Schlesinger and Meyer Department Store was Sullivan’s swansong

The Panic of 1893 had a significant impact on Sullivan and Adler's company, as it did on most American architects. Adler obtained an urgent loan to retain its officials on the payroll. However, the market's tightening stalemate at the start of 1894 caused their alliance to break down. It fell shortly after the Guaranty Building was finished.

Sullivan received a limited number of significant commissions after the split with Adler. He experienced a protracted period of financial and mental ruin that lasted for twenty years. He began drinking as a result of his ongoing financial issues. The Schlesinger and Meyer Department Store was Sullivan's final significant commercial structure.

The retail store's design places more emphasis on the horizontal plane than the offices' Wainwright and Guaranty buildings do on the vertical. The rectangular "Chicago windows," each with a big fixed pane and movable sash windows on either side, stand out in particular. The first two stories, which contain windows that were treated as exhibition windows with the architectural embellishment forming rich picture frames, are lavishly decorated in contrast to the exquisite simplicity of the higher floors. This decoration made of cast iron is composed of stylized geometric and floral motifs. Elmslie is claimed to have designed a large portion of it in Sullivan's style. In any event, the ornament over the main entrance and the rest of the building's décor mark Sullivan's pinnacle of success as an architect ornament designer. Its decorative fervor was rivaled only by the ornamental panels that originally encircled Chicago of Sullivan's Gage Building.