Has some long-lost film footage of the 1893 World’s Fair been discovered?
Not quite. But this video about a stunning piece of Chicago real estate opens with some fun AI-generated animations of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. The video showcases a $3.6M penthouse mansion in the historic Montgomery Ward building (6 N. Michigan Ave.), constructed in 1898–99. [Note: The building across the street—constructed for use by the World’s Congress Auxiliary and which then became the new home of the Art Institute of Chicago—was not designed to be a temporary structure. Also, the Aon Center and Prudential buildings to the north are modernist designs, not “brutalist as can be.”]
Watch Landmarked Episode 2 “Inside a Rare Gilded-Age Chicago Penthouse Apartment”
The Montgomery Ward Building rose at 6 N. Michigan Ave. just a few years after the 1893 World’s Fair. Later, additional floors were added around the central tower later and its pyramid top was removed. [Image from One Hundred and Twenty-five Photographic Views of Chicago (Randy McNally, 1910).]