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| John Joseph O'Brien posted R.R. Donnelly & Sons Printing Company My father, brother, his future wife and myself, worked there. Richard Ricciotti Printers of the giant phone books! Carl Saks Richard Ricciotti. I think that was RH Donnelly, not RR Donnelly. John Joseph O'Brien Yes. RR Donnelley printed the Sears catalog. John Bak John Joseph O'Brien they are best known for the yellow pages Mike Jurgensen Where telephone books came from. Scott Paton 350 Cermak later turned into a Data Center feeding McCormick Place, the Library on the top floor with all it's splendor is still intact !!! Barbara H Dworak I worked with them to place directory listings for all of the Allsate sales offices in Illinois. John Joseph O'Brien I worked in the bindery that put together Sunset Magazine, Time, etc. Jeff Whelan They use to print phone books Sears and speigel Montgomery ward's catalogs. Bill Presz Linda Lee I started at RRD in December 69 after I came home from from the Air Force. Worked on Campbell Soup labels, got an Apprenticeship as a Proof Reader working on Telephone Directories for 5 years. They cross trained me and wound up working on Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated doing four color separations on the camera and eventually on the scanner. Bill Presz John Joseph O'Brien E.G. (Electronic Graphics) was RRD's transition from hot metal to cold type (film) composition using 2 Video Comp units to generate type on film and photographic paper. Matt Arndt My grandfather retired from there and my dad worked there for years. Tom Arndt Matt Arndt i like to brag Grandpa Wally was the head pressman on the giant printing press we saw on a company tour once. 2 stories and the size of a home and printed Time, Life and Look magazines. Dad ran a cool hot lead linotype machine for many years. [I thought either Life or Look was printed at Cuneo Press.] |
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| Shawn Lav commented on John's post Shawn Lav The RR Donnelly family lived in the tower of the building. He also didn't trust banks so he had numerous secret compartments built into the library. |
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| Richard Koenig posted
R. R. Donnelley and Sons Printing Plant, 350 E Cermak Road, Chicago. Not knowing the city all that well, I assumed that's the Illinois Central in the foreground with overhead wires, which seems correct when mapping the locale. I believe this view is now blocked by the North Building of McCormick Place (built 1986). I'll provide a link to more details of this sturdy structure built in the 1920s.
One image by Richard Koenig; taken in the mid- to late-1970s.
Stuart B. Slaymaker  Also had a teeny modern plant, in Dwight, IL..John Timm And one very vacant plant in Casa Grande, AZ.Patrick McNamara ...and any number of rural printing plants they built to bust their Chicago unions, empty as a whore's dreams.Ron Hull Seem to recall that they printed the Ma Bell yellow and white pages as well as the catalogs for the major department stores - Sears, Wards, Penney’s etc.Richard Koenig Yes, had to close this building when Sears shut down the catalog (from what I read).Michael E. Bond Ron Hull Yes, they printed the white and yellow pages there. That area had a distinctive "aroma".Jerry Stack I believe that I read that the building now houses servers (computer servers, that is) and related equipment.Rick Powell When I was at 26th Street carpenter gang on the IC, we used to go eat at the RR Donnelly company cafeteria in that building. The food was incredibly cheap and good, it was one of those places where you took a tray, picked out what you wanted and paid a cashier at the end of the line. We used to hit up Michael Reese hospital employee cafeteria too. IC used to switch out of the building in the "hole" track west of the electric lines, then RRD bought one of those self propelled tractors with a coupler and did it themselves. We'd see spoiled copies of Time and other magazines on the dock floor where we walked in and out, they did printing for anybody and everybody. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Richard's post I've read that also. In particular the electric service and strong floors needed to support printing presses makes it a good fit for server farms. Proximity to a railroad probably also helps because they can lay fiber optic cables in the right-of-way. Note all of the HVAC equipment installed on the roof. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4... |
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| Birds-Eye View |
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| Bill Molony posted Illinois Central train #1, the City of New Orleans, departing from Chicago on the morning of April 24, 1971. Dennis DeBruler RR Donnelley Lakeside Press is in the background. Note the boxcars to deliver paper and to haul away the printed material. They used to print the Yellow Pages and Sears Catalog here. Because they developed the logistics to distribute printed materials all over the country, they now distribute products for other companies as well. This building is now a server farm (that is, crammed inside with computers and with cooling compressors on the roof). It recently surpassed O'Hare as ComEd's largest customer in Illinois with more than 100 megawatts of power. [https://www.digitalrealty.com/.../revisiting-the-worlds.../] Bill Molony posted again Illinois Central Railroad EMD E9A #4034, assisted by two additional E9A's, departing from Chicago with IC train #1, the southbound City of New Orleans, on the morning of April 24, 1971. This train was equipped with reclining seat coaches and a club-lounge car. It was scheduled to depart from Central Station in Chicago at 8:00 AM and arrive at Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans at 1:30 AM the next morning. Thomas Manz I assume sleeping car passengers were allowed to occupy their space until morning. If so, such a turnaround couldn't happen with one just one trainset(?). Rob Hillman No sleepers, they were on the overnight Panama Limited. With two trains each day, there were enough cars at both ends to protect against a late schedule. And IC had a tough time making the schedules, so Amtrak kept the day schedule just over 6 months after May 1 1971, before changing to the overnight one on November 14. Brandon McShane Running 100 mph along the way. Bill posted again Wayne Eastman I put those signals on the signal structure summer 1968 John Linge I worked at 27th St Round house until Woodcrest Shop was ready. Great memories! Christopher P AllenChristopher and 40 others joined Illinois Central Railroad Heritage Association within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! Hey guys,I heard these E8's were geared to easily do 120mph.. Is this correct? Would have loved to have seen them flying down here through my Central IL! John Linge Yes, geared for speed with 36” wheels. Ken Pryor Sr. Usually about 110 mph through Farina, IL Mike Einhorn They were actually geared for 117 mph. Legal speed limit between Champaign and Centralia was 100. If they were running behind or going down grades 110+ was not unusual and 100 was an every day thing. Sometimes north of Champaign too. Wayne Evans Worked on the IC coach yard and made up that train more times then I can remember. Road it down to the turn around and the crew in the dining car always had hot coffee for us and would make you a sammie if you wanted. Pullman Porter gave me one of them heavy wool blankets one time. Great time to be a rail roader it was. |
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| Marvin Smith shared a different exposure or colorization |
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| Carl Venzke posted Another LIFE magazine photo from 1948 - Chicago. Can you identify the landmarks and lines in this photo? Robert Petit Illinois Central yard, to the right is Soldier Field, IC Suburban MU yard in yhe center, RR Donnelly printing yard to the left. Edward Jarolin The photo is by Andreas Feininger, on assignment for LIFE, and was taken in 1941. I have a book of his photos from this job and it includes handful of railroad subjects. CORRECTION: further investigation dates this photo to 1948. Feininger took this one on a later trip to Chicago. |
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| Randy James posted ic's central station, looking South, Chicago, late 60's [A Mel Patrick Photo from 1968. The building on the right is Lakeside Press.] |
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| Stephen Perrette posted Hello! I'm looking for a help on location for this photo. I recently bought this slide on Ebay, and was wondering if anyone knows the exact location. This is a ICG train, shot on April 15th of 1983. I can't make out the sign on the building. I can see the letters "ey and Sons Company". Original photo by Glen P. Koshiol. A part of my slide collection. Tom Arndt: My grandpa Wally worked his whole career there and was in charge of one of the biggest presses shooting out /time...life....look.etc as well as newsprint and my dad did about 25 yrs as a linotype operator. Toured it once...awesome place. I actually still have a souvenir somewhere...it was a 2" long...1/4" x 1/4" lead printing stamp...with the entire lords prayer on the end in the 1/4" end..microscopic almost. [There are a lot more comments about relatives who used to work in this plant.] George Paruch shared Russell Corcoran: Used to set out cars from CNW FOR THE I C AT THIS LOCATION. Dennis DeBruler: Russell Corcoran Did you use the St. Charles Air Line Bridge to get here? Russell Corcoran: i don't know how wegot there but yes an big bridge and unusual territory for CNW CREWS ON TRANSFER SERVICE. Dennis DeBruler: Russell Corcoran Chris Johnston on another post by Stephen confirmed the big bridge was the St. Charles Air Line Bridge. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILLRRHISTORYBUFFS/posts/4094708064088662/ Stephen Perrette posted A IC GP40 #3032 leads a ICG train by RR Donnelly Printers on April 15th of 1983. This was once the largest printing press in the world. This area is completely underneath McCormick Place now. Original photo by Glen P. Koshiol. Part of my slide collection. Chris Johnston: The train is coming from the St Charles Air Line, which has bridges at the Chicago River. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Charles_Air_Line_Bridge Hugh M Cook: And the corporate executive officers were all beautifully wood paneled. I knew a sales rep there and he gave a tour of the entire facility. |
Speaking of linotype machines. I should write some notes about these things. Until then, I'm "parking" this photo here.
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| Dennis Sayles posted Making The New York Times, 1942 https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/01/04/13-things-i-found-on-the-internet-today-vol-dxxxvi/ Paul Carbone: There's a great documentary about the last Linotypes in use at the New York Times https://youtu.be/1MGjFKs9bnU Markku Tanninen: Not QWERTY keyboard Nathan Andrews: Markku Tanninen — nope, Linotype keyboard. etaoin / shrdlu / cmfwyp / vbgkqj / xz (For future reference: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1579711405645184/posts/3641431542806483/) |
I did not realize that this was called the Calumet Plant until I came across this post.
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| safe_image for R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co. Calumet Plant |
Now known as the Lakeside Technology Center, this fantastic building was purchased in 1999 and renovated for telecom use. Although it may have started out as a center for printing operations, today, it tops the list of the world’s largest data centers, and recently surpassed Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as Commonwealth Edison’s largest customer in Illinois, with more than 100 megawatts of power. Today, the building has over 1.1 million square feet of space. [DigitalRealty]RR Donnelley left the lakefront, but they still have a lot of buildings in Illinois.
It is in the background of a Flickr photo of IC trains.
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