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Strikes and labor problems tormented the George A. Fuller company (note that
the correct name is George A Fuller, not George H.
Fuller, as is sometimes misstated online).
George A. Fuller
(1851–1900) was an architect known
as the inventor of skyscrapers and modern
construction. He founded his construction company in
Chicago in 1882 and was a primary contractor of the
"White City" for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in
Chicago.
The "general contractor" concept in use today was
pioneered by Fuller. His company assumed
responsibility for everything except the design. The
firm was very successful in Chicago and soon
expanded to NYC and other cities.
In 1894 his daughter, Allon,
married Harry S. Black who joined Fuller
construction as an executive. In 1900 when George
Fuller died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS -
Lou Gehrig's disease), Black assumed control of the
corporation. Under Black's leadership, the company
built what today is called the Flat Iron Building in
New York City but when constructed in 1902 was
called the Fuller Building, a tribute to George A.
Fuller.
Other Fuller projects during the Black years
included Pennsylvania Station, Macy's on 34th St. in
NYC, the Plaza Hotel, and the Iroquois Theater in
Chicago.
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In the years after the fire
In 1906 the Iroquois Theater declared bankruptcy, it's creditors paid but no money
remaining to satisfy liability suits from victims.
In April 1907 judge Windes ruled that Fuller's liability ceased when its
plans were approved by Chicago's building commissioner and when the structure
was turned over to its owners.
Unlike the Iroquois Theater, Fuller construction
could not use bankruptcy as a gambit to avoid
compensating victims' families. Instead it
drug legal proceedings out until after the Iroquois
bankruptcy, so that claimants were
willing to accept whatever bone they were tossed.
In January 1909 a group of thirty-five victims, represented by
attorney
Charles C. Spencer accepted $750 each
(inflation adj.: $26,000) for the deaths of their
loved ones.
The thirty-five
beneficiaries:
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Lillian Ackerman
Albert Alfson
George Banshaf
Helen Berg
Olga
Berg
Victor Berg
Ella V. Dubois
Helen Ellis
Adelheid Guthardt
Liddy Guthardt
Lydia Hanson
John
Carl Hennesey
William J. Hennesey
Lida E. Hickman
Mary W. Holst
Allan B. Holst
Gertrude N. Holst
Amy Holst
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Edna Hunter
Annie Jones
Marie Koehler
Ralph
Kompare
Lola V. Kuebler
Orleana A.
Lake
Agnes Lange
Herbert Lange
Anna Rhody
Charles L. Roberts
Warner E. Saville
Myrtle Shabad
Theodore Shabad
Robert S. Thompson
Clarence J. Thompson
Henry S. Van
Ingen
Emma L. Van Ingen
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The last five suits against Fuller were dismissed September 25, 1918.
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