South portico of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry: What's That Building?
There’s a significant change coming to what may be Chicago’s most monumental building, the giant Greek temple in Jackson Park now known as the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
It’s well known among Chicagoans that the mammoth building lined with caryatids and columns and topped by a massive dome is the last remaining large structure from the World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1893 World’s Fair.
We think of the building now as facing north, toward 57th Street and Hyde Park. That’s how you get into the museum, whether you arrive by car, on a bus or on foot. It’s been that way since 1933, when the museum moved into the building.
But this is the reverse of how the building was used at the World’s Fair. At that time, the north entrance we use now was secondary. The grand pillared entrance on the building’s south side was its main entrance, with a majestic view over the broad north pond, part of the system of lagoons that ran through the fairgrounds.
Next year, for the first time in more than a century, that entrance through the south portico will be put to use again.
“It’s momentous,” said Voula Saridakis, the Griffin MSI’s head curator. “Jackson Park is a treasure, and we’ve been wanting for a long time to strengthen our connectivity to it.”
There are two impetuses for reopening those carved brass doors: the mid-June opening of the Obama Presidential Center, less than a quarter of a mile from the MSI, and the museum’s own centennial in 2033.
Last year, the museum announced it received a $10 million grant from the Driehaus Foundation for restoration and reopening of the south portico. And earlier this month, the Chicago Park District announced it has $1.2 million in federal funds for improving walkways, lighting and security on the route from the science museum to the presidential center.
There will be a lot of foot traffic to handle. Saridakis said the science museum’s present visitor count of about 1.2 million to 1.3 million a year is projected to grow to more than 2 million. Making them walk all the way around to the north side of the sprawling building wouldn’t be very hospitable — particularly when there’s a spectacular second entrance on the south side.
The south portico won’t be just a new entrance. The plans also call for a small café just inside the doors — but outside the part visitors have to pay admission. It will have a balcony tucked inside those massive columns, potentially “a nice place to sit with a cup of coffee and look at the lagoon or the Obama” building, Saridakis said. It’s part of the emphasis on connectivity.
When the World’s Columbian Exposition opened May 1, 1893, the Fine Arts structure was part of a magnificent ensemble of buildings, sculptures, lagoons and other works, nearly all meant to be temporary.
The Fine Arts, built for $600,000, or the equivalent of almost $21.5 million today, was architect Charles B. Atwood’s homage to the Parthenon and other temples of ancient Greece. Tall, slender ionic columns support a pediment lined with statues, wreaths and other carved stone ornaments and more columns lined the long arms of the building that stretched east and west.
Facing the lagoon from her pedestal in the middle of the steps was a 16-foot rendering of Minerva, the Roman goddess of the arts, craft and the professions. On either side of her stood solemn lions. Some fairgoers would have arrived at the Fine Arts building on boats that plied the lagoons.
When the fair closed, the building remained home to the early incarnation of the Field Museum from 1894 to 1920. By then, the building was “not aging gracefully,” according to the Field’s website. It’s no wonder: Meant for just a couple years of use, it was now going on 30.
The Field Museum moved to its own Greek temple purpose-built at the south end of Grant Park, and the old Fine Arts building was left unused for almost a decade. Finally, in the late 1920s, Sears Roebuck & Co. chairman Julius Rosenwald led the effort to repurpose the dilapidated old place as a museum of science.
To create the museum and amass collections, Rosenwald said he would put up $3 million, which eventually grew to more than $5 million; that’s like giving $97.4 million today. Rebuilding the old flimsy plaster exterior in limestone, the Park District spent $4 million, or about $77 million in 2026 dollars.
There’s no published explanation for switching the main entrance to the north side of the building, but it’s easy to see why it would be a practical choice. The north side faced the residential neighborhood across a large piece of ground where the pavilions of the individual states had been for the fair, a warren of small buildings that were mostly gone. Parking lots could be put there more easily than on the south side, the site of a lagoon. (The outdoor surface parking lots were put underground and roofed over with a great lawn in the 1990s.)
A Chicago Tribune photo from 1930 shows the ornate old building stripped down to nothing but brick walls and a steel frame for the dome. Rather than build a modern shell, the rehab built back as much of the original detail as possible. That may be because “the building had been so loved and admired” for half a century, Saridakis said.
Those towering caryatids, female figures that support roofs on all sides of the building, were rebuilt and so were columns, carvings and frilly acroteria. But some of the details left off the south portico were the statue of Minerva and her lions.
“They’re missed,” Saridakis said.
Even without those details, the south portico is a majestic sight with all that carved stone, the tall brass doors and a wide plaza — even if it is broken up and in need of repair in places.
It’s not clear exactly how long this part of the museum has been overlooked. WBEZ’s “In the Loop” couldn’t find any record of whether it was used by the Field Museum during its tenure after the World’s Fair. But it’s clear that since the Field Museum moved out in 1921, the old front door has been an afterthought.
That will change next year, and “it’s so exciting,” Saridais said.
Dennis Rodkin is the residential real estate reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business and In the Loop’s “What’s That Building?” contributor. Follow him @Dennis_Rodkin.
K’Von Jackson is the freelance photojournalist for In the Loop’s “What’s That Building?” Follow him @true_chicago.
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