Home Insurance Building

The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building to be called a skyscraper.^[3] It was also the first tall building to be supported, both inside and outside, by a fireproof metal frame.^[4] It used to stand at 138 ft (42 m). William Le Baron Jenney designed the building.

Home Insurance Building
The Home Insurance Building
General information
Type	Office
Location	Chicago, United States
Coordinates	41.8796°N 87.6320°W / 41.8796; -87.6320
Completed	1885 [1]
Demolished	1931
Height
Roof	Originally 138 ft (42 m)
Top floor	After addition of the final two floors – 180 feet (54.9 meters)
Technical details
Floor count	10 (later 12)
Design and construction
Architect	William Le Baron Jenney
References
[2]

History

The Home Insurance Building was built in 1884 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was the first tall building to use structural steel in its frame.^[5] Most of its structure was made of cast and wrought iron. While the Ditherington Flax Mill was an earlier fireproof-metal-framed building, it was only five stories tall.^[6]

The site

The Field Building, later known as the La Salle Bank Building and now the Bank of America Building, built in 1931, now stands on the site. In 1932, owners placed a plaque in the southwest section of the lobby reading:

This section of the Field Building is erected on the site of the Home Insurance Building, which structure, designed and built in eighteen hundred and eighty four by the late William Le Baron Jenney, was the first high building to utilize as the basic principle of its design the method known as skeleton construction and, being a primal influence in the acceptance of this principle was the true father of the skyscraper, 1932.