Jewelers Row District

Address: Wabash Avenue, predominently between E. Washington St. and E. Monroe St. Year Built: 1872 - 1941 Architect: Various Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: July 9, 2003

Located in the heart of Chicago's Loop, this district is distinctive and significant as an important and unique part of Chicago's famous downtown shopping district centered on State Street and Wabash Avenue. Comprised of a distinguished group of buildings important in the development of Chicago commercial architecture, the district includes important building types such as post-Chicago Fire loft manufacturing buildings, Chicago School loft manufacturing, mercantile, and office buildings, early twentieth-century skyscrapers, and Art Deco-style mercantile buildings. These buildings were designed in a variety of architectural styles, including Italianate, Chicago School, and Art Deco, by significant Chicago architects, including John Mills Van Osdel, Hill & Woltersdorf, Adler & Sullivan, D. H. Burnham & Co., Holabird & Roche, Alfred Alschuler, Christian Eckstorm, and Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. The district is also significant for its association with the economic and social history of Chicago as the historic center since the first decade of the twentieth century of jewelry manufacturing and trade, silver manufacturing, and watch manufacturing and repair in Chicago. These typically small-scale, entrepreneurial businesses traditionally have occupied both ground-floor storefronts and upper-floor offices in the district's buildings.