john wellborn root-designed ornamental cast iron monadnock building office doorknob and matching backplate

rare 1890's solid cast iron monogrammed doorknob and backplate custom-designed for the monadnock building. the monadnock is the tallest commercial building in the world with masonry load-bearing walls. it is located at 53 west jackson blvd. the seventeen-story building stands 197 feet tall. the northern half was designed and built by burnham and root in 1891-1892; the southern half was designed and built by holabird and roche in 1892-1893. the monadnock was designed so that it could operate as four separate office buildings. each section stands on its own lot, and at one time each section had its own entrance, elevators, heating system and name. from north to south, they were the monadnock, the kearsarge, the katahdin, and the wachusett, each the name of a union navy ship and also the name of a mountain in the developers’ native new england. the monogrammed knob and baclplate was used in both the kearsarge and katahdin sections of the building. the other doorknobs contained either an encircled "w" or "m", cast in iron with a bower-barff finish. the mondnock building's hardware was fabricated by the reading hardware company, reading, pa.