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GAYLORD BUILDING HISTORY
Construction of
the Illinois and Michigan Canal began on the 4th of July, 1836.
Little headway was made during the first two years, however. The
major problem was a lack of supplies and manpower, most of which had
to be brought from the East Coast. Lockport had no building large
enough to accommodate the steady stream of materials coming into
Lockport so they decided to erect a stone warehouse. Some people
were upset over the use of state funds to build the warehouse, but
the building has certainly withstood the test of time.
The foundation for the original stone building was dug in May 1838,
and measured 6’ x 32’. Under the supervision of two brothers,
Erastus and William Newton, contractors on the I&M Canal, the
building had been completed and ready for use by September of that
year. Total costs for the building came to $4,014. 29.
Over the next ten years, the building served as a warehouse for the
canal’s construction. Stored items included provisions, shovels,
picks, wheelbarrows, lumber, ropes, iron and steel for making tools
and machinery, chains, cordage, cranes, black powder and staple
provisions for winter sustenance of the workmen.
When the canal was finally completed in 1848 the Canal Board of
Trustees had no need for the building. After briefly renting it to
the firm of Norton and Blackstone, which made thorough repairs on
the building, it was sold in September 1848 for $4,000 to the firm
of Townsend & Martin, a partnership of Jane & Daniel Townsend and
George B. Martin. The firm continued to utilize the building as a
warehouse, and erected grain elevators in 1851. In November 1853,
Martin acquired full ownership. He built a three-story, Italianate
stone addition on the east side of the original warehouse in 1859.
Martin utilized the newer addition as a general store and the
original structure for his grain business until 1878 when he went
bankrupt.
Prominent local merchant George Gaylord purchase the building in
1878. Gaylord moved his dry goods and grain business to the site.
He made no significant structural changes to the building except
possibly a partial enclosure of the Greek Revival porch fronting the
canal, and the addition of a small frame structure on the north end
of the dry goods store. Gaylord died in 1883 at the age of 63.
Over the next century the building’s function changed several
times. Norton & Company bought the building from Gaylord’s estate
in 1886 for $7,500, and again used it as a warehouse. In 1890,
Barrows Lock Company acquired the building and housed machine shops,
a brass foundry, a carpentry shop, and storerooms. The Will County
printing Company had a specialty print shop in 1945. From 1948
until the early 1980s the Hyland Plumbing Supply Company occupied
the building.
In 1983 George Gaylord’s grandson, Gaylord Donnelley, retired
chairman of Chicago’s R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., formed a private
development company to rehabilitate the structure. The Gaylord
Lockport Company, named for Donnelley’s grandfather, spent four
years and $2.8 million returning the derelict building to its former
beauty and adapting it to modern-day use.
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