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Gustavus Franklin Swift

1839 births1903 deaths19th-century American businesspeopleAmerican people in rail transportationBiography with signature
Burials at Mount Hope Cemetery (Chicago)Businesspeople from ChicagoBusinesspeople in the meat packing industryNorthwestern University trusteesPeople from Bourne, MassachusettsSouth Omaha, NebraskaUniversity of Chicago peopleUse mdy dates from December 2020
Gustavus Swift enlarged
Gustavus Swift enlarged

Gustavus Franklin Swift, Sr. (June 24, 1839 – March 29, 1903) was an American business executive. He founded a meat-packing empire in the Midwest during the late 19th century, over which he presided until his death. He is credited with the development of the first practical ice-cooled railroad car, which allowed his company to ship dressed meats to all parts of the country and abroad, ushering in the "era of cheap beef." Swift pioneered the use of animal by-products for the manufacture of soap, glue, fertilizer, various types of sundries, and even medical products.Swift donated large sums of money to such institutions as the University of Chicago, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and YMCA. He established Northwestern University's "School of Oratory" in memory of his daughter, Annie May Swift, who died while a student there. When he died in 1903, his company was valued at between US$125 million and $135 million, and had a workforce of more than 21,000. "The House of Swift" slaughtered as many as two million cattle, four million hogs, and two million sheep a year. Three years after his death, the value of the company's capital stock topped $250 million. He and his family are interred in a mausoleum in Mount Hope Cemetery in Chicago.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Gustavus Franklin Swift (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Gustavus Franklin Swift
West 115th Street, Worth Township

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N 41.681099 ° E -87.690804 °
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West 115th Street

West 115th Street
60482 Worth Township
Illinois, United States
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The Dr. Philip Weintraub House is an early modern single-family house in the Hollywood Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Located at 3252 W. Victoria Street, the home was built in 1940 by architect Andrew Nicholas Rebori (1886-1966) and artist Edgar Miller (1899-1993) for Philip Weintraub.The house is built in the International Style with an asymmetric shape, smooth undecorated siding, and flat roofs with a rooftop terrace. Inside there are elements of Art Moderne including rounded edges on walls and the fireplace, recessed cove lighting, built-in cabinets, a glass-block wall in the bathroom, and a round window by the front entrance. Miller designed three art pieces for the interior: a low-relief sculpture of a woman over the fireplace, a recessed decorative tile of a woman on a beach, and a metal door-pull on a built-in hallway cabinet. These objects were still in the house in 2009, when it was declared a Chicago Landmark.The house was chosen as a Chicago Landmark for three reasons. First, it is an important part of the city's history as an example of a middle-class house designed in early pre-World War II modernism. Second, it is important architecture in that it combines elements of International Style and Art Moderne in a pre-World War II house, with artwork by an important Chicago artist. Third, the house represents the innovations in modern design of an important Chicago architect.Rebori designed many other significant Chicago buildings and Rebori collaborated with Miller on others. The Madonna della Strada Chapel at Loyola University and the Fischer Studio Houses are both examples of buildings the two worked on together. This house was the site of a Chicago "Fight or Walk" protest of Chicago Transit Authority rate hikes on April 9, 2005, when the home was the property of Frank Kruesi, then president of the Chicago CTA.