Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex The Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex on the west side of Chicago, Illinois is where Sears, Roebuck conducted the bulk of its mail order operations between 1906 and 1993. It also served as the corporate headquarters until 1973, when the Sears Tower was completed. Of its original complex, only three buildings now survive, and have been adaptively rehabilitated to other uses. The complex was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, at which time it still included the 3-million square foot mail order plant, the world's largest commercial building when it was completed. That building
Chicago Water Tower Pumping Station, it drew clean water from water cribs in Lake Michigan. The tower gained prominence after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. While some incorrectly believe that the tower was the only building to survive the fire, a few other buildings in the burned district survived along with the tower. The tower was the only public building in the burned zone to survive, and is one of just a few of the surviving structures still standing. In the years since the fire, the tower has become a symbol of old Chicago and of the city's recovery from the fire.