M.A. Donohue & Co. Building at Plymouth Court and Polk Street in January 2007
Printers Row,[1] also known as Printing House Row, is a neighborhood located in the south of the Chicago downtown area known as the Loop. The heart of Printers Row is generally defined by Ida B. Wells Drive on the north, Polk Street on the south, Plymouth Court on the east, and the Chicago River on the west.[2] This neighborhood overlaps significantly with the officially designated landmark Printing House Row District to the north of Ida B Wells Drive and the South Loop Printing House District to the south of the Drive. The neighborhood includes Dearborn Station, which is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Many of the buildings in this area were used by printing and publishing businesses. Today, the buildings have mainly been converted into residential lofts with the last remaining printer, Palmer Printing, Inc., near the corner of Clark and Polk streets, selling to residential developers in early 2018.
Dupli Group, a family owned printer since after the Second World War, continues to operate a print shop in Printer's Row, having recently occupied an industrial loft space in the neighborhood.
Buildings
Buildings in the neighborhood include the M.A. Donohue & Co. Building at Plymouth Court and Polk Street, and the red brick and polychromatic tile Franklin Building. It features painted tile depictions of printing tradesmen such as a bookbinder and typesetter as well as a painted tile mural of the "first impression" of the Gutenberg Bible.
The area is also a student-oriented center with the University Center of Chicago (UCC), housing over 3,000 college students in dorm and apartment style units, as well as Dwight Lofts and 731 South Plymouth Court, two student housing buildings owned by Columbia College Chicago. Colleges in the area include Roosevelt University, Columbia College, Robert Morris University, UIC Law School, and the Loop campus of DePaul University.
