“Who was John W. Eckhart, Senior?” by S.M. O’Connor

Born in West Bend, Wisconsin on November 20, 1855, John William Eckhart, Senior (1855-1920) was a Chicago-based miller and flour merchant who served as President of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Public Library.[1] In 1873, he entered the flour milling business. [2] Around 1876, he acquired the firm Platt, Thorn, and Manard, which was quartered on Market Street. [3] He changed the name to John W. Eckhart & Company and served as president. [4] In 1896, the company had grown to the point he had to move it to a new facility on Carpenter Street.[5] His business address was at 311 North Carpenter Street in Chicago. [6]

He sat on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Public Library during the Edwardian era and served as President from July 23, 1903 to July 24, 1905.[7] At the opening ceremony of the Timothy B. Blackstone Memorial Branch Library on January 8, 1904, Isabella Blackstone handed Eckhart the deed and keys to the new building, which was the Chicago Public Library’s first purpose-built branch library building.[8]

On August 12, 1884, he wed Mary J. Buchanan, a Chicago resident. [9] Together, they had five children: Eunice Eckhart (Mrs. O.T. Tuchbreiter); Paul Eckhart; John William Eckhart, Junior; James Eckhart; and Mary Eckhart. [10]

A Democrat, he was a member of the Illinois Club, the Iroquois Club, the Chicago Athletic Club, and the Lake Beulah Club.[11] He served as President of the Iroquois Club.[12] Founded in July of 1880 as the Chicago Democratic Party and incorporated on October 19, 1881, the organization changed its name to the Iroquois Club on October 4, 1891.[13] It was also known as the Iroquois Club of Chicago. The Iroquois Club was known as an organization of “silk-stocking Democrats” and kingmakers within the party.[14] Meetings were held in the Columbia Theatre Building at 110 Monroe Street and at the Brunswick Hotel at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street.[15]

Eckhart’s hobbies included golfing and fishing.[16] His primary residence was at 1903 West Monroe Street in Chicago and he also had a vacation home in Beulah, Wisconsin. [17] John William Eckhart, Sr. died on August 15, 1920.[18]

ENDNOTES

[1] The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, Volume 2. Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company (1911), p. 207

[2] Ibid

[3] “New Plant of Eckhart & Company,” The Northwestern Miller, 23 March, 1921, p. 1352

[4] “New Plant of Eckhart & Company,” The Northwestern Miller, 23 March, 1921, p. 1352

See also The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, Volume 2. Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company (1911), p. 207

[5] “New Plant of Eckhart & Company,” The Northwestern Miller, 23 March, 1921, p. 1352

[6] The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, Volume 2. Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company (1911), p. 207

[7] Chicago Public Library, Chicago Public Library Records: Early CPL Series,” (https://www.chipublib.org/fa-chicago-public-library-records-early-cpl-series/) Accessed 08/21/18

See also The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, Volume 2. Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company (1911), p. 207

[8] Ida Hinman, Biography Of Timothy B. Blackstone. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago: Methodist Book Concern Press (1917), p. 39

[9] The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, Volume 2. Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company (1911), p. 207

[10] Ibid

[11] Ibid

[12] Ibid

[13] The Iroquois Club of Chicago. Chicago: J.F. Leaming & Company (1893), pages 3-7

See also Alfred Theodore Andreas, History of Chicago From the Earliest Period to the Present Time in Three Volumes, Volume 3: From the Fire of 1871 Until 1885. Chicago: The A.T. Andreas Company (1886), p. 401

[14] Lisa Holton, For Members Only: A History and Guide to Chicago’s Oldest Private Clubs. Chicago: Lake Claremont Press (2008), p. 57

[15] The Iroquois Club of Chicago. Chicago: J.F. Leaming & Company (1893), p. 6

See also Holton, p. 57

[16] The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, Volume 2. Albert Nelson Marquis, editor. Chicago: A.N. Marquis & Company (1911), p. 207

[17] Ibid

[18] “Deaths of the Year,” The Northwestern Miller, 5 January, 1921, p. 58

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.