Sosman and Landis built their main studio at 236 and 237 S. Clinton Street. The street numbers later changed to 417 and 419 S. Clinton Street, yet the studio did not change locations. The change was due to the renumbering of Chicago streets, also known as the Brennan System.
“The Encyclopedia of Chicago” explains this street name change at the turn of the twentieth century. The publication specifically describes the history prior to the 1901 Brennan System:
“The street names of Chicago offer a rich record of the city’s spatial and social development. In 1830, southern Illinois mapmaker James Thompson created Chicago’s first official map. Commissioned by the federal government to bring order to the city, Thompson platted the small downtown area bounded by Kinzie, Jefferson, Washington, and Dearborn streets. Departing from the tradition of naming streets for their destination, Thompson initiated the enduring practice of naming streets after figures of national and local significance.
“In the decades that followed, explosive urban growth, annexation, and the popular political favor of honorary street naming resulted in multiple streets of the same name and streets known by several different names. In 1901, building superintendent Edward P. Brennan confronted the confused state of affairs. He suggested that Chicago be ordered as a large grid with a uniform street numbering system, and proposed State and Madison Streets as the city’s primary north-south and east-west axes. In 1908, the “Brennan” system was officially adopted by the city council and became the basis of modern Chicago’s street naming system.
“Over the next decades, Brennan’s system incorporated not only the principle of having street address numbers register distance and direction, but also the ideas that all portions of the same street should go by a uniform name and that north-south streets should be named alphabetically as one moved west from the Chicago/Indiana border. Led by Brennan and Howard C. Brodman, superintendent of the city’s Department of Maps and Plats, the city council and business community continued through the 1930s to replace duplicated street names in order to simplify navigation and economize postal service and merchandise delivery. Of the more than a thousand streets within Chicago’s city limits today, the greatest number—more than 170—bear the names of real-estate developers. English towns and Chicago’s former mayors and aldermen have provided the next most popular sources of names.” The street numbering system revision was completed in 1909.
A business address really does matter when it becomes part of a firm’s identity. Sosman & Landis were at their main studio for over three decades, becoming a landmark on Clinton Street. When the company dissolved, three things happened: the liquidation of company assets, a new lease in the old studio space and the purchase of the “Sosman & Landis” name. For a while, the new address became home to Chicago Studios. This caused a problem for Thomas G. Moses and Fred Megan, especially after they purchased the Sosman & Landis name. You see, Chicago Studios began marketing itself as the new owners of Sosman & Landis. They used the space, but had not retained the Sosman & Landis staff or designs.
The problem became a significant one, forcing Moses to send out letters to many previous clients. In 2010 I discovered a letter during the evaluation of the Scottish Rite scenery collection in Salina, Kansas.
A Nov. 13, 1923, letter from Sosman & Landis to the Salina Scottish Rite stated:
Dear Sir,
It has recently been brought to our attention that a certain studio is advertising out old customers that they have brought the Sosman & Landis Company and are now operating same, combining it with their original company. We wish to assure you that this is not a fact and that our original organization in intact, but our studio has been moved to new and better quarters. Mr. Thomas G. Moses, our Art Director would like the opportunity of meeting with your scene committee to submit our designs and specifications covering your requirement. You will perhaps recall that we were favored with your original scenery order, working through the M. C. Lilley Co. and therefore, it is not necessary for us to give you any reference as to our ability and quality of workmanship.
Sosman & Landis relocated their offices to 6751 Sheridan Road in 1923. Moses’ role with the firm had shifted from being the company president to its artistic director. In 1923, Moses and Fred Megan bought the name “Sosman & Landis,” continuing to produce scenery as before, just in a new location; they retained the studio designs. At first, they rented space at other shops, such as the Fabric Studio.
To be continued…
Note included:
I have several opera renderings signed by J Dove, that might have been part of Sosman and Landis; trying to find more information about them.
thank you.