Daily Archives: 30/05/2022

Thursday 25th May 2022 Today was going to be a day exploring some of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, a temporary building was constructed around a large masonry water tank that had survived the fire on the site now occupied by The Rookery. Following a campaign by a British MP large numbers of books were donated to the city to replace its lost library, including 6,000 from Queen Victoria herself. As Chicago had not previously had one, space had to be found for this new facility and the water tank was converted into the city’s first public library: the top of the tank was made into a skylight, and bookshelves made to line the curved walls. City Hall also operated from another part of this building which was nicknamed “The Rookery”, partly because of the number of crows and pigeons that roosted there, and partly because of the corrupt politicians it housed. It was close to the fire department which kept horses there ready to pull the fire engines and so the birds may have been attracted to the grain which was used as feed. The Rookery Building which replaced this temporary […]