The Palmolive Building's Lindbergh Beacon: A Searchlight Over the Gold Coast

The Palmolive Building at 919 N Michigan Avenue, completed in 1929, was the headquarters of the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company and one of the finest Art Deco towers in Chicago. But its most extraordinary feature was installed on top in 1930: a rotating searchlight known as the Lindbergh Beacon, named in honor of Charles Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight. The beacon rotated through 360 degrees every few seconds, sweeping the city and surrounding landscape with a beam said to be visible for hundreds of miles on a clear night. It served as an aviation navigation landmark, helping pilots locate Chicago from distances where the city's other lights blurred together. For fifty years, the beam swept the Gold Coast neighborhood. It was turned off in 1981 after residents of neighboring high-rises complained about the light disturbing their sleep. The Palmolive itself became condominiums only in the early 2000s. In 2007, the beacon was relit — no longer a full circle, but swinging north and south over Lake Michigan in the evening hours, away from the windows that once kept it dark.