9 W. Cass Street Designated As A Local Historic Landmark

Press release from the City of Joliet:

At the August 4, 2020 City Council Meeting this week, the City designated 9 W. Cass Street as a local historic landmark. The three-story white, terra cotta building is a well-preserved example of a late Beaux Arts style/Sullivanesque style commercial building.

The building features decorative terra cotta panels of garland and a decorative terra cotta string course as well as other classical motifs of the Beaux Arts style. Sullivanesque influences include the building’s fenestration and tripartite windows. There is only one other building of this genre in downtown Joliet, which is the Crystal Square Building at 79-81 North Chicago Street. The building is historically significant for its association with Jackson Jarvis Cohen’s White Store, who was the founder of the White Store. The building changed hands several times over the last century; however, the building façade is remarkably unchanged since the structure was built.

In addition to its architectural significance, the building is of significant value as part of the economic history of Joliet as well as for its association with Jackson Jarvis Cohen’s White Store. Cohen founded the dry goods White Store further east on Cass Street in 1918/1919. Due to the popularity of his business, Cohen began to look for a larger space for his business in 1929. He found such space at 9 West Cass Street.

The construction of the building exemplifies the transition from small, “Mom and Pop” dry-good retail stores to large, multi-story department stores as well as from an agriculture-based society where people grew or made their daily necessities to a consumer-based society where people bought their daily necessities. The chosen architectural style and materials for the construction of the building shows the forethought that went into the marketing and advertising of the White Store. Upon completion of his new store at 9 W. Cass Street in 1929/1930, the large, elegant, white building certainly conveyed that the White Store was the premier purveyor of dry goods in the greater Joliet area.

By 1937, the White Store had outgrown the space at 9 W. Cass Street, and the business moved around the corner to the building at 235 North Chicago Street (which was the building most people remember as the White Store.) The building has changed hands several times over the last century and has been mostly vacant for the last 10 years; however, the building façade is remarkably unchanged since the structure was built. The name “White Store” is inlaid in terrazzo at both of the building’s main, recessed entrances.

A local historic landmark is a house, office building, factory, bridge, or other structure deemed by the City to have significant value as part of the historical, cultural, architectural, social, and /or ethnic heritage of the community, state, or nation and thus worthy of protection. The exterior of a landmarked structure is protected from insensitive changes as well as future demolition. The Joliet Historic Preservation Commission reviews any proposed improvements, construction, or alterations to the exterior of a local historic landmark, or proposed demolition. There are 129 local historic landmarks in the City of Joliet. Click here to view these landmarks. https://www.joliet.gov/government/boards-commissions/joliet-historic-preservation-commission/local-historic-landmarks/local-landmarks

This press release was produced by the City of Joliet. The views expressed here are the author’s own.