Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1860 — The Great Building-Raising. [ARTICLE]

The Great Building-Raising.

[From the Chicago Press and Tribune.

For the past week marvel and the woni der of onr citizens and visitors has been the j spectacle of a. solid front of first class business blocks, comprising the entire block on the north side of Lake street, between Clark and La Salle streets, a length of ZWee Aundred and twenty feet, being raised four feet by the almost resistless lifting force of six thousand screws. The-block comprises thirteen first class stores, and a large, double marble structure, the Marine Bank building. Its subdivisions are a five story marble front block of three stores; a four story block of tlfrce stores; a second four story block of three stores, at the corner of Clark street—these all presenting an unbroken front, in the heart cf our city, and filled with occupants. It presents some of the very best retail establishments in tire city, and some of the heaviest stocks of drugs, dry goods, &.c. Its upper etories are full of offices, and contain military rooms, printing establishments, binderies, &.c. &c., and yet, so admirably has the work (been conducted, the ceasetefes daily tide <|>f • pedestrians has not .been impeded, but rath- ’ er incr.ea&ed, from the novelty of the sight, ■and the merchants and others even speak cf 'an improved trade; though they will welcome the completion of tbe work none the 1 less. i Thia absence from annoyance to the r. er- : chants and the public, is due to the skill with which the contractors, have hung the I I : sidewalks to the block iteelf, and carried up the same with the rise of the building. The i block has been raised four feet eight inches, I the required bight, in five days, ending with Friday last, and She masons are new ■ busily putting in the permanent supports, i The entire work will Occupy about four j weeks. Ax estimate from a reliable source makes ' the entire weight thus raised -to be about 35,000 tons. So carefully has it been done I that not a pane of glass has Leon broken nor a crack in masonry appeared. The internal [ order cf the block has prevailed undisturbed ‘The contract was taken not jointly, but so ) carried out, by the several firms of Brown & [ Hollingsworth,dPullman.<fc Moor, and Fly & , Smith and for an aggregate price of $17,000. I The sum will be nearly doubled by the en- [ tire improvements contemplated on the" , block. The process -of raising, as indicated above, is -by the screw, at six thousand of which three inches in diameter, and of “three-eighths thread,"six hundred workmen have been employed, each man in charge cf from eight to ten screws. A complete system of signals was kept in operation, and by these the workmee passed, each through his series,

giving each screw one quarter turn, then re turning to repeat the same. Five days’ la bor saw the immense weight rise through four feet eight inches to where it now stands on temporary supports rapidly being replaced by permanent-foundations. The work, as it stands, is worth going miles to see, and has drawn the admiration of thousands within the week past.