As MPC was packing up its 25 E. Washington St. office to move to 140 S. Dearborn St. earlier this year, staff unearthed boxes and file folders filled with historic documents—reports, newsletters, newspaper clippings—dating back as far as 1934. Together, they chronicled both the organization’s and metropolitan Chicago’s history of regional planning challenges and victories.
As the staff person designated by former (and self-appointed) Staff Historian Ann Armstrong—MPC’s longtime development director, who retired in 2006—I helped staff gather and organize all of this history by decade, stored neatly in 12 file drawers tucked away in the back of our new office.
MPC has been around for 75 years—a lifetime, depending on your perspective. Twelve drawers hardly seem like enough space to contain so many stories, personalities, struggles, and successes. Nor did the 10-page timeline we created a few years back to “hit the highlights,” so to speak. And when MPC Communications Director Kim Grimshaw Bolton visited with longtime MPC Executive Director Dorothy Rubel in August, to tape a special interview for our anniversary video, she said the time flew as Dorothy told one story after another fit for the history books.
As we celebrate our 75th Anniversary, we invite you to share your memories with us on this blog. Or, if you’re more old-fashioned, give me a call at 312-863-6018, or send a letter ATTN Mandy Burrell Booth, Metropolitan Planning Council, 140 S. Dearborn St., Ste. 1400, Chicago. I’ll be sure to find a special place for your story in our archives.