When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part II, Location

When I started working for the C&NW, I worked in the Riverside Plaza Building in downtown Chicago. This was the 400 West Madison Street headquarters address for the C&NW. In the next block west was the C&NW Terminal with an address of 500 West Madison.

The Riverside Plaza Building was completed in 1929 as the Chicago Daily News Building. The newspaper moved to another location sometime in the 60’s or 70’s. This building was the first commercial building erected on air rights over the railroad tracks that led to Union Station from the north. One of the interesting things about this building is that it included a system to carry smoke from steam engines up through the roof.

The building is 26 stories and I worked on the 4th or 5th floor. I remember that they had piped in music playing all day. It got more lively after lunch to help keep people who had large lunches alert and active. Here is a link to information about the building.

Another interesting thing about this building was the mural painted on the ceiling in one of the main hallways. According to some web sites I found, the building originally had an outstanding ceiling mural by John W. Norton, a noted Chicago artist that showed the process of producing a newspaper. It was removed in 1993 for restoration but is currently still in storage because initial restoration bids were deemed too high by the building's management company. It was commissioned for the original tenant, the Chicago Daily News. It was dominated by diagonal lines, and divided into three sections: Gathering the News, Printing the News, & Transporting the News. The mural was there when I worked in the building and was 180x18-feet in size.

Close to the end of my 2 year tenure with the railroad, the offices were moved to a building two blocks north. The building was named One Northwestern Center during the time the C&NW had its offices there. It was one of two nearly identical 18 story buildings that sit next to each other along the Chicago River. They were originally known as the Butler Brothers Buildings. There is a 1928 photo available via this web site. The buildings were completed in 1913. The C&NW occupied the northernmost of the two buildings which is on the right in the photo. I worked on the 3rd or 4th floor.

Both buildings were quite convenient for me. I commuted on the C&NW to the C&NW terminal across the street. I did not even have to go outside to get to the Riverside Plaza Building and I only had to cross the street for the other building.