Capstone Consulting has been located in the Printers Row District of Chicago since 1995. At the time the area had been languishing for decades as a bleak landscape of warehouses and rail yards. In the 1900's the South Loop - Printers Row area was a railroad hub and and the nation's printing center. All that has changed now as the South Loop has become one of the country's hottest neighborhoods with varied restaurants, entertainment and many different styles of living. Our past is our present and our firm being located just outside of the famed Chicago "Loop" links our firm centrally to the culture and history of the city. Printers Row is conveniently located just steps from The Art Institute, The Harold Washington Library, Millennium Park, The Lakefront Museum Campus, Soldier Field and Navy Pier.

Chicago is a world class city and few cities are as renowned for their architecture as is the city of Chicago. The impressive skyscrapers in and around the Loop give Chicago a skyline that is second to none. And with more than three dozen historic landmarks, the Loop is home to many of the city's most recognized structures. Today in the 21st Century, Capstone Consulting is committed to doing its part to preserving the very best for future generations.

Chicago was the host of the World's Fair of 1892 and since that time has long been known as the "Second City," although in reality it is now the third city as measured in population. But to the citizens of the city of Chicago it is first in their hearts. Chicago is a "city of firsts" ~ the first skyscraper, built in 1855 was an experiment in new technologies and engineering prowess. With the succession of great buildings that followed, Chicago became known as the "City of the Big Shoulders."

Chicago also became known as the city with the first Ferris Wheel (at the Columbian Exposition), and one of the first public zoos, The Lincoln Park Zoo, now one of the last free zoos in the country. Many who have visited this great city and it neighborhoods have said that they can feel an energy that cannot be completely described. Some have said that this energy demands that we strive for the biggest, the tallest and to be the most successful of cities. Much of the successful transformation of the city is the result of many decades of work by many individuals and Mayor Richard Daley. Today Chicago works and plays and is a global player in the world economy and much of the transformation is due to the vision and political power of Daley. Mayor Daley has shaped Chicago as few mayors have impacted a city.

Dearborn Station 1890

The Donahue Building

Capstone Consulting is located at 723 South Dearborn Street and is in the shadow of Dearborn Station. In the day of rail transportation trains were constantly chugging into the city and Printers Row was a vibrant area that was booming and printing and publishing was a central part of Chicago's economy. However,after World War II the railroads began retreating and the printing business began consolidating. By the 1960's and 70's the printing business had atrophied and Printers Row began its decline just as Chicago's economy began to diversify.

However, when the printing business was at its height and the presses were humming, this district was one of the places to be. In the decade after the Chicago Fire of 1871, Printing House Row was where publishing and printing businesses flourished. The businesses prospered and a collection of tall, strong architecturally significant buildings were constructed. Today after decades of decline you will find three blocks of interesting architecture which both defines Chicago and defines Printers Row along South Dearborn Street.

One of the Printers Row store fronts is the home of Capstone Consulting, located at 723 South Dearborn Street. The consulting business began its association with Printers Row in 1995 in a rented space. In 1998 the owners of the firm purchased a vacant storefront from Larry Booth and Harry Weese and in 2000 relocated to its new space in the ground floor of the Donahue Building from a prior location in the building. The Donahue was designed in 1883 and was one of the buildings that was designed with large windows to bring in the natural light and was constructed of heavy timber to accommodate the substantial weight required by the publishing and bookbinding firms. The M. A. Donahue Company was the exclusive tenant of the building. The company published many children's books in the building including the Wizard of Oz and Tarzan, many classics of Robert Louis Stevenson, Horatio Alger and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

In 1980 the Donahue Building became Chicago's first residential loft building. The building has a variety of loft like residences that are similar to those found in New York City's Soho District. The Donahue building was purchased by Harry Weese and Larry Booth in 1975 for a mere $150,000. Booth and Weese were part of a five man investment group, South Dearborn Renovation Association that was targeting Printers Row as an area to revitalize. Mayor Daley had blessed this effort which gave the backing that was needed.

The Donahue Building is a massive building built in the Romanesque Revival style which was popular among turn of the century buildings. The commercial space which Capstone Consulting occupies was once known as the Deli on Dearborn. Beginning in 1998 the firm began an extensive rehabilitation of the space. The space was purchased in 1998 for $11.75 a square foot.

Dearborn Station

From the beginning, Dearborn Station's presence dominated the area of Printers Row. Designed by noted New York architect, Cyrus Eidlitz the station caps the Dearborn Street vista. The brick Romanesque building featured a hipped roof complete with a Flemish clock tower.

The clock tower is the most dramatic feature of the station, which in an earlier era of shorter buildings could be seen from many blocks away. Dearborn Station was built in 1883 at a time when trains steamed into Chicago round the clock. The major train stations of the city were built on the outer perimeters of the downtown so as not to disrupt the logistics of business that was being conducted. At its peak Chicago saw over 1,000 trains pulling in and out of the city each and every day. The station and clock tower's original sloping roof was destroyed by fire in 1922, but was quickly restored.

Other train stations that were built in the South Loop area included, Grand Central Station built in 1890, Central Station built in 1893 and LaSalle Station built in 1903. This cluster of stations brought thousands of jobs into the area and also attracted houses of prostitution, gambling rooms and saloons making Printers Row the largest area for vice in the city.

Besides having a heavy passenger service, Dearborn Station was an important freight terminal serving the printers and publishers of the area with paper and other materials. The station was among the cities busiest and was always busy and one observer wrote that on a busy day the smoke from the trains was so thick that you could not see from Polk Street to Harrison Street. Buildings were turned black because of the coal burning engines. The station enabled quick and easy transport of heavy paper goods, attracting printers and publishers to the area.

Dearborn Station - Track 7

Dearborn Station was a primary entry point to Chicago for many immigrants throughout the end of the century. It was also the arrival point for the millions who attended the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

The most important tenant of the building was the Santa Fe Railroad which operated the line from Chicago to Los Angeles. Legendary trains such as the El Capitan and the Super Chief favorites of many Hollywood celebrities. From the 1920's to the 1940's the likes of Clark Gable, Carol Lombard and Bob Hope were frequent passengers and could be spotted at Dearborn Station.

Behind the train station were rail yards which were massive in size. In addition to the Santa Fe, the station was home to the moron Line which ran to Indianapolis and Louisville; the Erie Railroad with service to New York City; the Wabash to St. Louis; the Grand Trunk to Toronto and the Chicago and Eastern Illinois to Alabama.

In 1971 Dearborn Station saw its last trains coming into the station. All passenger traffic had been rerouted to Union Station and the station was abandoned. Eventually all of the rails were removed to make way for future residential development.

Today Dearborn Station is the oldest surviving passenger terminal in the city and houses offices, an eatery, a few shops, a bank, Mercy Medical Clinic, and a jazz club.

Dearborn Station - Track 6

Today Printers Row is an eclectic neighborhood which hosts some of Chicago's most unigue architecture, living spaces and residents. The area is now being appreciated for many things. Among them are the area's unusual street pattern of long narrow blocks which provide maximum natural light in the industrial buildings that was a necessity for engraving and typesetting. This feature is now appreciated by the inhabitants of the many lofts and luxury condos that provide highly unique and creative living spaces to their residents.

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Dearborn Station Today

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World’s Columbian Exposition - 1893

World Columbian Exposition

In 1833 Chicago was incorporated and within fifty years grew to become America's second largest city. The progress of the city seemed unstoppable until October 8, 1871 when the Great Chicago Fire raged and destroyed nearly four square miles of the city. Chicago's future lay in tatters as the city seemed to be gone. More than $200 million in losses and one third of the population was homeless. But Chicagoans went to work and within two years the the entire city was rebuilt and within twelve years the city boasted the awarding of the World's Columbian Exposition.

Many positive outcomes grew from the Great Fire. Among them was the cities attraction by the nation's foremost architects. Chicago was a blank slate and the advances made in skyscraper technology allowed Chicago to emerge as the "world capital of modern architecture."

Twenty-eight million guests visited the World Columbian Exposition. Buildings stretched a third of a mile long. The worlds first Ferris Wheel with cars the size of buses. The World's Fair celebrated and commemorated Columbus' voyage to the new world. The three caravels were sailed from Spain to the fair. On the then very much upscale and swank South Side of the city, a "White City" was constructed of fanciful plaster temporary buildings. One of the few permanent buildings constructed of brick, was the neo-Classical, Beaux Arts, Palace of Fine Arts building which is now the entry to the Museum of Science and Industry.

October 1893 was the final month of the fair which began in May. On Chicago Day, October 9, 1893, more than three quarters of a million people passed through the turnstiles. Closing day was to be the biggest day of the fair, however three days before the fair was to end, Chicago's popular mayor Carter Harrison was assassinated by a disgruntled office seeker. Darkness and gloom fell over the city and the fair closed its run quietly with flags at half staff and somber visitors as the orchestra played Beethoven's Funeral March.

The process of dismantling the fair's White City was immediate. Within a year most of the gleaming white buildings were gone. Only four of the original buildings from the fair still stand today. The Palace of Fine Arts remains in Chicago, however the Maine Building, the Dutch House and the Norway Building were moved from the fair to other states. The Maine Building was moved aboard a sixteen car train to Poland Spring, Maine. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Dutch House stands today in Brookline, Massachusetts where it is a popular tourist attraction. The Norway Building was moved to the William Wrigley estate in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and then later to Blue Mounds, Wisconsin where it is also a tourist attraction.

The Midway Plaissance, was where the most exotic exhibits of the fair were on display is today the dignified drive on the University of Chicago campus. The jewel of the Midway was the Ferris Wheel. The wheel was dismantled while a dispute arose over the $100,000 in profit that the wheel had generated. The wheel was eventually moved to a Chicago neighborhood, but achieved only a modicum of the success it had achieved as the centerpiece of the World's Columbian Exposition. The inventor, George Ferris died a few years after the fair closed at the age of 37. The Ferris Wheel appeared at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and then was dynamited and sold for scrap.

The Devil in the White City

Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller, The Devil in the White City has gotten loads of praise. It is a gripping account of a serial killer and an architect whose fates were linked by the greatest fair in American history; the Chicago Worlds Fair of of 1893, nicknamed 'The White City."

The story is about Daniel Hudson Burnham and a villonous murderer, Henry H. Holmes, who built a World's Fair Hotel complete with a dissection table, gas chamber and a 3,000 degree crematorium. Burnham used his creative architecture talent to transform a swampy area of Jackson park into the White City, while the murderer Holmes used his satanic charms to lure scores of Women to their deaths.

The story is chilling and what makes this book all the more a page turner that is very hard to put down is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of the dream city. Click on the book cover at right or use the links below to purchase this book through Amazon.com.