{"nrhp_refnum":"01001538","name":"Crane Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"836 S Michigan Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.87068300100003,"lon":-87.62460314599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-01-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Industry","Invention"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A twelve-story stone, brick and terra cotta office high-rise at 836 South Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, constructed in 1912 and designed by Holabird & Roche as the main office of the Crane Company.","why_significant":"The building is tied to the Crane Company, a leading U.S. maker of valves, pipes, fittings, plumbing fixtures, boilers and radiators, and is argued to have local significance in industry, commerce and invention. It is also linked to Richard Teller Crane and his sons Charles R. Crane and Richard Teller Crane Jr. It is described as the Chicago site associated with the company and family that retains the greatest integrity, since the company's plants and family residences have been demolished or altered.","narrative":"Completed in 1912 at the northwest corner of South Michigan Avenue and East Ninth Street, this twelve-story office tower in downtown Chicago was built for the Crane Company, a leading American maker of iron and brass valves, pipes, fittings, plumbing fixtures, boilers and radiators. Holabird & Roche designed it with a steel frame and a Classical Revival exterior divided into a granite and limestone base, a red brick shaft and a white terra cotta top. Its open, column-free floors housed the company's executive and office staff rather than rental tenants. The building is linked to company founder Richard Teller Crane and his sons Charles R. Crane and Richard Teller Crane Jr. Other Crane factories and family homes in Chicago have been demolished or heavily altered, leaving this office building as the best-preserved local site tied to the business. The exterior retains high integrity, while the interior was remodeled after Crane left in 1959 and is being converted to apartments.","period_of_significance":"1912 to 1951 (Criterion A); 1912 to 1931 (Criterion B)","architect_builder":"Holabird and Roche","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Interior floors are being rehabilitated for residential conversion and original windows are being replaced; parts of the cornice are undergoing repair. Crane left the building in 1959.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.406904-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/68/8925/28892568/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/01001538.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001538/c27e8991fb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001538/c27e8991fb-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20080703_Crane_Company_Building.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20080703_Crane_Company_Building.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892568","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_Company_Building_(Chicago)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14687469"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/crane-company-building-01001538/"}