Marquette Building Being Restored – MacNeil’s Four Bronze Panels under scaffolding
By
Here are my two favorite young Chicagoans coming back from a theater performance of “Hamilton”. They stopped and posed below the second panel.
In 2019 
the Marquette Building construction has the four bas relief panels (above the doors) protected under scaffolding while the edifice is under repair. >—–>>
Hermon MacNeil’s first studio home was in the Marquette Building of Chicago in 1895. His wedding reception for him and Carol Brooks was hosted there on Christmas Day eve 1895.
From that same location, his Four Bronze Panels over the front doors have been telling the story of Father Marquette for 124 years. They welcome visitors into the Marquette Building, just as the Native Americans met and welcomed the European explorers to Northwest Territory. The Native Americans who lived in these regions include the Ojibwa, Huron, Ottowa, Illini, Potawatomi, and Menominee. MacNeil placed these tribes on the Marquette Memorial Statue on Douglas Avenue in 1926.
MacNeil carved the tribal names in the Marquette Memorial of 1926. His moccasins are exquisite in detail, looking life-like.
[(These Panels were refurbished to their original bronze luster in 2009.) CLICK HERE]
“Over the doors of the main entrance are panels of bronze, designed and executed by Mr. Herman A. MacNeil, illustrating incidents in the life of Pere Marquette
in his explorations of the Mississippi River and the state of Illinois…The inscriptions below are panels taken from Marquette’s diary.”
Architectural Reviewer, July 1897
Before the remodeling the panels look like this. MacNeil’s bronze panels of 1895.
MacArthur Foundation began restorations in 2001.
Marquette Building at 140 S. Dearborn Ave in Chicago with four MacNeil bronze sculptures above the entry doors
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation began ongoing restoration phases after acquiring the structure in 2001.
These phases include the following:
In 2001, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, its current owners, began a multi-year renovation.[18] The restoration to the exterior proceeded in two phases: reconstructing the cornice and replacing the 17th story windows to match the original windows; and cleaning and restoring the masonry and restoring the remainder of the windows.[8][19] Restoration architect Thomas “Gunny” Harboe directed this work.
The Foundation has invested in multiple restorations.
The Marquette and Joliette faces of MacNeil’s 1899 bronze reliefs at the Marquette building in the Loop resemble those likenesses he placed in his larger statue grouping on Douglas Avenue in 1926.
The Foundation website describes the History of the Panels as follows: “Herman (sic: Hermon) MacNeil was a trained sculptor who worked on sculptures for the 1893 World’s Fair. After commissioning MacNeil for the exterior bronzes, Aldis wrote to Peter Brooks, “McNeil’s [sic] panels are being placed in position. It is greatly to their and his credit that these bas-reliefs have won for him the Roman [Reinhart] Fellowship. The Commission, choosing him as the best of the very young men…The young sculptor was married on Christmas Day, and sailed for Rome on Wednesday, and is, on the whole, the most happy young man I know. He is very grateful to the owners of the Marquette Building.” CLICK HERE
MacNeil modeled Black Pipe after meeting him in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show at the Chicago Worlds Fair.
The fine features of the child contract those of the weathered warriors.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMoXrdAoOT7PRD-QcwjCC96VrRg_aDC7F7aay66=s1600-w1600
