“We are all concerned about the problem of our central area and about how to make life attractive enough so that people will stay in the cities.”
– President-elect John F. Kennedy, speaking by telephone at Marina City’s groundbreaking ceremony
Tuesday, November 22, 1960. 14 days ago, John F. Kennedy, with the help of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, was elected president.
At 11:00 a.m., a Who’s Who of Chicagoans, along with General Electric representatives and construction workers, gathered in a circus tent on State Street to give speeches, be photographed in front of and on construction equipment, and officially break ground at Marina City.
Howard Swibel was ten years old when he attended the groundbreaking with his father, Charles, mother, Seena, and brother, Morris.
“I remember the groundbreaking vividly,” he says. “I remember they had this big drill, and someone pulled a lever, and the thing started turning the ground.”
The drill, an auger for boring holes, was eight stories tall and poked through the top of the tent from a raised platform.
About 600 people attended the ceremony. The guest list that day included...
- Mayor Richard J. Daley
- Police Superintendent O.W. Wilson
- Archbishop Bernard J. Sheil
- William McFetridge, president of Local 1 of the Building Service Employees Union
- David Sullivan, president of Building Service Employees International Union
- Charles Swibel, president of Marina City Building Corporation
- Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg
- John T. Pirie, Jr., chairman of Carson Pirie Scott & Company
- Hughston M. McBain, former president of Marshall Field & Company
- Elmer E. Stevens, president of Charles A. Stevens & Company, a department store on State Street
- George R. Quin, president of Central Realty Company
- Maurice Goldblatt, who along with his brother, Nathan, founded a chain of discount stores in Chicago, including a flagship store at State & Van Buren Streets where DePaul University is now located.
David Sullivan had been on the job as president of the 250,000-member BSEIU since May 5, 1960, when he was elected to replace William L. McFetridge, who retired after 20 years as president. McFetridge continued as the 8,700-member Local 1 president.
Speaking by telephone from Palm Beach, Florida, president-elect of the United States John F. Kennedy praised the project.
“My congratulations to all of you on what you are doing to make Chicago more attractive,” he told the crowd, who could hear him over a loudspeaker. “Such projects will help keep central cities alive.”
After the speeches, Archbishop Bernard J. Sheil pulled a switch that started an electric augur with a helical bit that officially broke ground at Marina City.
While the VIPs had lunch at the Sherman House hotel at 100 West Randolph Street, where James R. Thompson Center would be located in 25 years, employees of Case Foundation Company went about the business of preparing the site for a five-building complex.