IH: Headquarters, Proving Grounds and St. James Farm

Fred Bowman posted
600 South Michigan as viewed from Wabash. Originally Headquarters to International Harvester, its now home to Columbia College, who I might add, helped restore much of the detailing. 
By Christian Eckstorm in 1906 in a neoclassical style

According to Columbia College, this 15-story skyscrapper was "a modern skyscraper of its era, built with a steel skeleton, high-speed elevators, electric light, the most advanced mechanical systems available and a floor plan designed to maximize natural light for all of its interior office spaces." It was purchased by Fairbanks-Morse Company in 1937 and by Columbia College in 1975.

Update:

1909 Annual Report, last page

While standing in line in Springfield, IL in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, we started talking to the man ahead of us. He mentioned that the headquarters of IH used to be at 180, then 401, N. Michigan. (McCormick's first plants in the Chicago area was north of the Main Branch of the Chicago River on the east side of Michigan Avenue.)

The current headquarters for Navistar, 102+ photos    Alcatel-Lucent/Lucent Technologies/AT&T used to have this building as the headquarters of their Western Electric operations.
The current headquarters for CNH, 10 photos

Satellite

I went to the CNH headquaters to take photos. See my comment below concerning my experience with the receptionist. You can find more photos on Google Map than I could take there in person. Maybe making a comment about going to see John Deere's three visiting center hit a nerve because I see they now have a token display of a red CaseIH and a blue New Holland tractor parked out front.

Wilson Farms posted
[Farmall Plant]
Martin Rickatson I’m heading to Burr Ridge tomorrow - hope to be able to post a current photo of this tractor.
Dennis DeBruler Are you a dealer? The receptionist told me they had a museum, but only groups of special people can see it. I'm certainly not special. They would not even let me take pictures of the displays in the entry lobby! I guess I'm going to have to visit John Deere's three visitor centers instead.
Martin Rickatson I’m a farming writer/journalist from the UK coming over with a group of dealers and customers. I’ll be there in the morning so look out for some photos.
[Feb 2019: I did a search for "Martin Rickatson" hoping to find his followup photos and I could not even find this post. Bummer!]

Tim Crowe posted two photos with the comment: "International Harvester Research Center, Burr Ridge, IL. Just south of Hinsdale. Long gone now. I grew up very close to it. Now there are McMansions on that land."
[I see this was always just farm equipment. I wonder where they tested their trucks. At the existing Navistar's Proving Grounds?  I have passed those grounds more than once, but all you can see from the road is a sign, a fence and a bunch of trees.]
Chuck Moroni They also had secret test farm out to the west by Norway in where they would put all kinds of there tractors and the competition through destructive testing.
Dennis DeBruler That facility is still there. In fact, it is now the CNH headquarters. But, looking at the satellite image, I see they still have proving ground facilities west and south of the building. It is now landlocked by McMansions. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWig...

[There are some comments about other lost IH facilities in the Chicagoland area.]

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These notes are becoming IH misc.

One of  17 photos posted by Steve OConnor

All that remains of the two giant factories of the International Harvester plant at Blue Island and Western in Chicago (5,000 employed) and Deering's north side factory (7,000 employed) now reside at St. James Farm Forest Preserve in Warrenville. For decades, though, the property was the retreat of the McCormick family. Chauncey and Marion McCormick acquired the initial 203 acres in 1920. Chauncey was the great nephew of Cyrus McCormick, who invented the first commercially successful mechanical reaper and in 1851 co-founded the McCormick Reaper Works, which merged with the Deering Harvester Company in 1906 to become International Harvester Corporation.

To accommodate their interest in horseback riding, the couple built a colonial-style brick stable with stalls lined with wood and iron posts from England. To support their growing award-winning herd of Guernsey cows, they constructed a state-of-the-art dairy barn with roomy stalls and assorted outbuildings. For the better part of two decades, the buildings housed a dairy operation that was a benchmark for farmers throughout the Midwest.

In the late 1950s, the property passed to the McCormicks’ son, Brooks, who managed the estate with his wife, Hope. They built the estate’s indoor arena, which not only accommodated their black-tie events but also later served as the St. James Riding School for the Handicapped, one of the McCormicks’ charitable interests.

After his retirement from International Harvester in 1980, Brooks began to aggressively develop the estate’s renowned equestrian facility, which grew to include a 62-stall stable for competitors’ horses, a 1.5-mile steeplechase track, a 200-seat concession area and dressage and jumping arenas. St. James Farm hosted several international eventing and dressage competitions and an annual steeplechase race, which drew up to 14,000 spectators and raised funds for the Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital.

In 2000 Brooks McCormick sold the 607-acre St. James Farm to the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, retaining a life estate that gave him the right to live on the property until his death in 2006. In July 2007 the District officially took possession of the property. We visited St. James Farm for the first time today. 10-27-2019.
[So the forest preserve has at least two former horse estates. The other is Danada.]

Octane Press posted
Testing, designing, and photographing of IH machinery was often done on the company grounds in Hinsdale, Illinois. IH had a large research center and a working farm in the area.
Tap [or click :-)] the link for more of Farmall's deep history in Hinsdale in this week's Saturday Speed Read!
 https://buff.ly/3ZIOqvp
Doug Lawrence: Apparently they know nothing about farming. Running over the windrow and not a spec of dust on the equipment or the farmer who is wearing a “white” hat without a spec of dirt or dust.
Joe Scheller: Doug Lawrence have to start out with clean clothes and the dust don't start till the first thrashed gets to back end if combine. As for driving on windrow that one has been done already just waiting for the baler. [Judging from some other comments, Doug Lawrence has a history of "stupid comments."]
[Given that the combine is PTO powered, I'm surprised they are using an H instead of an M. Maybe that was the test --- to see what an H could do when it is stressed.]
Joe Scheller: That must have been a challenge to run a combine without live PTO.
Tommy Carter: Joe Scheller not so much, you developed the knack of quickly depressing the clutch, engaging the pto and releasing the clutch before forward motion stopped. Ran tons of pto equipment with an M.
[Back then, the clutch controlled the PTO as well as the drive. Around the 1960's live or independent PTO was introduced. Specifically, the clutch did not stop the PTO. The PTO had a separately controlled clutch. Tommy must be describing the art of starting a PTO implement. The issue I remember was when a big clump of material entered the implement. You had to disengage the clutch; shift into neutral; re-engage the clutch to run the clump through; disengage the clutch; shift into, a possibly lower, gear; and then re-engage the clutch.]
Samuel Phillips: Seeing those front wheels and the large steering wheel...I recall you didn't want to hit a badger hole if you were not holding the wheel like this man in the photo with both hands. [I.e., no power steering.]