Abbott Labs

All posts tagged Abbott Labs

4753 North Ravenswood Avenue

You’re looking at 4753 N Ravenswood. A building here was once owned by Abbott Labs. The company, which is reported to have about 90,000 employees and $35 billion in revenues, was once located on this strip of light industrial buildings.

The company was founded in 1888 by a drug store owner and physician name Dr. Wallace C Abbott.

Abbott used plant alkoloids such as morphine, quinine, strychnine and codeine, in tiny pills that allowed for more consistent and effective dosing.

Today Abbott Labs is known for producing the first HIV blood screening test, Ensure and many other drugs, treatments and products.

The 1905 Abbott fire was the final straw for neighbors tired of fires and fumes from Abbott Labs.

The 1905 Abbott fire threatened neighbors tired of fires and fumes from Abbott Labs. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association Collection

But it wasn’t a very good neighbor.

Fumes from the labs, located here, often caused workers to have to be sent home ill. And the chemicals, beside causing unpleasant smells, sometimes burst into flames, threatening the wooden homes located on the quiet streets behind the plant.

For example on November 9, 1905 a fire in a printing plant owned by Abbott Labs threatened the neighborhood. According to fire officials a shift in the wind could easily have engulfed the pharmaceuticals lab and its chemicals.

Abbott Labs lost $200,000 in the fire. In 1925 the company departed Chicago for the suburbs.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT STOP ON TOUR

Continue the tour to 4646 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. Walk south about 486′ to the first cross street, Leland Avenue.
  2. Turn left. Proceed to the next street, Hermitage, a distance of about 427′. You’ll cross a service way called an alley.
  3. At Hermitage Street, turn right. The next building will be on your right in about 157′.
  4. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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4605 North Hermitage Avenue

Masterful use corner site, including corner turret, wraparound porch and porte cochere, make this Queen Anne house look much larger than it really is. Note on the alley the matching coach house which still has original stable doors and central tower, increasing its apparent size. Beautiful art nouveau stained-glass window on west side of second story. Additions of north dormer, modern window sashes, rear balcony, and ornament.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

This corner lot was used by the community for Independence Day picnics from 1875. However, in 1888 it was purchased by Dr. Wallace Abbott, a local doctor and pharmacist. He commissioned Rudolph Dahlgren and Oscar Livendahl to design the current home. It was completed in 1891.

The Abbott Mansion during the years it struggled. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View collection, Sulzer Library

The Abbott Mansion during the years it struggled. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View collection, Sulzer Library


Dr. Abbott had gotten his start in his pharmacy and medical office, located on Ravenswood Avenue, manufacturing the first medications in his kitchen apartment. The company he founded, Abbott Labs, moved with the family to this location in 1891, then the company moved to the first of several properties on Ravenswood.
The company sites were known for several spectacular fires as well as industrial accidents leading it to move in 1925 to rural North Chicago.
Dr. Abbott could boast of owning an early telephone, among the first on the North Side. It’s simple number was Lake View 143.
The 1900 Census notes Dr. Abbott, his wife Clara, their daughter, Dr. Abbott’s father, a cook a nurse girl and a stableman.
The Abbott Mansion during the years it struggled.

The Abbott Mansion during the years it struggled. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View collection, Sulzer Library


Dr. Abbott died on his way home from the office one day in July 1921.
The Abbotts moved in 1925, selling the building to the Maginot family. They used the building as the Maginot Funeral Home for many years.
A 1983 story in Crain’s Chicago Business notes the then owners, not the Maginot’s, had purchased the mansion after it had gone through several owners. They had, the story notes, spent six years and $100,000 to attempt to restore the building.
“The Abbott House contains 15 rooms and seven bathrooms and boasts a 1,300 square foot front room,” the story notes.
A Chicago Magazine story has more information, noting the Maginot family had sold the property in the 1970’s. In 2004 Abbott Labs took possession of the property for $1.5 million.
Crain's Chicago Business Article from October 31, 1983

Crain’s Chicago Business Article from October 31, 1983


Abbott Labs cloned the property, according to Chicago Magazine, removing the front door, a fireplace mantel, some stained glass and a stepping stone engraved with the name Wallace Abbott.
The second Abbott mansion exists on the company’s campus in North Chicago.
After being awarded a Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in 2006, the home was sold by Abbott Labs for $1.95 million.
The home was last sold in 2011 for $1,606,000.
Abbott 4605

A view of the mansion as it is today. Credit Patrick Boylan

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to the corner of North Hermitage Avenue and West Wilson Avenue.

  1. The next location is about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


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