West Town’s former Morton Salt warehouse complex along the North Branch of the Chicago River would be designated as an official City of Chicago Landmark under a proposal submitted to City Council today.

Designed by the Chicago architecture firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and completed in 1930, the 4.24-acre complex at 1357 N. Elston Ave. was used by the Morton Salt Co. for the storage, packaging, and distribution of rock salt until 2015.

Featuring a truss-roofed West Shed Building that has long been one of the community’s most visible structures, the brick and steel-frame complex is considered an excellent example of utilitarian, early 20th-century industrial architecture. The designation would protect all exterior elevations from demolition or alteration; the interior of the West Shed; painted signage on the roof of the shed; and select structural steel remnants of its former industrial use.

The designation was recommended by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in April 2020.

The complex is currently undergoing an $50 million renovation by Blue Star properties and R2 as an entertainment facility.

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