On a cold March evening about 1950, my dad was driving me downtown on Lakeshore Drive when he said “look! There it is!”
He was pointing the iconic Palmolive Beacon. Depending on how old you are and actually had three different names. When it was built in 1929 it was named the Lindbergh Beacon or Lindbergh light named for the aviator Charles Lindbergh was added to the building in 1930. It rotated a full 360 degrees and was initially intended to help guide airplanes safely to Midway Airport. Then a later, it was more commonly known as the Palmolive Beacon . In 1965 it was renamed the Playboy beacon and 919 N. Michigan was renamed the Playboy Building. when Playboy Enterprises purchased the leasehold of the building. It was home to the editorial and business offices of Playboy magazine from that time until 1989 when it was then renamed the 919 N. Michigan building.
The beacon arrived in Chicago on August 12, 1929 and was a gift to Chicago by the I wealthy inventor and president of his Sperry gyroscope company, Elmer A Sperry.
The Palmolive Beacon was dedicated on August 27, 1929 at 9 PM when President Herbert Hoover pushed a button in the White House to light the beacon for the first time.
A little-known fact is that the beacon was actually first planned to be installed on the top of the Morrison Hotel and was intended to compete with a stationary beam in the LaSalle/Wacker building.
Regardless which name you remember, it was 603 feet above the street well above the 37th floor of the building at 919 North Michigan Ave. It was a 60 inch diameter beacon that could be seen for between 300 and 500 miles, if it wasn’t for the curvature of the earth. It emitted 2-3 billion candlepower and was reported to have weighed more than 2000 tons while sitting on top of a huge steel mast.
The Lindbergh Beacon caretaker, circa 1930, rode in the world’s smallest elevator to the top of the Palmolive Building each day to service the beacon. He carried a canister containing the nights supply of carbons and would wear aviator goggles and warm boots for cold weather
According to the Chicago tribune, the beacon actually consisted of two beams – one, a rotating two-billion candle power lamp, and the other, a fixed eleven-hundred million candle power light that points directly to the municipal airport (Midway).
The 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago was designed by Holabird & Root, with construction completed in 1929. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2000 and it was added to the federal National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The building was the headquarters to the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Corporation founded in 1806. In 1873, Colgate actually sold toothpaste in jars. It is still a major seller of household products.
The beacon was turned off in 1942 for the war, possibly thinking that it could be an advantage to the enemy should they attempt to attack Chicago.
The beacon ceased operation in 1981 when the original beacon was turned off and donated to the Experimental Aircraft Association museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Later the original Palmolive Beacon was replaced by a refurbished World War II beacon which still operates on special occasions today.
Following numerous complaints from nearby buildings and Palmolive Building’s conversion to condominiums in the late 2000s, the beacon was modified to only rotate back and forth, always pointing towards the waterfront, so to avoid shining light into other buildings.
Elmer Ambrose Sperry who donated the beacon, was born in Cortland, New York on October 12, 1860, and became an electrical engineer entrepreneur, who founded 8 companies and earned more than 350 patents, most notably for the gyroscopic compass. In 1908, he was issued a patent for the first workable gyrocompass system. The unit was adopted by the US Navy in 1911 and played a major role in World War I. In the following decades, his Sperry compass was adopted by steamships such as the Queen Mary, airplanes and the warships of World War II. He also invented a wide range of devices, including electric trolley cars, high-intensity searchlights, dynamos and railroad safety devices. In 1930, the US Navy named the USS Sperry in his honor.
Sadly Elmer Ambrose Sperry died of a heart attack in Brooklyn New York on June 16, 1930 at age 69. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
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