The Oliver Building is located at 159 N. Dearborn Street in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

within the Loop.

History

It was built for the

Oliver Typewriter Company The Oliver Typewriter Company was an American typewriter manufacturer headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The Oliver Typewriter was one of the first "visible print" typewriters, meaning text was visible to the typist as it was entered. Oliver ...

from 1907 to 1908 by

Holabird & Roche The architect, architectural firm now known as Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm has changed its name several times and adapted to the architectural style then current — from Chicago school (architectu ...

. When two floors were added in 1920, Holabird & Roche were hired for the expansion. The cast iron exterior features

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

-related motifs. It was declared a

Chicago Landmark Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artist ...

on May 9, 1984. The windows above the second floor are known as "Chicago windows," and are wide window panes bracketed by narrower double-hung windows. The windows also include the name of the company below the central pane. In the 1990s, when the Oriental Theatre wanted to expand its backstage area, architect Daniel P. Coffey came up with a design plan that gutted the Oliver while preserving one-third of its original steel structure, as well as the building's Dearborn facade and a portion of its alley facade.

Notes

Commercial buildings completed in 1908 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Projects by Holabird & Root 1908 establishments in Illinois Chicago Landmarks {{CookCountyIL-NRHP-stub