Chicago holds a special place in my heart. During a very rough period of my life I would often take the South Shore Line from South Bend, Indiana to Millenium Station in downtown Chicago and just wander around the city, hoping to find a sense of meaning and purpose in a life filled with tragedy at the time. Those days helped me in immeasurable ways.
Upon emerging from the underground train station, you are basically at the corner of Ranolph and Michigan and directly across the street is the Prudential Building. I knew very little about Chicago and the building itself at the time, so I did what I always do, and start collecting items from and about the place until I learn more.
I am going through a very nostalgic phase about my own travels and decided it would be fun to re-write a piece I hastily wrote back in 2016 and share it with everyone.
It feels like there a lot of big changes coming in my life, so writing about something as simple as I building I have never enetered but have walked past dozens of times brings me comfort. So, let’s share some Prudential Building facts and items from my collection!
This small pamphlet/brochure, produced around 1959/1960 about the recently opened Prudential Building in Chicago shares a few facts about Chicago's first new skyscraper built since 1934.
Some interesting details about the building:
Now called One Two Pru, The Prudential was one of the first skyscrapers built in Chicago after World War II.
It had the highest roof in the city at the time, slightly taller than the Chicago Board of Trade Building.
This 41-story Art-Deco-influenced Modernist behemoth was built above Illinois Central Railroad air rights.
It was one of the first and largest Chicago buildings to be built over existing rail lines. It essentially sits atop stilts that meet the ground at 500 separate spots.
Each small piece of land was acquired individually from the railroad in anticipation of the building.
Construction started in 1952 and was completed in 1955. The opening date was December 8, 1955.
Designed by Smith & Nessy and 41-stories tall, the Prudential was the first skyscraper built since 1934.
This great fish-eye Panorama map from the Prudential features a numbered map of the Chicago skyline when this one printed.
With a charge of 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for Children, the Prudential really did offer "The Most Dramatic View in Chicago."
This found photo from the Summer of 1958 shows the view towards Buckingham Fountain and the Field Museum.
This view, from a different series of found slides, is from the Summer of 1960 and features the down Michigan Avenue with the Mandel-Lear Building and the Wrigley Building in the fore front.
The view wasn't just for sightseeing. Two restaurant in the Prudential Building showcased the building’s magnificent views.
FThe first restaurant, located just outside of the lobby was called the Gibraltar Room. it opened June 12, 1956.
According to a Chicago Tribune piece from March 10, 1957:
MOST MASCULINE Stouffer's restaurant in the entire chain is the Gibraltar room, off the lobby of the Prudential building. This is no ladies' tea shoppe. The menu puts emphasis on steaks and chops, but Robert, the head waiter, will discuss with you 4 broiled ham steak, Hawaiian style, or any of a great variety of cooked to order specialties.
It's a simple, good looking room, modified colonial with a modern tang, and there is plenty of elbow.room amid its 200 seats. There are manly sporting prints on the walls, and a hunting horn motif in the brass light fixtures. The big windows are slanted to provide attractive views of the boulevard, and a sweeping panorama of the lake and Grant Park.
This restaurant lasted with that name until at least 1982.
Stouffer's Top of the Rock was the place for visitors to see and be seen. The Top of the Rock was located at the top of the Prudential Building. Upon its opening in 1956, the restaurant at that top of Chicago's first skyscraper in 21 years, offered unparalleled views of downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan. On a clear day you could see four states and seemingly all of Chicago.
Top of the Rock was THE place to go on a date, get a cocktail and take in a great view. The restaurant sat 180 guests in an early-American/Continental decor. That only lasted for about a decade.
In 1966, the Prudential Building was no longer the tallest building in Chicago. By the early 1970s the observation deck, that once was host to over 750,000 people a year, was down to fewer than one-third of that total.
The restaurants, now struggling to gain visitors seemed dated and The Loop area was no longer a place for tourists. Â The Loop had turned in to a downtown that was for business people only and was virtually abandoned when the evening rolled around. In January 1976 the Top of the Rock closed.
A February 8, 1976 article "'Top of Rock' winks out - omen for Loop?" by Paul Gapp in The Chicago Tribune laments the demise of the restaurant and the Loop:
The restaurant did not merely lose a height battle. It lost out on changing times and forces that have killed off a dozen other landmark Loop restaurants [not to mention theaters, nightclubs, book stores, specialty shops, and other amenities razed in the name of progress."]
Every time another old-line attraction closes its doors, we seem to move closer to the day when there will be nothing - absolutely nothing - to do in the Loop after 6 pm.
After years of careful planning, the Loop did recover. The Prudential Building still stands right across the street from a newer tourist destination, Millennium Park, and Cloud Gate (the Bean).
No other restaurant has occupied the 41st floor space where Top of The Rock once offered a unique view of a changing city.
I will do another write-up on the history and imagery of Stouffer's Restaurant and the other Top of the... Restaurants again here in the future.
The Prudential is still standing tall in Chicago and is now known as One Prudential Plaza. A few more tidbits:
A bas relief of the Rock of Gibraltar (Prudential’s logo) by sculptor Alfonso Iannelli is prominently visible on the exterior of a 1968 addition.
A 73-foot broadcast antenna for WGN was also added.
Since the 1990 completion of neighboring Two Pru, the building has been referred to as One Pru.
The plaza includes a 7,000-square-foot terrace above with lakefront and skyline views, grassy lawn, multiple lounge spaces, amphitheater seating and Airstream food truck throughout spring, summer and fall.
The Prudential Plaza is ever-changing, just like the city, and will always mean a little something extra for me.