Towns and Nature: Chicago, IL: 1929 Lyric/Civic Opera House and Daily News Building

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Historic Chicago posted
Chicago Civic Opera House under construction (1929)
Philip Murphy Samuel Insull's monument built to resemble a throne.

Glen Miller posted

The world-renowned Lyric Opera of Chicago performs in one of North America's most beautiful opera houses, the Lyric Opera House at 20 North Wacker Drive. It has an Art Deco interior. It contains a 3,563-seat opera house, the Civic Opera House, which is the second-largest opera auditorium in North America. The opera house is the permanent home of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the home of the Joffrey Ballet since 2021.

Opened as the Civic Opera House in 1929, the building was the vision of utility magnate Samuel Insull (1859–1938), a populist billionaire known as "the Prince of Electricity." He went broke in the Great Depression, dying with an estate only worth a thousand dollars.

Insull, the president of the Chicago Civic Opera Association, wanted to erect the new opera house to replace Louis B. Sullivan's Auditorium Building on South Michigan Avenue as the home of the Chicago Civic Opera.

The building is shaped like a huge chair, sometimes referred to as "Insull's Throne. A large "Kemper Insurance" sign was on the top of the building in the 50's and 60's.

John Casey: When I was in college I was an elevator operator in that building, it was the Kemper Insurance Building into at least the 1980’s. The building is interesting, it includes access to the old freight tunnels that flooded in 1992 and was originally built to house some of Insull’s electrical equipment in giant rooms in the sub basements. I’ve been told that those giant empty rooms have been turned into storage rooms for scene sets, props and equipment by the Opera company. There were also several smaller performance stages situated in the building, I suspect that all but the large main theater have been turned into office space.

At some point the large ornate lobby has also been removed, the current Lobby is a shell of its former self. The Opera was basically run out of a very large office that ran the length of the entire 2nd floor overlooking Wacker Drive, that office included set design and costume making.

As mentioned the theater/stage area of the building has been renovated. Last summer while watching the Marathon I spoke to a man who works in Theater and learned that you can no longer walk from the off stage area directly out onto Wacker Drive. There was a time that a door that still opens onto Wacker led directly to the offstage area, which during the ‘60s allowed one fan of the band The Who to run across the stage, grab one of Peter Townsend’s guitars, bolt out that door, hop into a waiting car and take off down Wacker before taking a right onto Madison. So somewhere there is a stolen Peter Townsend guitar, maybe it will turn up on Antique Roadshow some day…

Glen DeCosta: The biggest reason Samuel Insull went broke during the Depression is because he double-crossed his mentor J.P. Morgan on a business deal, and Morgan, one of the most powerful and influential men in the country, ruined Insull professionally and personally.

Glen Miller shared

The Good Old Days In Fots posted

The building is shaped like a huge chair, sometimes referred to as "Insull's Throne. A large "Kemper Insurance" sign was on the top of the building in the 50's and 60's.

Eric J. Nordstrom posted
early 1930s photograph of graham, anderson, probst & white's 45-story civic opera building (1929), located at 20 n. wacker drive, chicago, ills.
courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.
Larry Kaplan: Was Insul responsible for getting the Civic Opera House built?
Christopher N. Kaufmann: Larry Kaplan Yes, because his wife liked opera. Insull’s office for Commonwealth Edison was on the top floor. And, that company’s biggest competitor in the 1880s and ‘90s was Chicago Arc Light and Power Company, formerly located on this very site before ComEd bought them out and Insull built this throne shaped edifice to mirror the Daily News building’s design opposite it.

Terry Gregory commented on Eric's post
Insull’s Throne was actually the Commonwealth Edison building, where his office was on the top floor. The labeling of the Civic Opera House as “Insull’s Throne” was created decades later.
This architectural style was used in the Daily News and the Field Building for its energy efficiency.
It was mostly a lounge he would go to after hours. Complete story on the Opera House here:
https://chicagology.com/skyscrapers/skyscrapers014/

David Daruszka answered my question on the following posting
The skyscraper is the Civic Opera House on Wacker Drive
Dennis DeBrulerGroup Admin Then Insull's "throne" really was big as recently as the 1960s.

Eric J. Nordstrom posted

original photographic image of graham, anderson, probst & white's

45-story civic opera building (1929) under construction in 1929.

courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.

David Daruszka posted
The Broadway Limited departs Chicago's Union Station in 1961. Richard H. Solomon, photographer.
Dennis DeBrulerGroup Admin Pennsy (right) and CB&Q (left) Freight Warehouses, the old post office in the left background, and Harrison Tower at the lower-right corner of the post office. But I don't know what the skinny skyscraper is in the middle of the background. That is probably the Chicago & Alton Freight House to the east of the old post office. It still stands. But I read a developer of the old post office wants to tear it down. I lost track of whether or not it is the current developer.

In this above photo of trains we see the long side of the 22-story south wing and the skinny side of the 45-story tower. It was built by Samuel Insull who founded ComEd and who owned some interurban lines. It is a "mixed-use" building because he knew that opera shows alone could not pay for a building that fulfilled his vision. His wife loved opera --- talk about an anniversary present. It was designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and opened Nov. 4, 1929. It uses limestone on the outside and Tennessee marble on the floor of the grand foyer. The auditorium and it backstage occupy about 1/3 of the total space. That space was bought by the Lyric Opera in 1993, and they did a multi-year, $100,000,000 renovation. The auditorium has 31 boxes and two balconies that seat 800 each for a total seating of 3563. [LyricOpera-History]

Bernie Lyngdal commented on David's posting: "The stage was 7 stories high and the scenery drop above the stage was another 7 stories."

LyricOpera-History

In its day, the Civic Opera House was a significantly tall building.

Dennis DeBruler

Xavier Quintana posted
The Civic Opera House being built in 1928. (Vintage Tribune, Chicago)
Tim Rogers: What train is that where Wacker Drive is now?
Alan Follett: Tim Rogers It’s the Market Street Spur, a three-block structure which was the original downtown terminal of the Lake Street ”L” before that line was connected to the Loop. It remained in service until about 1947, in its later years serving only a handful of rush-hour Lake Street trains. I believe this is the only photo I’ve ever seen from this angle, before the Opera House blocked the view from the west.
Xavier Quintana posted again
From Vintage Tribune: We just uncovered this glass-plate negative yesterday. The writing on the envelope for the negative says, "New opera house site taken at 3 p.m. on July 23, 1928. Historical. Important. First one taken of set. Plate No. 358-359." We wish we had the photographers name. (Vintage Tribune)
Craig Wilbanks: Does anyone know the story of the El going down Wacker? I have never heard that an El line ran right there.
David Daruszka: Craig Wilbanks https://www.chicago-l.org/stations/market_term.html
Timothy Henning: It was a "stub" of the Lake St. Line. Called Market St. stub. (Wacker drive did not exist till the mid-1920') Prior to the opening of the Loop elevated in 1897, the Lake Street Elevated's eastern terminus was the Market Street Terminal at Madison Street and Market Street. After the opening of the Loop in 1897, service continued to the Market Street stub, which had a stop at Randolph & Market in addition to the terminal at Madison & Market. Service to the Market Street stub ended on April 4, 1948, as the CTA implemented its new A/B skip-stop service. The Market Street stub was demolished soon after to make way for construction of Wacker Drive.
Triva: The "stub" served the office for the old William Randolph Hearst newspaper. In the early 1950's the Tribune bought that paper and closed down the office. Hearst entered the Chicago market in 1900 by establishing the Chicago American, an evening paper; in 1902, he started a morning edition, the Chicago Examiner. In 1918, Hearst also bought the long-established Chicago Herald and merged it with his morning paper to form the Herald-Examiner. By the beginning of the 1920s, when Hearst owned 20 daily newspapers in 13 cities, his two Chicago papers each had a circulation of about 300,000, making them the third and fourth leading dailies in the city. Circulation peaked in 1929, when the American sold about 560,000 copies a day. By the mid-1930s, the Hearst papers employed about 2,500 people in Chicago. Declining sales during the Great Depression led to a merger of the morning and evening papers in 1939, creating the Chicago Herald-American (later reverting to the Chicago American). In 1956, the Hearst paper was purchased by the Tribune Co., which proceeded to publish it as an evening paper under the names Chicago's American and (starting in 1969) Chicago Today.

Ralph Leoni commented on Xavier's post

LyricOpera-About

I assume the Grand Hall of the Field Museum costs more to rent than this lobby. So if the Field Museum is out of your price range, you can consider the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Grand Foyer.

And if you are frustrated that your high school auditorium is too small for its annual Christmas convocation, the Lyric Auditorium is available for rent.

LyricOpera-About

But you might want to check out the Downers Grove Tivoli (tour, museum) first as a more reasonable alternative.

Or if you need to feed 1,100 people, the auditorium has a build-out option that will seat that many people. [RentalRates]

14 photos, some with captions

Daily News Building

Original Chicago posted
View across the Chicago River of the Chicago Daily News building under construction at 400 West Madison Street, in 1929. The former Chicago Daily News Building is now known as Two North Riverside Plaza and is part of Riverside Plaza, Chicago's oldest mall. The Daily News was a prominent Chicago newspaper when the Art Deco building was completed in 1929. The building is known for its use of air rights above an active railroad and for its pedestrian plaza that faces the river.

Ron Kordick: It was also home of the Chicago Sun which Marshall Field III started in 1941. He rented space there and used their equipment and presses to publish his newspaper until he purchased the Chicago Times, which had their own building and equipment at 211 W. Wacker across the river from the Merchandise Mart in 1947 so as not to have to pay anymore rent. A year later he merged the two papers to become the Chicago Sun-Times. Originally first called the Chicago Sun & Times. Ten years later the Sun-Times moved to his newly constructed state of the art newspaper plant at 401 N. Wabash, where the Trump Tower now stands. Just one year later in 1958 he then bought the Daily News and moved them from Madison to the new "plant" at Wabash. Sadly the Daily News, which at that time was Chicago's second oldest newspaper after the Tribune ceased publishing in the 1970s.

Original Chicago shared
Gail Dean Cotton: How I remember it is that the Tribune and Sun-Times were morning papers (read on the morning commute) and the Daily News and the Herald American (Today, other variations) were the afternoon papers (evening commute). News stories might be revised twice or more during the day for succeeding editions. Papers had page after page of sports results and standings in table form, as well as stock market tables, and other financial minutiae.

Marny Koch: I know the Daily News and Sun Times were published by the same people, similar to Chicago Tribune and Chicago Today.

[This was the case when I came to Chicagoland in 1973. I am not a morning person, so I got the Chicago Today. But then the afternoon papers were discontinued. For a while an afternoon version of the Chicago Tribune was delivered. But then I had to switch to getting the paper in the morning. I'm still getting what's left of the newspaper. Talk about being a stubborn boomer.]

Eric J. Nordstrom posted three photos with the comment:

original 1928-29 kaufmann and fabry and chicago architectural photographing company photographic images of the 26-story chicago daily news builing (holabird and roche/root, 1929), located at 2 north riverside plaza, chicago, il.

note graham, anderson, probst & white's 45-story civic opera building under construction in second image.

courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.

I had this link: http://www.preservationchicago.org/userfiles/file/6_daily_news.pdf. But not only is it now broke, PreservationChicago won't admit they broke it. After a big pause, they display their home page. After digging through some search results, I found https://preservationchicago.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/6_daily_news_2008.pdf.