{"nrhp_refnum":"90000340","name":"Teich, Curt, and Company Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1733--55 W. Irving Park Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.95389895400007,"lon":-87.67356063499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-03-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Communications"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A heavy timber and masonry loft industrial building at 1733-55 West Irving Park Road in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago. It has an original three-story west section (c. 1895-1901) and a five-story east addition built in 1922.","why_significant":"The building housed Curt Teich and Company from 1910 until 1974. The company pioneered the local-view postcard, became the largest volume postcard printer in the U.S. from the 1920s to the 1950s, and in 1909 was the first U.S. firm to successfully produce color postcards on an offset press. The form says the building retains excellent integrity and is significant under Criterion A.","narrative":"Located at Irving Park Road and Ravenswood Avenue in Chicago, this brick and heavy timber loft building was the home of Curt Teich and Company from 1910 until the firm closed in 1974. The three-story west section, built around the turn of the twentieth century in a Romanesque manner, has a detailed corner block with corbelling, arched windows and a pyramidal roof. A five-story east addition, designed by Frederick Teich, was added in 1922 to carry heavy printing equipment. Inside, departments were arranged by floor, with artists, photographers, presses and shipping connected by a vertical flow of paper. The company pioneered local-view picture postcards, becoming the largest volume postcard printer in the country from the 1920s to the 1950s, and was the first to successfully produce color postcards on an offset press. Its output of roughly a million American scenes created a major record of twentieth-century life. The buildings remain largely unchanged from the company's occupancy.","period_of_significance":"1910-1940","architect_builder":"Teich, Frederick, J. (1922 addition); architect of the original west section unknown","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Romanesque; Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements/Commercial Style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The form says the two sections remain very much as they were when the Teich company occupied them, and were kept in good repair. The form's current function is listed as work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.444946-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/70/8925/28892570/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/90000340.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000340/b73fb25f10-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000340/b73fb25f10-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Andrew Jameson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curt_Teich_and_Company_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:Curt_Teich_and_Company_Building_Chicago_IL.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892570","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Teich_and_Company_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q85754854"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/teich-curt-and-company-building-90000340/"}