Chicago Yacht Club, Chicago, Illinois, Perspective From Southeast

The Chicago Yacht Club, first organized in 1869 “to encourage and promote the sport of yacht sailing and building,” quickly grew to 350 members and a fleet of 50 yachts by 1901. The first modest clubhouse was erected in 1901–02 on pylons in the lake at the end of Monroe Street. By the mid-1920s the club wanted to undertake a new building that would be the most luxurious yacht club in the world, in harmony with the prestigious nearby buildings of the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium.Burnham Brothers was commissioned to design the lakeside building. Their ambitious plans, costing upwards of $2.5 million, were disputed by Robert McCormick and other owners of Michigan Avenue lots. Legal maneuvering reached the Superior Court of Illinois in October 1928. Although the Club won and could have proceeded, precious time had been lost. The old building had been torn down, but with worsening economic situation, any notion of new construction came to a complete halt. Today’s clubhouse began in the 1930s as a temporary building and underwent a series of modifications and additions throughout the years.