Portal:Chicago/Selected biography/5

Timothy Blackstone served as president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad from 1864 through 1899. He was also a one-term mayor of La Salle, Illinois, and a founding president of the Union Stock Yards. He was also the benefactor of the James Blackstone Library in Branford, Connecticut, and a nearly identical library was donated to the Chicago Public Library by Timothy Blackstone's widow in 1902. Additionally, the Blackstone's funded Blackstone Hall at for the Art Institute of Chicago's Building. Chicago's Blackstone Library is the first dedicated branch of the Chicago Public Library system, and later his mansion became the site of the Blackstone Hotel and the Blackstone Theatre.