Neighborhood News: Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me! Chicago’s Historic Fine Arts Building
Founded by a carriage company in 1898, the nationally registered, historic Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Avenue, has presented all manner of theatrical performances, art exhibitions, and multi-media spectaculars for generations.
History
According to their website, The Studebaker Carriage Company was founded in 1852 in South Bend, Indiana by the five Studebaker brothers. They became known for manufacturing some of the finest carriages in the world, and had a successful repository and sales room on Wabash Avenue in Chicago beginning in the early 1870s.
In 1885, the company consolidated its assembly operations and sales floor in a new location on Michigan Avenue, and hired architect Solon S. Beman to design an eight-story building for their headquarters.
Upon its completion in 1887, it was hailed as the “model carriage factory in this country, if not in the world.”
By 1895, Studebaker was expanding so quickly that the company moved to a brand new, larger warehouse and manufacturing plant on Wabash Avenue. Before moving to the new building in 1897, they retained ownership of the original Michigan Avenue structure and, at the encouragement of Charles C. Curtiss, invested over $500,000 to remodel the building into an artists’ haven of studios, offices, and theaters.
This extensive renovation set the stage for Chicago’s most exciting center for art and culture that is still standing today: the Fine Arts Building.
A Premier Fine Arts Building
Once the Fine Arts Building opened, many of Chicago’s artists, musicians, craftspeople, and social clubs moved into the building’s studios. It rapidly became a hub for a wide variety of art practices and social movements, including the burgeoning Arts and Crafts movement and the women’s suffrage movement. In fact, The Illinois Equal Suffrage Association played a major role in gaining women the right to vote in 1919.
The building’s tenants became household names in their time, including sculptor Lorado Taft, portrait painter Ralph Clarkson, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Wizard of Oz illustrator William W. Denslow, Poetry magazine founder Harriet Monroe, Little Review editor Margaret Anderson, political cartoonist John McCutcheon, the Chicago Little Theatre, and many others.
10th Floor Murals
In 1901, the Leyendecker brothers – illustrators on the 10th floor – supervised a large mural project for the walls over the 10th floor stair and light wells. All the panels shared a background of brilliant gold and were painted in the art nouveau style. Ralph Clarkson, Oliver Dennett Grover, Charles Francis Browne, Frederick Clay Bartlett, Martha Baker, Bertha Menzler-Peyton, and Frank Leyendecker all contributed to the panels, which can still be seen today.
Studebaker Theatre
The Studebaker Theatreas it is today opened in September 1917. The proscenium arch was enlarged, the side-walls rebuilt and a new main floor, balcony and gallery were constructed, although the ceiling remained the same from 1898.
The Studebaker Theater hosted a variety of groups and touring productions during this time. Some notable productions from this time included James Kirkwood and Mercedes Gilbert in “Mulatto” by Langston Hughes in 1936; Ethel Barrymore in “The Corn is Green” in 1943; Mae West in “Catherine the Great” in 1945; and Yul Brynner in “Lute Song” in 1947. From 1950 – 1955, the Studebaker was home to NBC Studios’ Cavalcade of Stars, which was broadcast live from the theater.
From 1957 to 1982, the Studebaker featured touring productions with prominent stars. Some notable productions included Eartha Kitt in “The Owl and The Pussycat” in 1964 and Martin Sheen in “The Subject Was Roses” by Frank D. Gilroy in 1966.
From December 1982, it operated solely as a cinema until it shuttered in November 2000. Following an extensive restoration between 2014 and 2015, the theater made its comeback in October 2015, serving as a hub for live performances and various events. In 2021, a major multi-million dollar renovation began, bringing all-new seating, a two-level production booth, state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems.
Today
In 1978, the Fine Arts Building was named a Chicago Landmark as an “exemplification of the cultural, economic, social, and historical heritage of the City of Chicago.”
Chicago’s arts legacy continues with prominent tenants, including the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Chicago Opera Theater, the Jazz Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, Exile in Bookville, Matt Bodett’s Press Here Center for Mad Culture, Cecilia Beaven, and more.
Second Fridays Tours!
As its name implies, the Fine Arts Building hosts tours exploring all ten floors of creativity and history. You can meet the tenants who make the Fine Arts Building a home for art in all forms! For more information, click here.
Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! Live
On Thursdays, the Studebaker is host to a live studio audience for Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! NPR’s weekly hour-long, Peabody Award-winning quiz show. Host Peter Sagal and veteran NPR newsman Carl Kasell test the knowledge and wit of celebrity panelists, figuring out what’s real news and what’s made up. Each Thursday at 7:30pm, you can test your knowledge against some of the best in the news and entertainment world. For tickets, click here.
Happy Halloween, All! 👻 🎃
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
