Background
William Lebaron Jenney was born in 1832 at Fairhaven, a town near New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of William Proctor, a prosperous owner of a fleet of whaling ships, and Eliza Le Baron (Gibbs) Jenney.
home insurance building, Chicago erected on the southeast comer of La Salle and Adams Streets. In this eleven story building completed in 1885, sometimes called “the true father of the skyscraper" Major Jenney introduced the nucleus of iron skeleton frame construction.
Grace Episcopal Church in Chicago
William Lebaron Jenney was born in 1832 at Fairhaven, a town near New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of William Proctor, a prosperous owner of a fleet of whaling ships, and Eliza Le Baron (Gibbs) Jenney.
Mr. Jenney received a public school education, and after a course in Engineering at the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, Massachusetts, went to Europe to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and in 1856 was awarded his diploma. Two years later the young man returned to France for additional study in both art and architecture, and remained abroad until shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War in his own country.
In May of 1866 he resigned from the army and two years later opened an architectural office in Chicago, but there was little work, and he subsequently organized the firm of Jenney, Schermerhorn & Bogart. It was a few years later, following the great fire of 1871, that Mr. Jenney became one of Chicago’s leading architects, active in reconstruction work and in designing new buildings to replace those destroyed. One that attracted the most attention was the Home Insurance Building erected on the southeast comer of La Salle and Adams Streets. In this eleven story building completed in 1885, sometimes called “the true father of the skyscraper". Major Jenney introduced the nucleus of iron skeleton frame construction, to which a few years later William Holabird designed further innovations in his Tacoma Building in Chicago.
Of the large number of office and commercial buildings planned in the Jenney office, the Portland Block at Dearborn and Washington Streets was the first to be erected subsequent to the fire, followed during the eighties and nineties by important buildings of that time, including the Fort Dearborn Building, 16 stories; Trade Building, 14 stories; Leiter Building, 1888; the 16-story Manhattan Building, built in 1891; the Mason Building; New York Life Insurance Building, 14 stories,1891; and the Chicago National Bank Building. The Y. M. C. A. Building on La Salle was a later work. In addition Major Jenney (with his partners) designed the Siegel-Cooper store and the Grace Episcopal Church in Chicago, the Horticultural Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition, and in Milwaukee the 12-story Herman Office Building.
In 1891 he took William H. Mundie, a former draftsman in his office, into partnership and continued that association until 1903. During that period other young architects who later distinguished themselves in the profession, re-ceived their training in the Jenney & Mundie office. At the age of seventy-three Major Jenney retired, and left for a visit in California.
Before his passing in 1907, Jenney would complete numerous commercial skyscrapers and mentor protégés including Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, William Mundie, William Holabird and Martin Roche. Although the Home Insurance Building was demolished in 1931, many of Jenney’s buildings—including downtown Chicago’s Manhattan Building —still stand, though they’re dwarfed by contemporary high-rises. Still, without William Le Baron Jenney’s early innovations, Chicago’s architectural legacy would not be the same.
At the age of 73, Jenney retired due to poor health. He left unfinished his last project, an Illinois memorial on the battlefield of Vicksburg. He died two years later, on June 15, 1907, while visiting Los Angeles, California.
Jenney designed the Home Insurance Company Building, Chicago (1884–85; enlarged 1891; demolished 1931), generally considered to be the world’s first tall building supported by an internal frame, or skeleton, of iron and steel rather than by load-bearing walls and the first to incorporate steel as a structural material.
In Jenney’s design for the Leiter Building, Chicago, he made a tentative approach to skeleton construction, and the facade was prophetic of the glass curtain wall that became common in the 20th century. Among his other buildings in Chicago are the Manhattan Building (1889–90), said to be the first 16-story structure in the world and the first in which wind bracing was a principal aspect of the design; the Ludington Building (1891); the Fair Store (1891–92; later remodelled as the Loop store of Montgomery Ward); and the second Leiter Building (1889–90), which became Sears, Roebuck and Co.’s Loop store.
Jenney's mixed emphasis on engineering and architecture later led to a debate among historians about whether he should be considered primarily an engineer or an architect. Although his buildings are seldom considered to be aesthetically pleasing, Jenney possessed a unique combination of engineering and architectural abilities that provided a foundation for the development of the modern skyscraper and a new emphasis on functionalism in design.
Throughout his career he was active as a member, officer, and Fellow of the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In recognition of his contributions to the industry, he was elected as a delegate to the International Congress of Architects in Madrid, Spain, in 1901.
Quotes from others about the person
In an article in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Theodore Turak notes: "Jenney was given training in engineering and architecture at the same time. One finds, therefore, the gradual dissolution of the academic division of the building art into architecture and construction. Jenney was to absorb a system which treated structure and design as interrelated."
In a letter to Condit, written April 13, 1949, Jensen commented on Jenney: "While he felt he was contributing to the making of new architectural forms, that was not his motive. His main purpose was the development of more efficient structural features. My personal opinion is that while he was fully conscious that his ideas and buildings were developing new forms, his main purpose was to create structural features which increased effective floor areas and made it possible to secure more daylight within buildings."
On May 8, 1867, Jenney and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Hannah Cobb, from Cleveland, Ohio were married. They had two children named Max and Francis.
1802–1881
1804–1880
1848–1898 (m. 1867)
1827 – unknown
1835–1895
1839–1914
1842–1918
1845–1847
1849–1921
In 1891 William Lebaron Jenney took William H. Mundie, a former draftsman in his office, into partnership and continued that association until 1903.
