![]() That was one of the unintended consequences of the big black behemoth which rose on Chicago's riverfront Wacker Drive between 19. The tower still stands much of the rest of the complex has since been torn down. For over seventy years, it was the home office of the Sears Roebuck Company, famous for its first automatic telephone switchboard, the first long distance operator switchboard, its pneumatic tube system, drinking fountains, escalator (1920), a radio station (WLS), Sears' first retail outlet (1926), the home office of Sears own Allstate Insurance, and its own parking garage. ![]() Yet, if there was a truly "historic" Sears tower this one is it. As Sears Towers go, it wasn't much of a tower, only 250 feet tall, fifteen floors, the whole complex barely covering sixteen acres. No, the original Sears tower opened in 1906 in what was then the western outskirts of the city in the suburb of North Lawndale, designed by architect, George C. The Pisans in Italy have nothing to worry about. How about we call it the "Leaning Tower of Chicago Pizza" (it does, in fact lean four inches toward the West due to its asymmetrical design configuration). As for the naming rights to the tallest building in the western hemisphere next to New York City's new "Freedom Town" (don't you like the way I put that?) I'd have to stand with the Sears folks, though again there's something of a "who cares?" factor as well. ![]() ![]() While we were in Chicago this spring, I tried aning the tower and the pizzas. You want to start an argument in Chicago? Just get into a debate with a native as to whether the "historic" 108-story Sears Tower should have been renamed after a financial conglomerate bearing the name "Willis." That's right up there with the argument as to whether saucy Chicago deep-dish pizza is better than the limpy flat stuff from New York. ![]() Chicago's Willis (Sears) Tower stands head and shoulders above the rest. ![]()
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