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matching fanciful monogrammed "mcb" cast brass doorknob and escutcheon or backplate removed from the roanoke building and tower in the 1950's and 1980's. when urban remains was offered a chance to salvage elements prior to the restoration into a boutique hotel nearly 2-3 years ago, the office doors, passage doors, etc., were all outfitted with this exact hardware. the cast bronze monogrammed doorknob and backplate were likely fabricated by the sargent hardware company, new haven, ct. the hardware may have been installed during the 1920's when holabird and roche designed one of the tower additions. the backplate measures approximately 9 1/8 x 2 3/4 inches and doorknob measures 2 1/4 inches in diameter. the roanoke building and tower originally lumber exchange building and tower addition sits on a site of a former roanoke building (once known as major block 2) that once served as a national weather service weather forecast official climate site and replaced major block 1 after the great chicago fire. the current building has incorporated the frontage of other buildings east of the original site of major block 1. a four-story major block 1 building, designed by t. v. widskier, sat on this location until the great chicago fire. after the fire, this was replaced with the major block 2, which eventually became known as the roanoke building. major block 2 stood from 1872–1912 as a seven-story building on spread foundations. it was designed by dixon & hamilton and had a length of 136 feet along south lasalle street and a width of 66 feet along west madison street. a commonly published illustration of this building shows it as a five-story building. from june 8, 1873 to january 1, 1887 the original roanoke building served as the chicago location for the national weather service weather forecast official climate site. the current building was designed in three phases: in 1915 holabird & roche's design for the first 16 floors was built, and five floors were added in 1922. it was built originally as the sixteen-story high lumber exchange building and later renamed as the 11 south lasalle street building. the holabird & roche design had three basements and rock caissons. the original 16-floor building was a late chicago school commercial building that incorporated arches at both the fourth and the top floor, but when the top five floors were added in 1922 under the original cornice, the top rank of arches disappeared. the building uses dark terra cotta with italianate designs. the vaulted ceiling and marble wall lobby contribute to what is described as a classical entrance and lobby. the palladian entrance uses contrasting white varigated and black marble. in 1925, the building was built to its current 35 story height by the addition of an adjacent tower to the east of the madison street frontage. the 36-story tower was added east of the original structure on the site of the former desoto building at 125-129 west madison. the tower was an early example of the use of setbacks and it uses ranks of paired windows. when the tower was built four bronze bells were installed and were set to chime an original composition called "samheim" which is norse for "tomorrow" every quarter hour. the largest of these chimes is 7,000 pounds and inscribed with the name "leander" in honor of leander mccormick. the current roanoke building is the city's only example of a building in the style of portuguese gothic architecture. according to the press release from the city announcing the landmark promotion, the building's terra cotta ornamentation is derived from portuguese gothic precedents.
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original early 20th century ornamental cast bronze monogrammed "mcb" mccormick doorknob with matching backplate salvaged from the roanoke building and tower
SKU:
UR-23799-16
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