Printer's Row is the area south of the Loop in Downtown Chicago. The neighborhood was originally called the "Levee District", since river trade stopped at the Custom House Levee, and the Custom House Levee Road went through the area. The Levee District was Chicago's red light district, and city officials turned a blind eye to the district as long as people people of good stature were not bothered or harmed, and also if the gambling, prostitution, dog races, and other vices were kept within the district. In the late 1800s, the agreement was broken enough that the mayor chased out the trades, and printing companies began moving in and building structures for their printing houses and bookbinding operations. By the first decade of the 1900s, the area had become known as Printer's Row. When printing became simpler with automated presses and shipping of raw materials in and finished good out became easier through trucking, the district began to decline. In the 1970s, the buildings were rehabilitated, and the neighborhood became a residential and commercial area, with artists moving into the old printing houses, and shops and restaurants opening up on ground floors and in the abandoned Dearborn Station.
Buildings on Dearborn Street at Van Buren Street. The Fisher Building, built is 1896, is on the left, and the Old Colony Building is on the right, on the other side of the elevated tracks.
The Old Colony Building, on Dearborn Street at Van Buren Street. The structure was built in 1894.
Buildings on Dearborn Street. The Manhattan Building, built in 1891, is on the right.
The facade of the Manhattan Building. The Manhattan Building is the oldest surviving skyscraper in the world to use a purely skeletal support structure.
Buildings on Dearborn Street, from Congress Parkway. The Terminal Building is the tallest building in the center.
The Chicago Stock Exchange, on LaSalle Street, with the LaSalle Street Station over Congress Parkway. The Chicago Stock Exchange was founded in 1882 and is the largest exchange in the United States outside of New York City.
The Harold Washington Library, on Congress Parkway. The library is the central library in the Chicago Public Library System, and was built in 1991.
Buildings on Plymouth Court.
Looking up at the Pontiac Building, on the corner of Dearborn & Harrison Streets. The Pontiac Building is one of the four oldest skyscrapers in Chicago, and the oldest skyscraper by architects Holabird & Roche. The Pontiac Building was built in 1891.
Buildings on Dearborn Street. The Donohue Building, built in 1893, is on the right.
The facade of the Donohue Building. The Donohue Building was built by a children's book manufacturer.
The Borland Building, on Federal Street. The one building was built with four separate towers to allow for sunlight for the Transportation Building, and to prevent a skyscraper canyon on Federal Street. The Borland Building was built in 1913.
Dearborn Station, at the foot of Dearborn Street on Polk Street. Dearborn Station was built in 1883 and was functioning by 1885. The station was used by the Santa Fe Railroad and provided service to Los Angeles. Other railroads to use Dearborn Sation were the Erie Railroad, Grand Trunk Railroad, Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, Wabash Railroad, and the Monon Line.
The clock tower of Dearborn Station. Dearborn Station served as the entry point for most of Chicago's immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Printer's buildings on Dearborn Street. The Rowe Building, built in 1891, is in the center, and the Transportation Building, built in 1911, is on the right.
The New Franklin Building, on Dearborn Street at Polk Street. The structure was built in 1912.
The Lakeside Press Building, on Plymouth Court at Polk Street. The structure was built in 1897.
The New Franklin Building, on the left, and the Rowe Building, on the right, on Dearborn Street from Dearborn Station.
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