The Neuville

Built in 1920 as one of the first, luxury, high-rise apartments built in Chicago. The building sits in the Streeterville Neighborhood located north of downtown. Its existence stands as a monument to Chicago's decades-long transformation from a swampy area to a bustling center of commerce. The area is built on a landfill (1880s) that pushed back Lake Michigan, and then a bridge built in 1920 that connected its now tourist-heavy Michigan Ave to Chicago's "North Side." The Neuville, with its ten-room-apartments and hotel amenities, catered to the wealthy, demonstrating a new movement of the upper class seeking multi-dwelling residences; builders catered to the wealthy by designing luxury apartments as a status symbol.

The Neuville luxury apartments (1920) sit in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood, an area that speaks to the city's continual evolution from a swampy frontier town into a booming metropolis. Two significant chapters in Chicago's growth involve the landfill construction in 1882, which better delineated the city from its Lake Michigan shoreline and the opening of Michigan Ave into Chicago's North Side in 1920. While the Gold Coast neighborhood abounds in single-home mansions, The Neuville was the first of many luxury apartments offering guests sumptuous amenities within a multi-dwelling setting. 

The neighborhood once stood as a separate city, distinct from Chicago. In 1886, Captain George Wellington Streeter, a circus and show promoter, was on his way back from Latin America while engaging in gun-running activities. When his boat hit a sandbar in the area just east of Michigan Ave (near the 100-plus-story John Hancock Building), Streeter laid claim to the sandy swampland. He deemed the area the "District of Lake Michigan," which grew — both organically and man-made — to ninety-three acres. Numerous people in Chicago (notable with financial interests) quibbled with Streeter's claim. Though it took nearly thirty years and a few court proceedings, the area became part of Chicago; the Streeterville Neighborhood of Chicago was born. 

In 1920, the plans for Chicago's north side, set in motion by Daniel Burnham in his 1909 Plan for Chicago, finally came to fruition with the Michigan Ave Bridge and subsequent widening of Michigan Avenue into a wide boulevard. Consequently, Chicago travelers could easily move from the Loop (downtown) to areas such as Streeterville and The Gold Coast, which resulted in a population and building boom. 

The lack of space and influx of new residents to the North Side inspired developers to design multi-dwelling apartments that catered to the middle class and the wealthy rather than the lower class, as had been the case for many decades. Fugard & Knapp played a significant role in designing many high-rise luxury apartments in Chicago, including The Neuville and others in Streeterville. Apartments inside the building regularly consisted of large, ten-room residences, hotel-style amenities, and the latest in technological advances.  

The stigma of apartment living forced promoters to work hard to sell the apartments as status symbols. Their success allowed for far more buildings to arise, thus the era of luxury apartments took shape in Chicago during America's Roaring Twenties decade. 

Thus, in the end, Chicago's environmental transformation speaks to the society, culture, and economy that shaped it. The natural swamps and waterways once served Native Americans and early settlers well for hunting, fishing, and trapping. To see The Neuville is to see a new vision for the land, one where investors alter the land — often viewed as a hindrance — to suit its needs, such as altering rivers, creating landfills, changing shorelines, building bridges, and developing luxury high-rise apartments. 

Burnham, Daniel H and Edward H. Bennett.  Plan of Chicago. Chicago: The Commercial Club of Chicago. 1909.

Burian, Susan Baldwin. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: The Neuville." National Register of Historic Places. August 1, 2012. http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/801829.pdf. 

McClendon, Dennis. "Chicago's Lakefront Landfill." Newberry Library: Encyclopedia of Chicago. Accessed July 16, 2018. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3713.html

Stamper, John W. Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue Planning and Development, 1900 - 1930. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. 

Photo Source

The Neuville: By dstrut - Own work. This photo was uploaded with Wiki Loves Monuments mobile 1.3 (Android)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28918765

Neuville, from Curbed Chicago: https://chicago.curbed.com/2013/2/11/10274722/3-buildings-join-illustrious-national-register-of-hist...