Northwestern Terra Cotta Collection

Skilled craftsman at the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company factory sculpt shell-shaped acroteria; Chicago, 1914.

Collection of the National Building Museum

At the beginning of the 20th century, architectural terra cotta was firmly established as America’s premier material for detailing commercial structures, especially the new, steel-framed skyscrapers then rising in Chicago and New York. After the devastating Chicago fire of 1871, the fireproof qualities of this ancient, baked-clay form propelled its acceptance as a less expensive and lightweight alternative to stone. Terra cotta’s popularity peaked in the 1920s, before being eclipsed by modernist curtain walls of glass, exposed steel, and concrete.

One of the nation’s pioneering manufacturers was the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company (1877–1956), headquartered in Chicago. To direct both production and installation, the studio’s draftsmen transformed architectural blueprints into comprehensive “shop drawings” that identified exactly where and how each puzzle-like piece would be secured to its supporting structure. Favored by such international architectural luminaries as Louis H. Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and Albert Kahn, the company ultimately contributed to thousands of buildings across the country in a wide array of styles.

In 1982, the Museum received an unprecedented gift of 50,000 drawings created by the firm from 1900–54. The collection remains one of the largest and most valuable of its kind.

This shop drawing details the mythically inspired griffin which crown Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall designed by Palmer & Hornbostel. Ink-on-linen shop drawing, 1908.

Collection of the National Building Museum

Northwestern Terra Cotta Company employee spraying protective glazes and clay coatings (called slips) on to a terra cotta sculpture before firing; Chicago, 1914.

Collection of the National Building Museum