This fine Jacobean office in the forgotten industrial back streets of the near South Side is certainly the work of a distinguished architect or architects, but old Pa Pitt has not been able to find a name with the limited research he was able to do. He is therefore going to go far out on a limb and attribute it to MacClure & Spahr, because it is just their sort of thing.
Dilworth, Porter & Co. made railroad spikes and other things you would need if you were putting a railroad together. The company later became part of Republic Steel, and the plant was closed in 1950. It is now the M. Berger Industrial Park, with the old industrial sheds behind this office painted in garish colors. (Update: A reader very reasonably questions the use of the word “garish”—see the comment below—and perhaps “cheerful” would have been better. The point is that the colors are extraordinarily bright and seldom seen on old industrial buildings like these.)
Map.
2 responses to “Dilworth, Porter & Co. Office”
I disagree with your characterization of the warehouse buildings as “garish”. They are in fact a wonderful example of non-ornamented industrial buildings, made extra-ordinary by the owner.
You are probably right to question the choice of words. It was meant to emphasize how ostentatiously colorful the buildings had been made, but Father Pitt would not wish them to be otherwise. Instead of looking like postindustrial blight, the buildings are rays of sunshine next to the river. But they are very unusual, and Father Pitt wanted to emphasize how unusual it was to see such colors on such buildings.
The article has been revised to point out your comment, and thank you for writing.