The year 1894 witnessed the completion of what was to be a very historic piece of Chicago archit
ecture. The Chicago Stock Exchange Building was designed by architects Dankmar Adler and engineer Louis H. Sullivan. This early skyscraper boasted thirteen stories and included many pioneering modern day features including electric lighting. Beautiful leaded glass panels were mounted directly above the second floor trading room. The artistic glass acted as a skylight surrounding all four walls of the room letting natural light grace the interior of the trading room during the daylight hours. Sadly, the Chicago Stock Exchange building was demolished in 1972 however an effort was put forth to preserve the second floor trading room.
During disassembly of the trading room, an installation of electric incandescent lighting was discovered directly above the skylights. Presumably the electric lamps were installed to provide lighting during the evening hours, or on dark days. At least one lamp found during the careful disassembly bore the markings of "STOCK EXCHANGE" in white paint directly above the lamp's base6. The majority of other lamps recovered were ca.1890 Edison "long neck" lamps with hairpin carbon filaments. The Edison lamp pictured here is one such surviving example recovered from the building. Also recovered was an original Edison lamp socket that served as the holder for this lamp. A picture of this socket is shown below.
The reconstruction of the second floor trading room was completed in 1977 and is on public view at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photographs can be found on the Internet of the trading room and some links are included below to better illustrate the artistic "feel" of this important piece of American architecture.
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