago, an annual architecture weekend. Confirm access before a special trip.

A good walk starts here. The Marquette Building is a short distance north, the Reliance Building is further up State Street and the Rookery is just west. Together they show how quickly Chicago architects changed their minds in the decade after the Great Fire.

Who owns the Monadnock Building today?

I could not confirm who holds legal title to the Monadnock today. The Cook County Assessor's parcel-address file for 53 West Jackson lists the owner and mailing name as "The Monadnock Bldg," at Suite 850 in the building. That is a tax-mailing label, not a deed, and it names no person or company. William S. Donnell led the partnership that bought the building in 1979 and restored it, and a 2017 article still called him the owner. That history does not show who owns it now, and I found no recent sale report or deed that does. Bistro Monadnock and Intelligentsia are tenants, not owners. Read October 27, 2026 from the county assessor's open data, the building's website and published reporting.

Where can you eat or drink at the Monadnock Building?

Intelligentsia Monadnock Coffeebar is in the building at 53 W. Jackson Boulevard. Intelligentsia's website lists Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and closed Sunday. The phone number is 312-253-0594. These hours were read on October 27, 2026; confirm before visiting, especially on holidays.