| Solon Spencer Beman |
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Information AboutSolon Spencer Beman |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SOLON SPENCER BEMAN | |
| 1853 births | |
| beman, solon spencer | |
| 1914 deaths | |
| urban studies and planning | |
| people from chicago | |
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Beman began his architectural training in the office of New York architect Richard Upjohn, where he helped design the Connecticut State Capitol. He came to Chicago in 1879, commissioned by George Mortimer Pullman , to design what would become the nation's first planned company town. Located on the city's Far South Side, the Pullman project included more than 1,300 houses, a factory, monumental water tower, theater, church, hotel, market, and schools. In Chicago, Beman also designed the Studebaker Fine Arts Building (1884) at Michigan and Van Buren Avenues; the Pullman Building on Michigan Avenue (demolished); and parts of George Pullman's Prairie Avenue home (demolished). In 1897, Beman also designed Pullman's monument at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, a towering Corinthian column flanked by curved benches. Beman's other projects in Chicago included several buildings at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 (demolished); the Grand Central Station (Chicago) and train shed at Harrison and Wells (1891; demolished); the Kimball mansion in the Prairie Avenue District; the Blackstone Public Library (1905) in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood; the Hamilton Club Building at Madison and Dearborn Ave. (1913, Demolished) and the First Church of Christ, Scientist, at 4017 S. Drexel Blvd., Chicago. The Blackstone Public Library Branch, built in 1905, was Chicago's first branch library. The design was a near duplication of the James Blackstone Memorial Library in Bradford, Connecticut (1896). Both libraries were built with bequests from the Blackstone family of Chicago. Solon S. Beman also designed at least a dozen other Christian Scientist churches across the country, as well as the Pioneer Building in St. Paul, Minnesota (1889), the Procter and Gamble factories in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Ind., the 14-story Pabst Building in Milwaukee, Wisconin (1891, demolished), the Michigan Trust Company Building, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1913), and the JMS Building, South Bend, Indiana (1916). |
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