Location: 2nd row just north of McCabe.
Installed: 2018
By the 1920’s DePaul had grown enough that the board of trustees and DePaul’s president, Rev. Thomas Levan, C.M., decided to expand to the downtown Loop area of Chicago. They thought that by establishing a campus downtown and offering classes at night, more working people would have access to higher education. Initially, DePaul leased a building at 84 E. Randolph, mainly to test the market in the Loop. Demand for classes was high, so DePaul entered serious planning to acquire a building, with the university as the only tenant.
The 64 E. Lake Building served a great need. Built for DePaul in 1928, it was owned by the DePaul Educational Aid Society and rented to the university. The 64 E. Lake building was sold in the 1960s after DePaul’s academic divisions moved into the permanent, university-owned quarters of the Frank J. Lewis Center on Jackson and Wabash. Architects: Vitzhum & Burns.
64 E. Lake had had seventeen floors, and every inch was used. Pretty much all of DePaul’s colleges and schools at that time had a presence in the building, including Law, Liberal Arts, Music, Commerce, Business, and Secretarial. The presence of this Loop building made DePaul a two-campus university.
Historical yearbook photos were either used on the pillar itself or led to the creation of the mural composition. The photos include students goofing about on the roof, at the main entrance and studying in the library, as well as picture of the front of the building.
