Ferdinand Wythe Peck was a wealthy Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, businessman and philanthropist, best known for financing Chicago's Auditorium Building

Auditorium Building, Chicago

The Auditorium Building in Chicago is one of the best-known designs of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Completed in 1889, the building is located on South Michigan Avenue, at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. It...

.

He was the youngest son of Mary Kent Peck and Phillip F.W. Peck. The family moved from Rhode Island

Rhode Island

The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...

 to Chicago in the 1830s and made a fortune in real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

. Peck and his brothers took over the family fortune when their father died, and soon were among the wealthiest families in Chicago.

Ferdinand was a civic-minded individual, and was involved in many projects around the city. He was a founding member of the Illinois humane society

Illinois Humane Society

The Illinois Humane Society , founded in 1869 just after the Civil War, has a rich history dedicated to service of disadvantaged animals and children....

, and served on the city board of education

Board of education

A board of education or a school board or school committee is the title of the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or higher administrative level....

. He was also a patron of the arts, particularly concerned with making high art available to the working classes. To this end, he organized the Chicago Grand Opera Festival in 1885.

Out of the Festival grew a desire for a more permanent expression of his ideals. Shortly after the Haymarket Square riot, he began planning in earnest for what would become the Auditorium Building.

To make his idea real, Peck hired architects Dankmar Adler

Dankmar Adler

Dankmar Adler was a celebrated German-born American architect.-Early years:...

 and Louis Sullivan

Louis Sullivan

Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...

, who had worked for him previously to prepare the space for the Grand Opera Festival. Peck provided much of the funding and the central vision for the building, and the final design reflected his ideas as well as those of the architects.

There is currently an elementary school in southwest Chicago named after him.

External links

• Illinois Humane Society - serving children

There is a school named after him. The school is in 3826 w 58th street, Chicago,Illinois 60629