The Early Years
In its first forty years, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law experienced several changes in name, ownership, and location. Established in 1859, the Law School was originally a department of the now-defunct University of Chicago (not to be confused with the present-day institution of the same name). While this parent institution was struggling under mounting financial difficulties, Northwestern University developed an interest in legal education. In 1873, the two universities joined together in dual ownership of the Law School. Now called the Union College of Law, this partnership lasted until 1886, when the University of Chicago finally closed due to unrelenting financial strain. Now solely operated by Northwestern, the Union College of Law officially became Northwestern University Law School in 1891.
Image: Photograph of the Tremont House, ca. 1900.
From the Pritzker Legal Research Center Special Collections, Chicago, IL.
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This building was acquired by Northwestern University in 1901; renamed the Northwestern University Building, it housed professional schools (including the Law School) from 1902 to 1926.
The Locations of the Law School
During this tumultuous period, the Law School occupied a series of Chicago locations. It was listed at eight different downtown addresses between 1859 and 1926, most of them clustered near the land currently occupied by Millennium Park. Intentionally situated close to the city’s major courthouse, the law school rented space in city buildings instead of residing in university-owned buildings.
Image: A digitally constructed map of the Law School’s early locations.
Base map (modified): Map of the business center of the city of Chicago in 1905, Chicago Directory Company ca. 1905, Wikimedia Commons (public domain), last modified July 22, 2021, online.
The Northwestern University Building
In 1901, Northwestern University acquired the Tremont House, once a high-profile Chicago hotel located at Lake and Dearborn Streets. Renamed the Northwestern University Building in 1902, it housed the Schools of Law, Pharmacy, and Dentistry for the next two decades.
The Law School‘s classrooms, practice courtrooms, offices, and assembly room occupied the third floor of this building. These rooms, which served as models for future iterations of Law School spaces, were typically dedicated to renowned faculty, administrators, and alumni. Booth, Hurd, Hoyne, and Lowden Halls existed in the Northwestern University Building, and new iterations can be found in today’s Law School buildings.
Image: Photograph of the entrance to the Northwestern University Building.
From Northwestern University Bulletin of the School of Law, Series II, Number 1, May 1903.
Image: Photograph of Lowden Assembly Room, Northwestern University Building.
From Northwestern University Bulletin of the School of Law, Series I, Number 3, November 1902.
A Vision for the Future
Although the Northwestern University Building provided the Law School with the most spacious quarters in its history, the faculty and trustees soon realized that it still needed a larger, more contemporary space to realize its full potential. In 1915, law professor and trustee Nathan MacChesney proposed a plan for the creation of a consolidated campus for Northwestern’s professional schools in Chicago. For MacChesney and other prominent university figures, the motivations for a new building were practical: larger space would allow the curriculum to expand into emerging and specialized legal fields, and a new building could better protect its students and library collections from fires, a constant threat for many older buildings during this era.
Gallery: Postcard (front and back), from the Northwestern University Law School (Union College of Law) $1,500,000 Endowment and Building Fund 1919-1920, “The Elbert H. Gary Library of Law Must Be Housed in a Fireproof Building.” ca. 1919. From the Nathan MacChesney Papers, courtesy Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, IL.
The ideological motivation was just as strong. MacChesney described his vision for this campus to radically transform both the university and the city itself:
“The realization of the plan would be the greatest event in the life of the University, and would mean to education in Chicago, what the erection of the World’s Fair meant to artistic and architectural Chicago twenty-five years earlier. The plan would appeal to the imagination of public and alumni alike, and would be an educational, financial and civic asset of inestimable value.”
Image: Cover page of an Alumni News issue featuring a portrait of Nathan MacChesney and his plans for the McKinlock Campus. Northwestern University Alumni News, vol. 2, no. 7, May 1923, front cover.