Chicago, IL: Mandel/Hibbard, Spencer, Barlett Building

(See below for satellite)

I keep seeing photos of that big, black building north of the Chicago River in old photos. Pat's comment provides a name, so now I can research it.

Mike Tuggle posted
Undated aerial view of the Chicago River looking east from Michigan Avenue.
Pat Dailey: The Mandel Building tucked in where NBC now is and for a while the temporary home of the Chicago Public Library during the transition from what's now the Cultural Center and the Harold Washington Library.

Mike Breski shared
Dennis DeBruler: I knew the Ogden Slip went further West than today's location, but I didn't realize that it was so close to the Tribune Tower until I saw this photos.

The 14-story building was completed in 1926 as a warehouse for Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. It was renamed in 1946 when the Mandel Brothers department store chain bought it in 1946. Before it was torn down in 1989, it served as office space for tenants such as the Encyclopedia Britannica and as a temporary main library. [ChicagoTribune, March 16, 1989] In Glen's comment below, we learn that Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett was the wholesale hardware distributer that introduced the brand name "True Value" in 1932. When I moved into Downers Grove, IL in 1976, there were two True Value hardware stores in walking distance, including Mochels, and another one within easy driving distance. Now we are forced to drive further to "big boxes" and hope that they have what we need in stock.

Glen Miller posted

Very cool photo with a lot of detail which is typical from the 8 x 10 glass negatives from Detroit Publishing.
Chicago, 1905. "Chicago River east from Rush Street Bridge." Detroit Publishing Company glass negative, Library of Congress. (Image and text from Shorpy)
The tug, Harry C. Lydon, was built in 1898 in Benton Harbor, MI. (Maritime History of the Great Lakes). She was employed by the Chicago and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock company which was a subsidiary of the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, which still exists.

The tug's namesake, Harry C. Lydon, was vice-president of the Chicago & GT Lakes D & D Co. and brother of William A. Lydon, President and co-founder of the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock company. Harry died in November 1903 at age of 32.

The tug is towing a barge of what appears to be dredge spoil, perhaps related to the project referenced in the following article.

Detroit Free Press, Sep. 6, 1904

CHANNEL WORK PROGRESSING
Toledo, September 5. - Great progress has been made with the enlargement of the straight channel. Manager Murray, of the Chicago and Great Lakes Dredge and Dock company, which is doing the work, said yesterday after examining the work out in the bay, that the inner end of the channel will be finished by early in November. Thus there will be a channel 400 feet wide and twenty-one feet deep from the crib lights to the Wheeling bridge. Next summer the outer and shorter end of the channel from the crib range to the new harbor light will be completed.

The three masted schooner tied up by Kirk Factory #2 is very much a commercial vessel. She's showing her age too. These ship would have stayed in service for years after steamers became common. They'd stay in service pretty much until they wore out. Probably the most famous fishing schooner of them all, the Bluenose (the ship on the Canadian dime) was in commercial service in 1946when she went down off of Haiti.

This leading hardware dealership was the descendant of a Chicago store called Tuttle, Hibbard & Co., which took that name in 1855 when William G. Hibbard became a partner. In 1865, Hibbard was joined by Franklin F. Spencer, and the enterprise was renamed Hibbard & Spencer. By 1867, the company's annual sales of hardware had reached $1 million. When longtime company employee A. C. Bartlett became a partner in 1882, the company's name became Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. When Spencer died in 1890, the company was already among the leading wholesalers of hardware in the United States. In 1903, the year Hibbard died, the company opened a 10-story warehouse next to State Street Bridge in downtown Chicago. In 1932, the company introduced a new line of hand tools under the brand name "True Value."

I outlined in red my current understanding of where it was. (Some sources conflict as to where it was.)

Satellite

Mandel Brothers was a retail store that grew into a major department store at the northeast corner of State and Madison.

Via Chicagology

I never heard of Mandel Brothers, but I certainly have heard of Wieboldt's.

Chicago Tribune, Aug 20, 1960, via Chicagology

Historic Chicago posted
Steamships at the Michigan Avenue bridge. (1940s)
Philip Wizenick: The S.S. North & South Americans
[The Mandel Building is in the upper-right corner. Several of the comments talk about taking a cruise on the SS North American to Mackinac Island in the 1950s. ]