Overton Hygienic Building
About this property
Hygienic Manufacturing Company, also known as Overton Hygienic Company, was a cosmetics company established by Anthony Overton. It was one of the United States's largest producers of African-American cosmetics. Anthony Overton also ran other businesses from the building, including the Victory Life Insurance Company and Douglass National Bank, the first nationally chartered, African-American-owned bank. The Overton Hygienic Building is a Chicago Landmark and part of the Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District in the Douglas community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is located at 3619-3627 South State Street. The building was commissioned by Anthony Overton in 1922 as a combination of a store, office, and manufacturing building. It was regarded as one of the most important buildings within the district. Overton would later commission the Chicago Bee Building in 1929. Walter T. Bailey, the first licensed African-American architect in the state of Illinois, had his first Chicago office on the second floor of the Overton Hygienic Building. The building was later named the Palace Hotel and served for some time as a flophouse, with residents crowded into stalls 8 feet by 5½ feet. The second, third, and fourth floors each housed 125 stalls, with dormitory-style bathrooms and showers, for a total of 375 stalls. The building is now owned and being developed by the Mid-South Planning and Development Commission, which will use the building as an incubator for small businesses and startups within the Black Metropolis neighborhood.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Overton Hygienic Building
This page lists Overton Hygienic Building. A full Aubrey report for an address near it pulls together this listing alongside battlefield records, land patents, and every other historical record within a chosen radius:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Nearby Battles
Questions about this property
When was Overton Hygienic Building listed on the National Register?
Overton Hygienic Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 29, 1986.
What type of historic resource is Overton Hygienic Building?
Overton Hygienic Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Overton Hygienic Building?
The period of significance for Overton Hygienic Building is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Overton Hygienic Building?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Overton Hygienic Building will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
More in Cook County
Historic places, battles, and census history across Cook County.
Explore CookCounty ›More historic places in Illinois
Browse all historic places in Illinois.
View Illinoishistoric sites ›Research the history near this site
An Aubrey US report for an address near Overton Hygienic Building will include this listing alongside battlefield records and other historical sources within your chosen radius.