442 HKI'OHT OK NATIONAL MUSEUM, VMYA. 



\-J. ART INSTITUTK OF ClIICAdO. 



Fi-oiii !ui iirt school founded in iStJO ro.se The Chicago Academy of 

 l)c>sion, wliich until 1SS2 was the only nota))le art center of the city. 

 Ill 1S79 it was organized anew as the Chicago Academy of Fin(> 

 Arts, and incorporated l)y the State "for the founding and mainte- 

 nance of schools of art and design, the formation and exhibition of 

 collections of objects of art, and the cultivation and extension of the 

 arts of d(^sign, by a])propriate means." In 18S3 it was giA'(Mi its pres- 

 ent name. 



Fii'st i.istalled in rented rooms the society obtained in 1882 and 1885 

 (obliquel}' across from its present home) a large piece of ground, upon 

 a part of which it built, but in 188() it erected there a tine museum, 

 100 feet long and 87 feet wide, of a Romanesque style, after i)lans of 

 ,1, W. Root (Plate 21). As this soon became too small it was in 1892 

 sold for $400,000 to the Chicago Club" in order that there might be 

 erected in 18U3 the present si)acious ])uilding, near the edge of the lake, 

 in the extensive Lake Front Park. 



The origin and history of the present building is not without interest. 

 It shows what advantage a great exposition may be to the development 

 of a city. We have seen this already in the Field Columbian Museum. 

 Butialo, also, in this year (1901), doubtless will obtain important ])ene- 

 tits thi'ough the Pan-American Exi)osition (see p. 40;")). The Chicago 

 Fx ;)<)sition in 1893 needed a building for holding congresses, and by 

 nuitual Mgreement with the art institute this one was built upon a site 

 b(4()nging to the city, on the lake front, near the busiest section. The 

 exposition paid $200,000, the art institute $500,000, and the city gave 

 the site, 425 feet long, on the broad Michigan avenue under the con- 

 dition that the proi)erty rigiits in the building should belong to it, bid 

 that the art institute should occupy it rent free, so long as they use 

 it for its present purposes. The art institute therefore presented it to 

 tile city. The plans wer(> made by the arcidtects, Shepley, Rutan c*c 

 Coolidge, in Italian renaissance style, the details "classic and of Ionic 

 and Corinthian orders." The magnificent bronze lions of E. Kemeys 

 tlaiik the broad stairway of approach. The building is 850 feet long, 

 1S5 to 225 feet wide (the Dresden gallery of paintings occupies only 

 about half the space), and 75 to 85 feet high from basement up. It is 

 lir(>proof, being built of liedford limestone and brick, but the floors 

 and window frames, doors, skylights,* and furniture are of wood, and 

 in s()me cases the partitions are wainscoated with it. The steam-heating 



"I hail the privilege of t'reiiiienting this club. The high, spacious halls, with an 

 unobstructed view of the lake, together with the conveniences which American 

 clubs of the first rank offer, make it an uncommonly attractive i)lace of resort. 



'' In some rooms there are mosaic cement Hoors. It is intended, sometime, to lay 

 all tiic doors in this wav as well as to renlace some of the w Iwork wifli iron. 



