Cook County Hospital Administration Building - Chicago, IL - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

In 1916, the main hospital building was completed at its present location. The Hospital was then a complex of 2,700 beds. The main hospital was eight-stories high and the building covered an entire block (555 feet long), bounded by Harrison, Polk, Wood and Wolcott Streets. The Beaux-Arts style (the same style as the Chicago City Hall/County Building, Union Station, the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Art Institute)building makes extensive use of decorative terra cotta around each door and window opening and in bands running the length of the structure.

Architect: Paul Gerhardt, Sr. This German-born architect was very politically connected: his father-in-law was a county commissioner and Chicago alderman in the late 1800s. Gerhardt later went on to serve as the architect of the Chicago Board of Education; he designed Lane Tech High School, among other schools.

From the 1920s to the 1950s, Cook County Hospital was the largest medical institution in the world, and the Administration Building was at its very heart. A couple of "firsts" here include the first blood bank in the United States, and one of the first in the world (1937) (the term “blood bank” was coined by Dr. Bernard Fantus, the hospital’s director of therapeutics, for whom the adjacent Fantus Clinic is named) and the first trauma center in the United States (1966).

The hospital closed its doors in December 2002 when a new county medical center opened nearby.

This site includes the Administration Building only; the four pavilions off the back are NOT included; in late 2005, the County Board approved tearing them and other non-controversial buildings down. Fortunately, the pavilions are not integral to the integrity of the Administration Building.

Street address: 1835 W. Harrison St. Chicago, IL USA County / Borough / Parish: Cook County Year listed: 2006 Historic (Areas of) Significance: medical facility Periods of significance: 1916 - 2002 Historic function: medical facility Current function: vacant Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Privately owned?: Not Listed Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/13/2009 GT.US visited it

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