[QUOTE=Klippenstein;9896008]\
First, there's a really amazing "Bird's eye view" map of Chicago from 1898 that you can look at in pretty amazing detail here:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104c....,0.247,0.158,0
It gives you a great sense of the scale of the city at the time and the impact of these skyscrapers.
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This map is fascinating.
No Grant Park existed. Michigan Avenue was beside Lake Michigan. Congress was a short, seemingly insignificant street.
Look at the corner of State and Randolph and the image of the Masonic Temple (the silhouette later inspired the 190 South La Salle building).
It was, for years, the tallest building in the loop, but by the 1930's, it was deemed outdated and would require too much renovation and problematic in
regard to renovations to the El tracks, so it came down.
That is now the location of what is known as the Joffrey building.
It is amazing how quickly Chicago destroyed so many things which had been major projects only a few decades before.