First Leiter Building

The First Leiter building (or Leiter I) was a Chicago commercial structure built in 1879 by William Le Baron Jenney. It was renovated and extended in 1888, and demolished in 1972.

Leiter I Building
Formerly listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Coordinates	41°52′51.6″N 87°38′3.4″W
Built	1879
Demolished	1972
NRHP reference No.	70000910
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	Unknown
Removed from NRHP	1972

Jenney designed this building, located at Washington and Wells Streets, as a department store for Levi Z. Leiter. This building marked a significant milestone in architectural engineering: it combined, for the first time, four essential elements of a modern skyscraper in one building. These were: its great height (Leiter I was originally five stories tall, and shortly after expanded to seven stories); an iron skeletal frame; terra cotta fireproofing materials on all of its structural members; and, vertical transportation via elevators. It also utilized a new type of glass in its windows.^[1] Although the city building department required Jenney to build one exterior party wall as a traditional masonry loadbearing structure and the floors were of heavy timber construction, the rest of the building was a truly modern innovation.

See also

• Chicago architecture
• Second Leiter Building