The Home Insurance Building

PHOTO: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY

In 1884, William Le Baron Jenney designed the world’s first steel-frame skyscraper, the ten-story Home Insurance Building, on the northeast corner of LaSalle and Adams streets. How did he come up with the method we still use today?

a) New Chicago steel companies pushed Jenney to make something with their product.
b) As a Union soldier, Jenney learned about steel while dismantling Confederate bridges during the Civil War.
c) Jenney stole blueprints from New York architecture firm Kimbell and Thompson, and finished his building first.
d) The conventional material of choice, iron, was in short supply.

Scroll down for the answer.

Answer: b. Jenney learned the strength of steel during his tenure as a Union engineer. Nicknamed “the Major,” he gained expertise to achieve what many had failed to do—make a building with a steel core, the same method the world’s tallest buildings continue to employ, even though the Home Insurance Building was demolished in 1931.

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