Soldiers Home

The Chicago Soldiers Home three years after it was completed.

This tinted lithograph, heightened with hand color, shows a near-contemporary view of the Soldier’s Home; founded in 1863 at 35th and Cottage on Chicago’s South Side. It still stands today and was designated landmark status in 1996. From the city’s website;

“Chicago’s last surviving building with a direct association to the Civil War, Soldiers’ Home was constructed at the edge of the Camp Douglas prison camp through the efforts of a women’s group. During the war, it was a hospital for convalescent soldiers; following the war, it served as a home for disabled Union Army veterans. The building’s earliest sections were designed in an Italianate style by William W. Byington, the architect of the Old Chicago Water Tower. The structure has had several additions since then, most of them surrounding a common light well.”

The print was published in Chicago in 1866 by Jevne & Almini for their portfolio “Chicago Illustrated.”

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