Following Michigan Avenue toward the north from the Auditorium, we reach the Art Institute of Chicago, an imposing building in a semi-classical style, containing a valuable collection of paintings, sculptures, and other objects of art. Opposite is the magnificent People’s Gas Building, erected at a cost of eight million dollars.
Farther to the north, on the opposite side of Michigan Avenue, are the buildings of the Illinois Athletic Club, the University Club, and the Chicago Athletic Club. At the corner of Madison Street is the Montgomery Ward Building, with its tower, and a little farther up, at the corner of Washington Street, is the Chicago Public Library, an imposing building in a classical style, erected in 1893-1897, at a cost of two million dollars.
This fine edifice is worthy to rank with the Library of Congress and the Boston Public Library. The main entrances are to the north and south, in Randolph Street and Washington Street. The interior is sumptuously adorned with marble, mosaics, frescoes and mottoes. It contains three hundred and fifty thousand volumes. On the first floor is a large Memorial Hall, used by the Grand Army of the Republic and covered by a dome; it contains an interesting collection of Civil War and other historical relics.
On the north, Michigan Avenue ends at the Chicago River. Fort Dearborn stood to the left, on the river, at the end of the avenue.
The business quarters of Chicago occupy chiefly the great central district called the “Loop,” which is bounded by the lines of the Elevated Railway. We may follow Randolph Street to the west to the City Hall and County Building, two large adjoining buildings, in a modern classical style with huge Corinthian columns, built at a cost of five million dollars.
La Salle Street, leading to the south from the County Building, contains some of the finest office buildings in the city. Among these are the Chamber of Commerce at the corner of Washington Street; the Tacoma Building at the corner of Madison Street; the Y. M. C. A. Building, a little farther to the south; the New York Life Insurance Building; the low but impressive Northern Trust Co. Building, and the oddly shaped Women’s Temperance Temple, all three at the corners of Monroe Street; the new granite building of the Corn Exchange National Bank, the Home Insurance Co. Building, and the Rookery, with a very attractive interior lined with white marble. Farther on in La Salle Street, at the corner of Jackson Boulevard, is the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank, a massive two-storied edifice, with a fine central court. At the end of La Salle Street stands the granite building of the Board of Trade.
Jackson Boulevard leads hence to the east to the Federal Building, containing the Post Office and Custom House and occupying an entire city square. It is in the Corinthian style, with a large central dome two hundred feet in height.
Other notable buildings within the “Loop” district include: the Continental and Commercial Bank, Hotel La Salle, First National Bank, and the great department store, office, newspaper, and hotel buildings.
The park system of Chicago is without a parallel in America; it embraces Lincoln Park, on the lake shore to the north, and six others, and is divided into three sections, all connected or nearly so by magnificent boulevards, which, with the park drives, measure over sixty miles. In all, Chicago has ninety-three parks, covering more than four thousand four hundred acres. A characteristic feature of the system is the large number of small “People’s Parks” scattered through the poorer districts and provided with baths, gymnasiums and playgrounds. On the north side is Lincoln Park, reached via Lake Shore Drive, one of the finest residence streets in Chicago, containing some very handsome houses. This passes near the Water Works, at the foot of Chicago Avenue, and ends on the north at Lincoln Park, which is at present three hundred acres in area, but is being extended by filling in the adjacent shallows of Lake Michigan.