Boyce Building
Why it's listed
Rising twelve stories above the corner of Dearborn and Illinois streets in Chicago, this office building was built in stages between 1911 and 1923 for the publisher William Dickson Boyce. D. H. Burnham & Co. designed the first phase as a loft building for his publishing company, and a four-story structure was completed by 1914. Burnham's drawings showed a ten-story building with a mansard roof, but records indicate only the lower four stories were built then. In 1921 Boyce hired Christian Eckstorm to add eight floors of rental offices, finished in 1923, without the mansard roof. Steel-framed and clad in granite and dark red brick, the building expresses its structure through projecting piers and grouped windows. Boyce's company, publisher of the Saturday Blade and the Chicago Ledger and employer of thousands of newsboys, occupied the lower floors. The building is listed for its link to that enterprise and for its layered construction history, with a period of significance of 1912 to 1929.
Significance in brief: The building housed the W. D. Boyce Publishing Company, whose weekly papers the Saturday Blade and Chicago Ledger reached more than a million readers through a network of newsboys. It is also significant as a commercial building whose construction can be traced in stages, from a Burnham-designed four-story base to the Eckstorm-designed upper floors. The form lists the period of significance as 1912-1929.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 96000080, listed February 29, 1996. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 500--510 N. Dearborn St., Chicago |
|---|---|
| County | Cook County |
| Listed | February 29, 1996 |
| Reference number | 96000080 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1912-1929 |
| Architect / builder | D. H. Burnham & Co. (original design, 1911); Christian Eckstorm (eight-story top addition, 1921-1923); built for William Dickson Boyce; contractors Britten and O'Sufern and B. H. Lichter and Company |
| Architectural style | Commercial Style; Classical Revival (a variation of the Chicago Commercial style) |
| Areas of significance | Communications, Social History |
| Level of significance | National |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still a rental office building. The exterior has good integrity, though the entrances, first-floor windows and principal cornice have been altered. The original terra cotta cornice was removed in the 1980s. |
| Acreage | 0.3 |
| Coordinates | 41.89101, -87.62998 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For an income-producing building, listing (individually or as a contributing building in a district) is the gateway to the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit on qualified rehabilitation costs, often stackable with state credits. Work claiming the credit must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and be approved in advance.
Listing does not restrict a private owner acting without federal money or permits; where federal funding or licensing is involved, Section 106 review applies.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 96000080.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q18706042
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.