June 23, 1927 – The Material Services
Corporation buys two parcels of property along the North Branch of the Chicago
River, just north of Chicago Avenue and west of Halsted Street, a deal costing
$200,000. The east property is purchased
from the widow of Charles M. Hewitt, who, before he died, was the president of a railroad supply
company. The western section of the
property is purchased from the Parker-Washington Company of St. Louis. Together the two tracts hold 670 feet of
frontage on the river and 790 feet along the Chicago and North Western railroad
right-of-way. The property is today the
location of Prairie Services Yard #32. Chicagoan Henry Crown began Material
Services in 1919 with a borrowed $10,000.
By 1959 the company had a controlling interest in General Dynamics and
was worth 100 million dollars. He was
commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers during World
War II and was always a well-prepared businessman. “When the Colonel gets into a deal,” one real
estate executive said of him, “he knows the size of your underwear.” [New
York Times, August 16, 1990]
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