How did Tribune Tower get all those stones?

Photo via Dalton Reed (SA)

One of Chicago's most iconic buildings is the Tribune Belfry. Despite rising only 36 stories the tower has helped set Chicago apart as a living architectural museum. Its soaring Gothic spires and shrine-like lobby, complete with inspirational quotes, are by now iconic identifiers of the metropolis and brand it a thoroughly Chicago edifice. But the fragments embedded into the tower's facade brand it a thoroughly cool edifice.

Where did those fragments come up from? And, peradventure more chiefly, is it possible to track down how each one was acquired?

There are virtually 150 fragments from places all over the state and the earth. Some of the most notable examples are a rock from the Great Pyramid at Giza, an emblem from the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a fragment from the Not bad Wall of China, and a slice of metal from the World Trade Center. These fragments, or "relics" every bit the newspaper was fond of calling them, stretch beyond nearly of the edifice's facade and range from eye-level to several anxiety above eye-level in height.

From the start I should notation that there are not necessarily records for every stone that describes who acquired it and how. Only there were essentially 2 means every fragment found its manner to the facade: it was either sent back to Chicago by reporters in the field, or was gifted to Chicago and the Tribune by a town or a person. Additionally, the stones and fragments were not gathered and installed at the same time; it was, and continues to be, a process. The most recent dedications were in 2015 when bricks from Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park were installed.

A newspaper clipping from Tribune reporter John Menaugh, published while the WGN Building side by side to Tribune Tower was under construction in 1948, makes notation of a "plan" to "imbed stones from historic sites of 43 states of the Union." According to Menaugh, "This is a further development of the original plan, which saw historic stones from v states every bit well as stones from various other places in the world imbedded in the walls of the Tribune Belfry and W-G-N studio building."

He describes the procedure in probably the virtually detail the paper recorded. "Stones from the 43 states already have been collected, some after considerable research and exchange of correspondence." (Emphasis added) The article then lists the origins of all 43 stones.

That explains virtually where 28 percent of the stones on the Tribune'southward facade came from. What almost the other 107 fragments?

Some other clipping from 1952 listed all the stones then installed in the building, numbering 119 (including the 43 stones embedded in the WGN tower). The 1952 commodity notes that "Many of these stones, garnered from the important corners of the earth, were presented to Col. Robert R. McCormick, editor and publisher of The Tribune, and others were obtained by The Tribune's strange correspondents serving over the globe." Unfortunately, the article does not list which stones were gifts and which were caused past correspondents directly.

But the article does offering a valuable clue to the origin of approximately xvi stones that were acquired after World War Ii (the commodity calls them "Boxing Stones"). Today nigh of these stones are found on the WGN side of the edifice.

The fact that about 16 stones were acquired afterwards Earth State of war II was substantially a continuation of Robert McCormick's acquisition procedure in the aftermath of World War I. Katherine Solomonson, in her book The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition, writes that McCormick himself collected at least ii "battle stones" from the urban center hall at Arras, France and a piece of the cathedral at Ypres, France.

Both cities were devastated after the First World War, making collection easier, if not always legitimate. Solomonson also writes that McCormick, once he was in charge of the paper, commissioned foreign correspondents to collect artifacts from their stations by "honorable ways."

This origin story — that McCormick started the entire fragment collection process after World War I — is also corroborated by the Tribune itself. On the Tribune's webpage documenting every fragment the brief introduction notes how McCormick "grabbed" some of the war-torn rubble for himself.

When new stones were added into the facade the Tribune typically liked to tape the occasion in its pages. As a result the conquering of a number of individual stones can be traced:

  • 2 bricks and a stone from Ft. Sumter, South Carolina were sent to the newspaper by "Col. Fred West. Bugbee, colonel of infantry commanding Fort Moultrie, which is near Sumter."
  • A boulder from the "Bang-up Pyramid in Arab republic of egypt" was forwarded to the paper by John Steele, London correspondent.
  • An "ornate, gray slab of stone" from the cathedral at Rouen, France (an architectural inspiration for the Tribune Tower itself) was sent by Jay Allen, "foreign correspondent for the Tribune."
  • Curiously, 2 tiles from Pompeii, Italy, were donated by a individual citizen: Mrs. Otis Hann of Chicago.
  • A rock from the Senate press gallery in the capitol building, every bit well every bit a granite stone from the Bunker Loma battle site, were "secured through the courtesy of John Mead Howells," an builder.
  • The newspaper notes that "two stones from the battlefields of France" — presumably McCormick's contribution — "are included in the collection."
  • "A greyish rock from the powder tower of old fortifications in Riga, Latvia" were shipped by Baltic and Russia correspondent Donald Day.
  • A stone from the Alamo in Texas was a souvenir to Chicago past Peter Molyneaux, "a prominent Texas editor" according to the Tribune. The stone was dedicated on "Texas solar day" during the 1933 World's Off-white.
  • "A stone from the island fortress Corregidor in Manila harbor" was sent to the Tribune past Major General George F. Moore, "commanding general of American forces in the Philippines."
  • A rock from the home of Hans Christian Andersen was acquired past "The Chicago Tribune's Copenhagen correspondent," whose name the paper did not written report.
  • A stone from the quarry used to construct the Parthenon in Athens (notably, not a stone fragment from the Parthenon itself) was gifted to Col. McCormick by Eleftherios Pavlides, "head of the Greek delegation to the first The states International Merchandise Fair in Chicago."
  • Similarly, a stone from the fortress walls at Cartagena, Colombia, was a gift to Col. McCormick from Cartagena mayor Vincente Martinez Martelo.
  • A stone from the cathedral in Reims, France, was sent to Col. McCormick "by the people of France thru Henry Wales, head of the Tribune Paris bureau." The paper noted that the Reims fragment was the 120th fragment to be installed in the building.
  • A rock from the "headquarters edifice of the settlement occupied by the Pilgrim Fathers in Leyden, Holland for 11 years earlier they fabricated their voyage to the new world" was the "gift of Leyden's citizens."
  • Phillip Thou. Allen, an advertising executive from Philadelphia, gifted three stones of "Revolutionary war significance" to Col. McCormick. One rock was from the area where George Washington landed in Trenton, New Bailiwick of jersey later on crossing the Delaware River. The other ii stones were from the battlefields at Trenton and Princeton, New Bailiwick of jersey (according to the paper, the rock from Trenton is "from the verbal spot where Hessian general Rahl surrendered to Washington's troops"). Also: "Allen describes [the stones] as 'a tribute to Col. McCormick's fearless patriotic leadership in today'south America."
  • Some other stone, from Great Copper Mountain in Falun, Sweden, was a gift to Col. McCormick from the Cracking Copper Mountain Company. It was "presented past Dr. Sven Rydberg, historian and director of the visitor museum, to Yves du Guerny, Tribune contributor in Sweden."
  • "Bricks from Amsterdam's Tower of Tears" were "the souvenir of the municipality of Amsterdam." The paper claimed that the bricks were the first "historic" stones permitted to exit the capital since its founding in 1204. The Tribune's The netherlands correspondent, Piet Van't Veer, "aided in negotiations on the bricks."

Perhaps the most interesting fragments are chips from the ceiling of Cavern of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Except for the moon rock (which has not been reinstalled since it left the Tribune Tower in 2011) it is the but artifact enclosed indoors, and within what can be described as a reliquary.

According to Richard Vivid and Dale Kinney, authors of Reuse Value: Spolia and Appropriation in Art and Architecture from Constantine to Sherrie Lavine, the paper clandestinely acquired the chips in 1949:

The acquisition of this relic is described in a alphabetic character from L.Southward. Chakales, Chief of Bureau to Keith B. Capron, Tribune Tower Building Manager, May 8, 1950:

The fragments I gave to Colonel McCormick are from the actual Cave of the Nativity. They were scraped from the ceiling of the cave by the Archbishop of the Orthodox church, which is situated straight to a higher place the cave and through which every denomination must laissez passer to reach the shrine. Under no circumstances can the archbishop be identified publicly equally the source. Withal it could be stated they came from a person who had access to the cave. Their authenticity tin be guaranteed and proven by the archbishop and the mayor of Bethlehem, only the archbishop naturally would exist reluctant to arrive public. However the mayor, Issa Bandak, I am certain would ostend them. We were his guests in his home which is situated in a convent which is a part of the church of the Nascency for Christmas, 1949, when the fragments were given to us. In fact, it was his influence that brought about the archbishop'south unusual action. We went down the morning subsequently and saw the white spot in the roof of the cave. In addition, we also got four tiny pieces of mosaic that were scraped away. We attached groovy importance to the fragments. It must be recalled the cavern has been in that location for 2,000 years and information technology remains virtually intact. In that fourth dimension souvenir hunters should have leveled the expanse for miles around, simply miraculously it remained intact. I would like to emphasize these fragments came from the cave in which Christ was actually built-in and not from the immediate vicinity.

Although most of the stones, fragments, and "relics" were acquired legitimately and "honorably" information technology does seem that at least this ane was acquired under unusual circumstances.

William DeShazer via Chicago Tribune

After taking all the recorded fragments into account, and adding it to the 43 already accounted for, it adds up to 83 stones of 150 whose origins are definitely known. There are a few more easy ones that can be tracked down:

  • The moon rock (removed in 2011 just supposedly coming back)
  • The piece of metal from the Earth Trade Center
  • The bricks from Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park

Other recent additions include tiles from the Sydney Opera Business firm which were added in 2006, presumably after the newspaper got in touch with the Opera Firm (I could not verify this to be the instance).

The acquisition story backside some stones is likewise pretty self-explanatory:

  • A rock from Antarctica was acquired from a 1947 United States Navy trek (every bit noted in the facade itself)
  • A brick from Col. McCormick's birthplace does not require much explanation
  • The stone from Pearl Harbor probably did not require much negotiation to obtain
  • A brick from the White House was removed during its renovation in 1950 (also noted in the facade)
  • A rock from Douglas Hall at the quondam Academy of Chicago was probable not caused with difficulty
  • A branded 1893 World'south Fair stone, which was hosted in Chicago, was probably non hard to larn from metropolis officials

This however leaves about 38 percent of the facade's stones as coming from "unknown" sources, although I use that term loosely considering, as we have seen, of the stones whose origins are definitely known, the vast majority of them were either gifts, sent dorsum by correspondents in the field, or negotiated for to display. But a handful were gifts from private citizens. Information technology is off-white to assume that the 56 stones that are "unaccounted" for were obtained in the same fashion.

Get-go in 1914, when Col. McCormick took the first fragments from battlefields in French republic, the Tribune acquired and added stones into the building'due south facade for a little more than a century. In all, 150 stones and other relics were added, and most of them accept an origin story.

In 2018 the Tribune moved to a new building, notable in its own right, but without historical calling cards from around the globe. For at present, the history the newspaper collected will remain office of the tower it called home for 9 decades.

This article would not accept been possible without the help of the Chicago History Museum, John Russick, and Lesley Martin. Please back up the Museum's mission hither.

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