Shortly after being named to Preservation Chicago's annual list of the city's "most endangered" buildings, the Warehousethe club at 206 S. Jefferson St. that has been often called the "birthplace" of house musicis on its way to becoming an official Chicago landmark, WTTW reported.
On April 13, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks unanimously approved preliminary landmark status for the Warehouse.
The Warehouse opened in 1977, and it was conceived as Chicago's answer to New York City's club scene that included Limelight, Studio 54 and other clubs. Owner Robert Williams recruited DJ Frankie Knuckles to move from the Big Apple to Chicago. Blending elements of disco, soul, jazz, funk and gospel, and adding beats, Knuckles invented what came to be known as house musica reference to the Warehouse.
The building closed in 1982. However, it originally opened in 1906, when a two-story brick factory building was erected for owner J.J. Gallery, according to Preservation Chicago. Over the following decades, 206 S. Jefferson St. served industrial purposes until Williams purchased the building in 1975.
Preservation Chicago's other endangered buildings for 2023 include Century & Consumers buildings, 202 and 220 S. State St.; terra-cotta buildings throughout Chicago; the Jeffery Theater Building & Spencer Arms Hotel, 7054 S. Jeffery Blvd./952 E. 71st St.; Taft Hall at the University of Illinois Chicago, 826 S. Halsted St.; the Werner Brothers Storage Building, 7613 N. Paulina St.; and Southwest Side industrial buildings (Continental Can Company Building, Damen Silos and Fisk Power Station).
Andrew Davis