The History of Chicago's "Wigwam" Buildings.

The Eagle Exchange Tavern (later the Sauganash Hotel) is regarded as the first hotel, restaurant, and grocery store in Chicago. Built in 1829 by Mark Beaubien, it was located at Wolf Point, the intersection of the north, south, and the main branches of the Chicago River, at Lake and Market Streets (today Wacker Drive). The addition of the frame building became the Sauganash Hotel in 1831.

1. Wolf Point Tavern opened in December of 1828.
2. Eagle Exchange Tavern opened in 1829 - Sauganash Hotel opened in 1831 
3. The Green Tree Tavern wasn't built until 1833.

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The Sauganash Hotel was named after Billy Caldwell, whose personal history was mostly fabricated.

The Sauganash Hotel was Chicago's first hotel. The log building on the left was Chicago's first drugstore.

The newly formed Incorporated town of Chicago elected its first town trustees in 1833 in the hotel's dining room. The building briefly served as Chicago's first theater, hosting the first Chicago Theatre company in 1837 in the abandoned dining room. 

Unfortunately, the hotel was destroyed by fire on March 4, 1851, and the Wigwam (an Indian word meaning "temporary shelter") was built in its place nine years later.

The Old Site of the Sauganash Hotel / The Wigwam Building.

The next Wigwam building was two stories. It was built in 1860 by Chicago business leaders to attract the 1860 Republican National Convention. (The Whig Party was founded in 1834 and dissolved in 1860.) It was constructed of plain pine boards, and the characteristics of a log cabin and a government building were conserved in some respects. It was built as a temporary structure in just over a month and could accommodate 10–12,000 people. The Antebellum [1] custom was to call a political campaign headquarters a Wigwam. Wigwam is also an Indian word for "temporary shelter."

1860 Republican National Convention in the Wigwam.

The 1860 Republican National Convention was eventful for its nomination of Abraham Lincoln. During the convention, backroom dealing and political scheming played a role in the outcome. Nevertheless, Lincoln, who had stayed in Springfield during the convention, received vehement support and carried the nomination.

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David Berg started producing his hot dogs in 1860 and sold them at the Convention.

Chicago has hosted the most United States presidential nominating conventions; 14 Republican National Conventions and 11 Democratic National Conventions, in addition to one notable Progressive Party assembly. The 1860 Republican National Convention (the second Republican National Convention) was held at the Wigwam.

Illustration of the Wigwam interior during the 1860 nominating convention. The structure could hold 10-12,000 people. Note the second-story gallery and curved ceiling structure to allow for better acoustics.

The 1864 Democratic National Convention was hosted in a different "Wigwam" built for the convention as a semicircular roofed amphitheater. These were the first Chicago visits for each party's national convention. The 1868 Republican National Convention returned to Chicago, but it was located at the Crosby Opera House.

The building was used for political and patriotic meetings during the Civil War. The Wigwam also served as a retail space until its demolition, sometime between 1867 and 1871.

Following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, another "Wigwam" building at Washington (one city block south of Lake) and Market Streets served as the temporary home for the Chicago Board of Trade.

The 1892 Democratic National Convention convened in a temporary "Wigwam" in Lake Park for Grover Cleveland's third nomination.

Today, the corner of Lake Street and Wacker Drive bears the address "191 North Wacker." This address is in the West Loop neighborhood of the Loop community in Chicago. The 516-foot high, 37-story office tower was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and built in 2002.

In 2017, the city rededicated plaques gifted in the early 20th century by the Daughters of the American Revolution to commemorate Lincoln's nomination at the Wigwam and the Sauganash Hotel.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] The antebellum period refers to the years after the War of 1812 (1812-15) and before the Civil War (1861-65). The development of separate northern and southern economies, the westward expansion of the nation, and a spirit of reform marked the era. These issues created an unstable and explosive political environment that eventually led to the Civil War.

Fence Laws of Frontier Illinois.

In the frontier days of farming in Illinois, there was a huge debate amongst the farmers about fencing. Illinois was a closed grazing state so fences were required and those "cowcatchers" on old locomotives weren't just decorative.

John Bull Locomotive with a cowcatcher.

Illinois settlers needed to keep their livestock away from their crops and the railroad tracks. On the prairie, trees were scarce and wood was a precious commodity. Building fencing to contain cattle was an expensive proposition. Split rail fences were expensive, $500 ($12,000 today) per mile. A prairie fire would easily destroy the costly fencing, sending all a farmer’s hard work and money up in smoke. Wire fencing at the time was brittle, not galvanized, causing the wire to rust and easily break. In the early 1840’s, a movement to use these thorny trees as fencing began. Illinois was the first of the prairie states that introduced the Osage orange as a living fence. Young trees and new growth on trees have sharp ½ to 1 inch thorns. Thorns, its dense growth when pruned, and its ability to survive extreme conditions are the reasons this tree came to the prairie.

An example of the Osage Orange or hedge apple tree fencing.

In fact, one of the relatively few requirements for the new "township" system of government enabled by the Illinois Property Line and Fence Laws [1] in the 1848 Illinois Constitution was the requirement that Townships appoint Fence Inspectors. 

By the 1850s there was widespread acceptance of the thorny and dense-growing Osage orange (Maclura pomifera) or "hedge apple." 

A dead hedge fence. Note the trained trunks to keep the growth close to the ground.

Although economic and effective barbed wire had largely taken over by the 1880s, many of the hedge apple fences were used and maintained into the 1940s, Among the 400 parcels totaling over 40,000 acres of agricultural land in Will County that were purchased by the Army in 1940 for the Joliet Arsenal, hedge fences, often allowed to have grown into trees, were everywhere.

Osage hedges on both sides of an old farm road that were neglected and had grown into trees.

Surely some diligent nineteenth-century farmer lost one of his Osage bushes and took the two or three years to train the hinge cut into something that covered the gap in his fence. One of the amazing things that still stand as subtle testimony to life frontier Illinois so long ago.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] Illinois Property Line and Fence Laws. A summary of key Illinois laws relevant to the property line and fence disputes.

Lawful Fence - IL ST CH 765 § 130/2

• Must be 4.5 feet high.
• In good repair.
• Constructed from rails, timber boards, stone, hedges, barb wire, woven wire or whatever the fence viewers of the town or precinct state is appropriate.
• It must be sufficient to prevent cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and other stock from getting on the adjoining lands of another.

Responsibility to Maintain a Division Fence - IL ST CH 765 § 130/3

• A division fence is one separating the land of 2 or more persons.
• Each person must make and maintain a "just portion" of the fence.
• A hedge fence cannot be more than 5 feet high.

Fence Dispute Settlement - IL ST CH 765 § 130/7

• Two official Fence Viewers will define the portion of the fence to be built or maintained by each.
• In counties under township organization, the board of trustees will serve as fence viewers in their respective towns.
• In counties not under township organization the presiding officer of the county board, three fence viewers in each precinct.

Wrongful Tree Trimming Act - IL ST CH 740 § 185/2

• It is a violation to cut or cause to be cut any tree unless you have full legal title.
• Violators of the act will be liable for three times the value of the tree.
• Utility providers have a right to cut any tree that interferes with service.