75 East Wacker Drive

 

75 East Wacker Drive. The Mather Tower. Gothic terracotta squeezed between two modern glass and metal facades of London House at 85 East Wacker and Wyndham Grand at 71 East Wacker.

Mather Tower is the most slender skyscraper in Chicago, it measures only 65 by 100 feet at foundation. Back in the day it used to be the tallest building in Chicago. Not yet squeezed by its neighbors it stood proudly alone and it used to be the most photographed building in Chicago back in the 1930s.

Alfonzo Clark Mather. The man who built the tower. He lived his life and he is remembered by the fact that he was kind to the animals and he became rich because of that.

He designed and built railroad cars to transport livestock in humane conditions. In 1883 American Humane Society even awarded him a medal for the humane treatment of animals. He leased his stock cars to railroads in thousands and became a millionaire doing just that.

And he built a tower to house his company. The tower which stands to this day.

The life well lived.