Delivery Systems
Before UPS (United Parcel Service), FedEx, or Express Mail, department stores in cities
around the country used to bring their goods to your door via their own in-house delivery system. Before the internal combustion engine provided power to trucks, deliveries were made by horse and wagon, and the Mandel Brothers Warehouse Building is a reminder of that long ago era.
The building was designed in 1903, by one of Chicago's premiere architectural firms,
Holabird and Roche. Why would a firm of such renown design a storage facility and barn? Because H&R had been hired to build a large, new store for the Mandels in the city's downtown commercial district, and as a result of that relationship, we have one very handsome looking horse/delivery barn. Today the former warehouse building serves as home for several condominium residents.
Building/Briar Street Theatre, 3133 N. Halsted Street, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Only a few blocks south of the Mandel Building is another survivor of the early 20th
century retail trade, the Marshall Field & Co. Stable and Delivery Building. Built in 1901, the Field facility was constructed for the same purpose as the Mandel building; a local district warehouse that would make it easier to deliver the store's goods to their north side clientèle. Now the home of the Briar Street Theatre, the front facade no longer has the large, arched door that allowed a horse and wagon to pass through, but the rest of the exterior has virtually remained unchanged since the building was built.
Marshall Field actually encouraged the Mandel brothers to locate their store on
State Street in an effort to turn the avenue into the Midwest's retail capital. I have to wonder if the Mandel brothers also followed Field's lead in locating their warehouse only a few blocks from Field's delivery building. That old structure bears no hallmarks of its former life, but the Mandel name still sits proudly above the high-arched door opening built for horses and wagons loaded with goodies to pass under.
Posted by designslinger at 6/10/2009 2:15 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: retailers Marshall Field's Mandel Brothers 19th century delivery services
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: retailers Marshall Field's Mandel Brothers 19th century delivery services
designslinger to the rescue! I just spent half an hour searching the internet wondering about the Mandel Brothers building (and only got real estate listings) before I found your article. Mystery solved. Phew.
It's nice to know we can help out now and then.