WILLIAM LEBARON JENNEY

William LeBaron Jenney was born on September 25, 1832 in Fairhaven Massachusetts. He was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover Massachusetts and later at Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard University.  He left Lawrence to study at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris.  Jenney  graduated with honors in 1856, one year after Gustav Eiffel.  Jenney left his first job, as structural engineer for a railroad in Mexico, to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers for the Union Army.  He attained the rank of Major.  Major Jenney retained the title until  his death in Los Angeles on June 15, 1907.

Jenney came to Chicago in 1867. He designed residences, parks, railroad bridges and the earliest Skyscrapers in Chicago's Loop.  Jenney's contribution to Chicago went well beyond his engineering iinventions and his buildings.  He employed and mentored, among others,  Daniel Burnham, John Wellborn Root,, William Holabird, Martin Roche, Irving Pond, Louis Sullivan and Ossian Simonds..