There’s a warm nostalgic spot in Chicago’s brick, concrete and glass heart for those big vintage outdoor signs that were once plentiful in this town, especially the signage that told us the time and temperature.
It’s a shame that signs like these have been vanishing from the city’s urban landscape since the 1990s — like the large, red-lipped Magikist carpet cleaning company signs that used to set roadside along the Dan Ryan, Eisenhower and Kennedy expressways.
They exist in our memories, at least.
But we still have the old Bell Federal Savings weather sign that’s stood sentinel at the northwest corner of the Rector Building, 79 W. Monroe St., since the 1950s.
It’s a pretty sweet little piece of work that goes above and beyond providing the time and temperature. The sign also has a lighted, acrylic bell that changes color to alert passersby of coming weather conditions — invaluable back in the days before cellphones and smartwatches gave us this information at a glance.
The Bell Federal sign hasn’t worked for years. But that’s now changing as the device undergoes a renovation aimed at making it look and function as it did when it was new.
“It’s an icon for the city,” said Gary Stoltz, principal and chief design and development officer for R2 Companies, which is redeveloping the Rector Building. “Everybody who’s spent time in the Loop, walking through the Loop, recognizes the building by the bell.”
Were it not for the weather bell — and maybe the first floor Walgreens store — the Rector Building would probably go unnoticed by most people.
Built in 1905 for businessman and restaurateur Charles Rector and deigned by architect Jarvis Hunt, the 14-story brick skyscraper blends into the background, thanks to tacked-on midcentury modernizations on the first and second floor exterior and the loss of an ornate cornice.
“I was on a panel at the Chicago Architecture Center [and a presenter was] looking at buildings that they considered to be inefficient, and not as potential future redevelopments or renovations, but as potential future teardowns,” Stoltz said. “And so he’s presenting this map and our building is on the map.”
The Rector was a better-looking building in its early years. And its nice details still exist — if you’re patient enough to look — such as the terra cotta ornament near the building’s top, and the way the structure’s window bays all arch at the 10th floor.
By the 1920s, the Rector was home to the Chicago Trust Co., which added a Holabird & Roche-designed south addition to the building in 1923.
Then in 1951, Bell Savings & Loan took over the building. The company, founded in 1925 by Illinois Bell Telephone Co. employees, put the lighted weather bell on the building and even came up with a jingle for it:
When Weather Bell is emerald green
No change in temperature is foreseen
When Weather Bell is glowing red
Warmer weather is ahead
When Weather Bell is gleaming gold
A temperature drop is foretold
When Weather Bell is in agitation
Prepare yourself for precipitation
Bell Savings was acquired by LaSalle Bank in 1997. In 2001, LaSalle was absorbed by Bank of America.
R2 and Luxembourg’s Lagfin S.C.A. are handling the $64 million residential conversion of the Rector building.
The project, which is part of City Hall’s LaSalle Corridor Revitalization plan, is being helped along by $28 million in tax increment financing funds from the city.
The building was also named a Chicago landmark last year. But the designation doesn’t require the developers to restore the long-lost cornice. Stoltz said design work on the Rector’s rehab was already in progress when the city moved to landmark the building.
“Our costs were locked,” he said. “While it would be amazing to have restored some of the characteristics of the building that were there, like, for example some of the marble on the first floor, … economically [it would’ve been] very challenging.”
The city’s landmark designation didn’t require restoration of the weather bell — but the state’s historic preservation office did.
Stoltz said the project includes upgrading the bell’s lighting, installing controls that can better anticipate the weather, then recladding the whole thing over the next few weeks.
“When it was originally functioning, it was actually manually controlled in the basement,” Stoltz said. “So it wasn’t always accurate and that was, in a way, kind of part of its charm.”
The sign’s digital clock will be rehabbed as well. And the bell’s name will change to reflect the building’s new moniker: The Bellwether Residences.
Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller said he is pleased to see the weather bell being put back into action.
“We are excited to see it relit and coming back,” Miller said. “It was a unique feature, and people really depended on it.”