{"nrhp_refnum":"07000064","name":"Continental and Commercial National Bank","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"208 S. LaSalle","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.87930479800008,"lon":-87.63241265199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-02-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 21-story steel-frame Classical Revival office skyscraper occupying a full block at 208 South LaSalle Street in Chicago's financial district, designed in 1911 by D.H. Burnham and Company and completed in 1914 by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is an excellent local example of Classical Revival architecture in downtown Chicago. It also presents the building as a prototype of a monument to commerce in the city, combining the style with large mass and scale. It was one of Daniel Burnham's last designs before his death in 1912 and was the first privately owned building in downtown Chicago to fill an entire block.","narrative":"Occupying an entire block bounded by LaSalle, Quincy, Adams and Wells streets, this 21-story office tower at 208 South LaSalle anchors Chicago's financial district. Daniel Burnham designed it in 1911, and his successor firm, Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, finished it in 1914 as the consolidated home of the Continental and Commercial Bank. The steel frame is faced in white terra cotta and granite, and the facades follow a base, shaft and capital pattern, with Doric colonnades and classical ornament such as fretwork, rosettes, lion heads and egg-and-dart molding. It was the first privately owned building in downtown Chicago to fill a whole block, and one of the largest office buildings in the country when completed. It was listed for its architecture as an excellent local example of Classical Revival design. Alterations include the removal of the seventeenth-floor frieze and cornice in the 1940s and the 1959-1960 remodeling that hid the original banking hall under inserted floors.","period_of_significance":"1914","architect_builder":"Graham, Burnham and Co., Architects; Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, Architects","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Exterior in good condition; interior altered in 1959-1960 and the 1940s. The owner planned a tax-credit rehabilitation including a partial restoration of the historic banking room.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.703398-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/63/8919/28891963/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/07000064.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000064/2a2bf22f29-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000064/2a2bf22f29-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Continental_S_LaSalle.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Continental_S_LaSalle.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28891963","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_and_Commercial_National_Bank","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q48850400"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/continental-and-commercial-national-bank-07000064/"}