These granite columns were designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb as part of Chicago's 1905 federal building. After the building was demolished in 1965, the columns were saved but used to reinforce submerged in Lake Michigan and used to reinforce a breakwater. Eventually they were retrieved and preserved.
A news article from 1996, the year the columns were installed, provides more history:
The columns were first erected at the turn of the century as two of 16 that helped hold up the domed, classical-style federal courthouse and post office at Dearborn Street and Jackson Boulevard. And they were dismantled in 1965 when the South Loop building was torn down to make way for the present-day Dirksen and Kluczynski Federal Buildings, both Ludwig Mies van der Rohe steel-and-glass high-rises.
...
The columns were put up in groups of four that supported the temple fronts of the building's wings, which spread north, south, east and west from the central dome.
The old federal building, which covered an entire block, was designed by one of the city's first prominent architects, Henry Ives Cobb, who also built the Newberry Library and the old Historical Society (now home to the Excalibur nightclub).
In a city that was fast earning a reputation for its ground-breaking architecture, the structure was a favorite among natives even though--or perhaps because--it harked back to another era. And in true Chicago fashion, the cruciform structure's imposing copper dome--100 feet in diameter and 300 feet high--was larger than the U.S. Capitol's.
...
All that came down when the federal government decided it needed more efficient facilities and a more modern look, turning to Mies, who reinvented the modern skyscraper.
Nothing major was saved from the old building--except for the columns--since museums had not yet begun the practice of collecting artifacts from historical buildings.
Why the gigantic columns, of all things, were singled out has befuddled preservationists like Samuelson.
"I've never been able to find out who actually requested that they be saved," Samuelson said.
Whoever made the call, however, realized they were special.
Unlike most other building columns--say, those on many banks--these columns are solid and were actually used for structural support, Samuelson said.
But those interesting tidbits were apparently lost on the Park District employees, who, in 1983, submerged them near the Lake Michigan shoreline to help reinforce a breakwater.
"When we had lake erosion over the years, stopgap measures were taken and somebody decided to fill in the holes with the drums (of the columns)," said Edward Uhlir, director of research and planning for the Park District.
Soon afterward, however, "a jogger saw them and said, `These look like they're important,' " Uhlir said.
The Chicago Architecture Foundation adopted the columns and placed them in the back yard of the Glessner House, the Henry Hobson Richardson-designed landmark in the Prairie Avenue Historic District.
The foundation had hoped to create a garden of architectural fragments, but the plan was eventually dropped because no other major remnants were collected.
So the columns, though protected, remained out of public view until earlier this year, when the Park District suggested that they be used at the entry of the 2 1/4-acre "Cancer Survivor's Garden: A Celebration of Life." Similar gardens are in five other major cities.
The columns' restoration, which took several months, was funded by the Annette and Richard Bloch Foundation and anonymous donors, the same groups that paid for the $1.3 million garden.
So they could be free-standing, the columns had to be drilled in the center so steel support beams could be inserted, Uhlir said.
They now form the garden's Triumphal Arch, which leads to a pavilion and perennial gardens, and was named so to represent cancer patients' ability to regain control of their lives.
(
visit link)