Collections Highlight: The Golden Years of the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

The Northwestern Terra Cotta Collection is a treasure trove of early twentieth-century American architectural history. Consisting of over 50,000 architectural drawings, the collection is comprised of terra cotta facade drawings designed by the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company (NWTC) for residential and commercial buildings across the United States, particularly in the Midwest. Charting the history of these buildings can offer insight into the fast-paced developments that took place in the Midwest during the turbulence of the early twentieth century. 

A foundational collection of the National Building Museum, the Northwestern Terra Cotta Collection was one of the first collections acquired by the Museum in 1983, and it remains a core part of our robust collection of architectural drawings today. 

The Beginnings of the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company

The NWTC flourished during the Roaring Twenties, a period when cities like Chicago were expanding rapidly, and new companies sought to enhance their image by constructing grand offices and factories. It created decorative exterior cladding for thousands of buildings across the country, particularly in Chicago, where it contributed to defining the city’s distinct neo-Gothic architecture. Some of the most prominent architects of the time contracted the company, including Frank Lloyd Wright and the architecture firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. 

Early Twentieth-Century Skyscrapers 

The NWTC designed the exteriors of many iconic Chicago buildings during the skyscraper boom of the early twentieth century. The company created the decorative terra cotta cladding for the Wrigley Building, the Tribune Tower, and the Mather Tower, which was designed by Herbert Hugh Riddle (1875–1939). The tallest building in Chicago at the time of its establishment, the neo-Gothic-style Mather Tower is also known as the “Inverted Spyglass” among locals due to the striking octagonal tower at its peak. A few other iconic Chicago landmarks in the Northwestern Terra Cotta Collection include the Randolph Tower and One North LaSalle, both high-rises designed by architect Karl M. Vitzthum in Gothic revival styles. 

Outside Chicago, the NWTC contributed to iconic city landmarks that have withstood the rise of modern architecture and the test of time. The design of the Atlas Life Insurance Building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, remains a highlight of the collection. A towering statue of the Greek mythological figure Atlas holding the weight of the world on his shoulders sits atop the building. Completed in 1922, the building was designed by the architecture firm Rush, Endacott and Rush and remains an icon of downtown Tulsa. The building now operates as a hotel.

Beauty in Industry 

The NWTC rose to prominence during the City Beautiful Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when city planners and investors prioritized aesthetics over cost. The extravagance of some of the NWTC’s manufacturing building designs was a result of this movement. Completed in 1929, the R. R. Donnelley & Sons Printing Co. building in Chicago was labeled “the most beautiful manufacturing building in the world” by the local press at the time. The NWTC designed decorative panels with historic publishing guild crests to adorn the sides of the building, paying homage to the rich history of the printing press. 

Building Chicago’s Public Infrastructure 

Beyond manufacturing buildings, the NWTC also designed the exteriors of many public schools, revealing a new emphasis placed on social reform and neighborhood developments in the early twentieth century. 

By the end of the nineteenth century, Chicago’s educational infrastructure could not keep up with the influx of new immigrants in the city, and its number of schools was severely lacking. As a result, in 1893, the Board of Education opened its own Architectural Department to design public school buildings instead of commissioning an architect for each school. Over the next three decades, architects who led the department were tasked with building schools across Chicago rapidly. Their task became even more daunting when, in 1903, a new law required 7 to 14-year-olds to attend school full time, rather than for a few months of the year. 

In 1903, Mayor William Denver (1862-1929) further spurred public development by vowing to modernize and reform the city’s infrastructure. As a result, over the 1920s, the Board of Education spent $100 million on new school buildings. Headed by architect John C. Christensen (1878-1976), the Board of Education’s Architecture Department designed public school prototypes that would be used to build identical schools across the city, cutting down on costs and time. Christensen contracted the NWTC to design Gothic- and English Tudor Revival-style terra cotta exteriors for public school buildings across the city. 

Chicago’s South Side neighborhood saw the greatest demand for new schools, as its population expanded rapidly with the arrival of Black communities from the South during the Great Migration for work. New schools, such as DuSable High School and other schools on Chicago’s South Side, were built with decorative terra cotta exteriors designed by the NWTC. 

Closing Doors 

Like so many communities and industries, the NWTC was hit hard by the Great Depression and never fully recovered. Its projects steadily declined in the mid-1930s, and the company closed its doors in 1956. Nevertheless, the NWTC remains significant for its contribution to early twentieth-century architectural design, and its extensive archival records and designs reveal the rapid progression of Midwestern industry and public buildings during the first half of the century.