{"nrhp_refnum":"76000694","name":"Lakeside Press Building","other_names":["731 South Plymouth Court Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"731 S. Plymouth Ct.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.87255393600003,"lon":-87.62835713399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-06-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seven-story brick, cast iron and limestone printing plant and headquarters at 731 South Plymouth Court, Chicago, built in two stages between 1897 and 1901 and designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw.","why_significant":"The building shows the growth of an important family-owned Chicago printing company, which commissioned a unified design that could be built in two stages. It was Shaw's first commercial design and shows the influence of John W. Root's heavy masonry forms combined with expressed iron technology. The facade also expresses the uses of its floors.","narrative":"Built for the Lakeside Press in two phases, the four southern bays in 1897 and the four northern bays in 1901, this printing plant and headquarters at 731 South Plymouth Court in Chicago survives virtually unaltered. Its seven-story facade of brick and cast iron with limestone detail uses its design to express the work inside: a show room on the first floor, editorial offices on the second, production floors above, and family offices at the top. Iron spandrels display their bolts, and limestone coats of arms show an Indian head over Fort Dearborn, the press's mark. Architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, better known for houses for wealthy clients, created his first commercial design here, drawing on John W. Root's heavy masonry forms. The press grew from catalogue printing, possibly spurred by Montgomery Ward's catalogue, into hardbound books, and filled the whole building within five years of moving in. The building documents that growth and Shaw's adaptation of the Chicago commercial style.","period_of_significance":"1897-1901","architect_builder":"Howard Van Doren Shaw","architectural_style":"Commercial style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as surviving virtually unaltered from its original condition; a 1980 letter refers to a proposed rehabilitation as the Lakeside Press Apartments project.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.56049-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/8924/28892426/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/76000694.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000694/92990e02ae-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000694/92990e02ae-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Andrew Jameson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lakeside_Press_Building_Chicago_IL.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Jameson</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:Lakeside_Press_Building_Chicago_IL.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"78001130","name":"South Loop Printing House District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/south-loop-printing-house-district-78001130/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892426","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_Press_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14687768"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/lakeside-press-building-76000694/"}