Chicago Board of Trade Building
Encyclopedia
The Chicago Board of Trade Building is a skyscraper located in :Chicago, Illinois, United States. It stands at 141 W. Jackson Boulevard at the foot of the LaSalle Street
LaSalle Street
LaSalle Street is a major north-south street in Chicago named for Sieur de La Salle, an early explorer of Illinois. The portion that runs through the Loop is considered to be Chicago's financial district...

 canyon, in the Loop
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...

 community area in Cook County
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

. Built in 1930 and first designated a Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation of the Mayor of Chicago and the Chicago City Council for historic buildings and other sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artistic, cultural,...

 on May 4, 1977, the building was listed as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

 on June 2, 1978. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on June 16, 1978. Originally built for the Chicago Board of Trade
Chicago Board of Trade
The Chicago Board of Trade , established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million...

 (CBOT), it is now the primary trading venue for the derivatives exchange, the CME Group
CME Group
The CME Group bases prices for US gasoline on Brent Crude rather than West Texas Intermediate Crude , which many believe is responsible for artificially high gas prices for US consumers...

, formed in 2007 by the merger of the CBOT and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Chicago Mercantile Exchange
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is an American financial and commodity derivative exchange based in Chicago. The CME was founded in 1898 as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Originally, the exchange was a non-profit organization...

.

The 141 W. Jackson address hosted the former tallest building in Chicago designed by William W. Boyington
William W. Boyington
William W. Boyington was an architect who designed several notable structures in and around Chicago, Illinois. Originally from Massachusetts, W.W. Boyington studied engineering and architecture in the State of New York...

 before the current Holabird & Root
Holabird & Roche
The architectural firm of Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm's designs have changed many times — from the Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.-History:...

 structure, which held the same title for over 35 years until being surpassed in 1965 by the Richard J. Daley Center
Richard J. Daley Center
The Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its courtyard Daley Plaza and named after longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, is the premier civic center of the City of Chicago in Illinois. Situated on Randolph and Washington Streets between Dearborn and Clark Streets, the Richard J. Daley Center is...

. The current structure is known for its art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 architecture, sculptures and large-scale stone carving
Stone carving
Stone carving is an ancient activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, evidence can be found that even the earliest societies indulged in some form of stone work....

, as well as large trading floors. A three-story art deco statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture (particularly grain), caps the building. The building is a popular sightseeing attraction and location for shooting movies, and its owners and management have won awards for efforts to preserve
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...

 the building and for office management.

Early locations

On April 3, 1848, the Board of Trade opened for business at 101 South Water Street. When 122 members were added in 1856, it was moved to the corner of South Water and LaSalle Street
LaSalle Street
LaSalle Street is a major north-south street in Chicago named for Sieur de La Salle, an early explorer of Illinois. The portion that runs through the Loop is considered to be Chicago's financial district...

s. After another temporary relocation west on South Water Street in 1860, the first permanent home was established within the Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...

 Building on the corner of LaSalle and Washington Streets in 1865. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...

 destroyed this building. The exchange temporarily reopened two weeks after the fire in a 90 feet (27.4 m) wooden building known as "the Wigwam
Wigwam (Chicago)
The Wigwam was a convention center and meeting hall that served as the site of the 1860 Republican National Convention. It was located in Chicago, Illinois at Lake Street and Market near the Chicago River. This site had previously been the site of the Sauganash Hotel, Chicago's first hotel...

" at the intersection of Washington and Market Streets, before reclaiming its home in a new building constructed at the Chamber of Commerce site one year later.

Permanent home

In 1882, construction began of the CBOT's new home, which opened at the current location on May 1, 1885. It was designed by William W. Boyington
William W. Boyington
William W. Boyington was an architect who designed several notable structures in and around Chicago, Illinois. Originally from Massachusetts, W.W. Boyington studied engineering and architecture in the State of New York...

, known previously for his work on the Chicago Water Tower
Chicago Water Tower
The Chicago Water Tower is a contributing property in the Old Chicago Water Tower District landmark district. It is located at 806 North Michigan Avenue along the Magnificent Mile shopping district in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois...

. Built from structural steel and Maine granite, with a rear of enameled
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...

 brick, it was 10 stories tall and featured a tower 320 ft (97.5 m) tall containing a large clock and 4500 lb (2,041.2 kg; 321.4 st) bell, topped by a 9 feet (2.7 m) copper weather vane in the shape of a ship. Construction cost $1.8 million (about in terms). With four elevators and a great hall
Great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...

 80 ft (24.4 m) high decorated by a stained-glass skylight and ornate stone baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...

s, it was the first commercial building in Chicago to have electric lighting. It was also the first building in the city to exceed 300 ft (91.4 m) in height and at the time was the tallest building in Chicago.
The building attracted tourists, visitors, and protesters. Viewing galleries were opened to the public for the first time in honor of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...

. The April 28 1885 inaugural banquet for the building opening was marched on by a sizable column of Chicago labor activists, under the International Working People's Association
International Working People's Association
The International Working People's Association , sometimes known as the "Black International," was an international anarchist political organization established in 1881 at a convention held in London, England...

 banner and led by Albert Parsons
Albert Parsons
Albert Richard Parsons was a pioneer American socialist and later anarchist newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist...

, Lucy Parsons
Lucy Parsons
Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons was an American labor organizer and radical socialist. She is remembered as a powerful orator.-Life:...

, and Lizzie Holmes. "The building, on which two million dollars had been lavished in the midst of an economic depression, was denounced by the anarchists as... the crowning symbol of all that was hateful in the private property system."

The procession were cheered by thousands of spectators. Their access to the Board of Trade was blocked by a phalanx of police, first at Jackson, then at LaSalle, finally coming to within a half-block of the building, "bathed in a sea of electric light only recently installed for the occasion."

In 1895, the clock tower was removed and the "tallest building in Chicago" record was then held by the 302 ft (92 m) tall Masonic Temple Building
Masonic Temple (Chicago)
The Masonic Temple Building was a skyscraper built in Chicago, Illinois in 1892. Designed by the firm of Burnham and Root and built at the northeast corner of Randolph and State Streets, the building rose 22 stories...

. Built on caissons
Caisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...

 surrounded by muck
Muck (soil)
Muck is a soil made up primarily of humus from drained swampland. It is known as black soil in The Fens of eastern England, where it was originally mainly fen and bog. It is used there, as in the United States, for growing specialty crops such as onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes...

, the trading house was rendered structurally unsound in the 1920s when construction began across the street on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is one of twelve regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the nation's central bank....

. The 1885 building was subsequently demolished in 1929, and the exchange temporarily moved to Van Buren and Clark
Clark Street (Chicago)
Clark Street is a north-south street in Chicago, Illinois that runs close to the shore of Lake Michigan from the northern city boundary with Evanston, to 2200 South in the city street numbering system...

 while a new building was constructed at the LaSalle and Jackson site.

The 1885 allegorical architectural sculptures of 35 ft (10.7 m) Industry and Agriculture, two figures of a four-piece set, were removed from the original building and now stand in a nearby pedestrian plaza.

Architecture

In 1925, the Chicago Board of Trade commissioned Holabird & Root
Holabird & Roche
The architectural firm of Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm's designs have changed many times — from the Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.-History:...

 to design the current building. The general contractor
General contractor
A general contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and communication of information to involved parties throughout the course of a building project.-Description:...

s Hegeman & Harris built it for $11.3 million, although the reported twenty-year mortgage value was $12 million ($12 million in 1925 equates to about in dollars). Clad
Cladding (construction)
Cladding is the application of one material over another to provide a skin or layer intended to control the infiltration of weather elements, or for aesthetic purposes....

 in gray Indiana limestone
Indiana Limestone
Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....

, topped with a copper pyramid roof, and standing on a site running 174 ft (53 m) east – west on Jackson Boulevard and 240 ft (73.2 m) north – south on LaSalle Street, the 605 ft (184.4 m) tall art deco-styled building opened on June 9, 1930. It serves as the southern border for the skyscrapers hugging LaSalle Street and is taller than surrounding structures for several blocks. The Chicago Board of Trade has operated continuously on its twelfth floor since the 1930 opening, dedicating 19000 square feet (1,765.2 m²) to what was then the world's largest trading floor. The advent of steel frame
Steel frame
Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal -beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame...

 structural system
Structural system
The term structural system or structural frame in structural engineering refers to load-resisting sub-system of a structure. The structural system transfers loads through interconnected structural components or members.-High-rise buildings:...

s allowed completely vertical construction; but as with many skyscrapers of the era, the exterior was designed with multiple setbacks
Setback (architecture)
A setback, sometimes called step-back, is a step-like recession in a wall. Setbacks were initially used for structural reasons, but now are often mandated by land use codes.-History:...

 at increasing heights, which served to allow additional light into the ever-deepening concrete valleys in urban cores. At night, the setbacks are upwardly lit by floodlights, further emphasizing the structure's vertical elements. The night illumination design was a common contemporary Chicago architectural theme, seen also in the Wrigley Building
Wrigley Building
The Wrigley Building is a skyscraper located directly across Michigan Avenue from the Tribune Tower on the Magnificent Mile...

, the Jewelers Building, the Palmolive Building
Palmolive Building
The Palmolive Building, formerly the Playboy Building, is a 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Built by Holabird & Root, it was completed in 1929 and was home to Colgate-Palmolive-Peet....

, the LaSalle-Wacker Building
LaSalle-Wacker Building
The LaSalle-Wacker Building, at 221 North LaSalle Street, is a 41-story skyscraper at the north end of the LaSalle Street canyon in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA.-Design:...

, and the Tribune Tower
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company. WGN Radio also broadcasts from the building, with ground-level studios overlooking nearby Pioneer Court and Michigan Avenue. CNN's...

. Interior decoration includes polished surfaces throughout, the use of black and white marble, prominent vertical hallway trim, and an open three-story lobby which at the time of opening housed the world's largest light fixture
Light fixture
A light fixture, light fitting, or luminaire is an electrical device used to create artificial light and/or illumination, by use of an electric lamp...

. Though One LaSalle Street had five more floors, the CBOT building was the first in Chicago to exceed a height of 600 ft (182.9 m). After surpassing the Chicago Temple Building
Chicago Temple Building
The Chicago Temple Building is a 173 meter tall skyscraper church located at 77 W. Washington St. in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the congregation of the First United Methodist Church of Chicago. It was completed in 1924 and has 23 floors dedicated to religious and office use...

, it was the tallest in Chicago until the Daley Center was completed in 1965. Known for its work on the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...

, the family-operated factory of John A. Roebling
John A. Roebling
John Augustus Roebling was a German-born American civil engineer. He is famous for his wire rope suspension bridge designs, in particular, the design of the Brooklyn Bridge.-Early life:...

 supplied all of the cables used in the building's 23 Otis elevators
Otis Elevator Company
The Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems today, principally focusing on elevators and escalators...

. Beneath the main trading floor over 2700 miles (4,345.2 km) of telephone and telegraph wires were once hidden. No less than 150000 miles (241,401 km) of wires (considered possibly the most direct long-distance wire from any building) once ran from the room. Although the building was commissioned for the Chicago Board of Trade, its first tenant was the Quaker Oats Company
Quaker Oats Company
The Quaker Oats Company is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by Pepsico since 2001.-History:Quaker Oats was founded in 1901 by the merger of four oat mills:...

, which moved in on May 1, 1930.

Artwork

Sculptural work by Alvin Meyer, the one-time head of Holabird & Root's sculpture department, is prominent on the building's façade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

, and represents the trading activities within. On each side of the 13 ft (4 m) diameter clock facing LaSalle Street are hooded figures, an Egyptian
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...

 holding grain and a Native American holding corn. Similar figures are repeated at the uppermost corners of the central tower, just below the sloping roof. About 30 ft (9.1 m) above street level, representations of bulls protrude directly from the limestone cladding on the building's north side and to a lesser degree on the east side, a reference to a bull market.

The central structure is capped by a 6,500 pound, 31 ft (9.4 m) tall aluminum statue of the Roman goddess of grain, Ceres, holding a sheaf of wheat in the left hand and a bag of corn in the right hand, as a nod to the exchange's heritage as a commodities
Commodity
In economics, a commodity is the generic term for any marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services....

 market. This statue was assembled from 40 pieces. As it is near the forty-five story point, sculptor John H. Storrs believed that no other building would be tall enough for the inhabitants to clearly see the statue's face, and therefore it was left blank.

Commissioned in 1930 but removed from the agricultural trading room in 1973 and stored until 1982, John W. Norton
John W. Norton
John Warner Norton was an Illinois muralist and easel artist who pioneered the field in the United States.Among his works are the landmark 1929 long ceiling mural for the concourse ceiling of the Chicago Daily News Building , the Ceres mural in the Chicago Board of Trade Building ,...

's three-story mural of Ceres shown bare-breasted in a field of grain underwent extensive restoration in Spring Grove, Illinois
Spring Grove, Illinois
Spring Grove is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,880 at the 2000 census. The population has grown to 5,303 as of 2005. It is also home to Chain O'Lakes State Park.The current village president is Mark Eisenberg....

 by Louis Pomerantz before being displayed in the atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...

 of the 1980s addition.

Trading floor

According to the June 16, 1930 issue of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

magazine, visitors carrying ripened wheat heads stared in curiosity at the six-story tall trading room
Trading room
A trading-room gathers traders operating on financial markets.The trading-room is also often called the front office.The terms dealing-room and trading-floor are also used, the latter being inspired from that of a open outcry stock exchange....

 directly above the lobby and behind the large windows below the clock facing LaSalle Street. At the center of the room, Time reported on the items being traded in "pits" organized based on commodities type with pits names such as the corn pit, soybean pit or wheat pit. The individual pits are raised octagonal structures where open outcry
Open outcry
Open outcry is the name of a method of communication between professionals on a stock exchange or futures exchange. It involves shouting and the use of hand signals to transfer information primarily about buy and sell orders...

 trading occurs. Steps up the outside of each octagon provide an amphitheater atmosphere, and enable a large number of traders
Trader (finance)
A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing...

 to see each other and communicate during trading hours. With early versions dating back to 1870, this type of trading pit was patented in 1878.

The trading area is surrounded by desks allowing workers to support transactions. In the early days, the desks served as a relay point between the pits and those wishing to buy or sell. When trade orders and information began to be communicated by telegraph, Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...

 operators were employed, later replaced by phone operators. In the late 20th century, electric display boards lined the walls of the trading hall and the advent of electronic trading
Electronic trading
Electronic trading, sometimes called etrading, is a method of trading securities , foreign exchange or financial derivatives electronically...

 resulted in computers being placed on desktops.

Subsequent additions to the Board of Trade Building moved the agricultural and financial trading floors out of the original trading room and into new spaces in the additions to the building's rear in the 1980s. In 2004 the historic 1930 trading floor, already substantially altered (and unused for more than two years), was demolished and its pits filled with concrete. It was renovated in a modern style and now is leased to a privately owned options
Option (finance)
In finance, an option is a derivative financial instrument that specifies a contract between two parties for a future transaction on an asset at a reference price. The buyer of the option gains the right, but not the obligation, to engage in that transaction, while the seller incurs the...

 trading firm.

Expansion

In 1980, the owners added a 275 ft (84 m) 23-story expansion to the south side of the building. It was topped by an octagonal ornament shaped similarly to the terraced trading pits and was designed in a postmodern style
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...

 by Helmut Jahn
Helmut Jahn
Helmut Jahn is a German-American architect, well known for designs such as the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt and the One Liberty Place, formerly the tallest building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Suvarnabhumi Airport, an international...

. Colored black and silver, with a sunlit atrium on the 12th floor facing the south wall of the older structure, the annex provided a four-story granite lined agricultural trading floor, then the world's largest at 32000 square feet (2,972.9 m²). Even as the Sydney Futures Exchange and other markets were ceasing outcry trading, Mayor Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...

 led the groundbreaking
Groundbreaking
Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are often attended by dignitaries such as politicians and...

 on January 17, 1995, for additional expansion into a five-story building to the east designed by architects Fujikawa Johnson and structural engineers TT-CBM. When opened in 1997, the $175 million structure would add 60000 square feet (5,574.2 m²) of trading space and for a period again would house the world's largest trading floor. It was nicknamed the "Arboretum" by some in reference to expansion supporter CBOT Chairman Patrick H. Arbor. The expansion included price boards 600 feet (183 m) long and supported 12,000 computers, 6,000 voice devices, and 2,000 video devices requiring 27000 miles (43,452.2 km) of cable. Collectively, the trading floors now encompass approximately 115150 square feet (10,697.8 m²). The logo of the CBOT represents a trading pit, and appears prominently on stonework facing Clark Street and on street-level barriers at the service entrance on Van Buren Street. The addition has a twelve-story atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...

 and melds historical and contemporary design with art deco references such as setbacks, central tower, symmetrical projecting wings, pyramidal roof and abstract cascade and scallop lobby design. Between the original and new buildings, where there was formerly a street, a wide street-level walkway connects the plaza on LaSalle Street to Van Buren Street in what would ordinarily be the building's first floor. Passing over the Van Buren Street elevated tracks, a green glass-enclosed steel-frame bridge connects the lower southwest corner of the 23 story addition to the Chicago Board Options Exchange
Chicago Board Options Exchange
The Chicago Board Options Exchange , located at 400 South LaSalle Street in Chicago, is the largest U.S. options exchange with annual trading volume that hovered around one billion contracts at the end of 2007...

 (although this bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...

 for security reasons).

Renovation

In 2005, the building underwent an extensive $20 million renovation directed by Chicago architect Gunny Harboe, whose restoration work included Loop landmarks the Rookery Building
Rookery Building
The Rookery Building is a historic landmark located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Completed by John Wellborn Root and Daniel Burnham of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings. It once housed the office of the...

 and Reliance Building
Reliance Building
The Reliance Building is a skyscraper located at 32 North State Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The first floor and basement were designed by John Root of the Burnham and Root architectural firm in 1890, with the rest of the building completed by Charles B. Atwood in 1895...

. The project included restoration
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...

 of the main lobby to emphasize the design features of the art deco era, elevator modernization, façade renovation and cleaning, and the continued renovation of upper floor corridors and hallways. Though impractically small for modern use, mailboxes in the lobby were restored to their original condition to follow the theme of vertical lines found throughout the complex. An improved electrical infrastructure, with ten main feeds from seven different Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area...

 electrical substation
Electrical substation
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions...

s, was added in addition to redundant cooling systems and upgraded telecommunications capabilities.

When the old CBOT building was demolished in 1929, two 4.5 ST (4 LT; 4.1 t) 12 ft (3.7 m) tall gray granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 statues of classically styled goddesses (pictured above) were moved from the second floor ledge above the main entrance into the gardens of the 500 acre (2 km²) estate of Arthur W. Cutten
Arthur W. Cutten
Arthur William Cutten was an Canadian-born businessman who gained great wealth and prominence as a commodity trader in the United States. He was called to appear before the Banking and Currency Committee in regard to the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929...

, a wheat and cotton speculator who went bankrupt during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. One goddess represents agriculture and is shown standing with wheat and leaning on a cornucopia
Cornucopia
The cornucopia or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles, or wealth in some form...

. The other represents industry and appears with the bow of a ship
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...

 and an anvil.

The statues were found in 1978 near Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Glen Ellyn is an affluent village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the village population was 26,999.-Geography:...

 by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County
The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is a governmental agency headquartered in Wheaton, Illinois. Its mission is to acquire and hold lands containing forests, prairies, wetlands, and associated plant communities or lands capable of being restored to such natural conditions for the purpose...

, on land acquired from Cutten's estate. After being displayed in a parking lot at Danada Forest Preserve for several years, both were returned to the CBOT building's plaza and rededicated on June 9, 2005.

Surroundings

The LaSalle Street canyon is home to other historic buildings including the Rookery Building
Rookery Building
The Rookery Building is a historic landmark located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Completed by John Wellborn Root and Daniel Burnham of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings. It once housed the office of the...

, a National Historic Landmark considered to be the oldest standing high-rise. A 1907 renovation included a lobby remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

 in the Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...

 style. The name rookery
Rookery
A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally birds. A rook is a Northern European and Central Asian member of the crow family, which nest in prominent colonies at the tops of trees. The term is applied to the nesting place of birds, such as crows and rooks, the source of the term...

 comes from the previous building on the property which became home to many birds, especially pigeons. The nearby Reliance Building was the first skyscraper to have large plate glass windows comprise the majority of its surface area, and One North LaSalle
One North LaSalle
The One North LaSalle Building or One LaSalle Street Building is a building in the LaSalle Street corridor in the Loop community area of Chicago. At 530 ft and 48 stories it was for some time one of Chicago's tallest buildings. Its 5th floor relief panels depict the explorations of...

 was for some time one of Chicago's tallest buildings. Both the Reliance Building and One North LaSalle are on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1853, the governments of Chicago
Law and government of Chicago
The government of the City of Chicago, Illinois, is divided into executive and legislative branches. The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive, elected by general election for a term of four years. The mayor appoints commissioners and other officials who oversee the various departments...

 and Cook County have shared three different buildings at the north end of the canyon. The current Chicago City Hall
Chicago City Hall
Chicago City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. Adjacent to the Richard J. Daley Center and the James R...

, built in a Classical Revival
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 style, was designed to symbolize the strength, dignity, and vigor of the government. Completed in 2001, an award winning green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...

 was incorporated into the structure. All of the structures are designated as Chicago Landmarks.

Other nearby buildings of note include the Continental Commercial National Bank, now called 208 South LaSalle Street, which broke records in 1911 as the city’s most expensive development, with a cost exceeding $10 million. The Rand-McNally Building that had served as the headquarters of the World’s Columbian Exposition was demolished to accommodate the structure. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is one of twelve regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the nation's central bank....

, at 230 South LaSalle Street, was built in a Greco-Roman style and contained the largest vaults in the world and one of the first building-wide wired communication systems. Both the Federal Reserve Bank and 208 South LaSalle demonstrate the popularity of neoclassical architecture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were meant to project a sense of financial security.

One mile (1.6 km) west of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 and in the southwest corner of the Loop, the building is near two elevated stations of the Chicago 'L'
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...

. The Quincy station
Quincy (CTA)
-External links:* at Chicago-'L'.org***...

 is one block to the west and the LaSalle/VanBuren station
LaSalle/Van Buren (CTA)
LaSalle/Van Buren is an 'L' station serving the CTA's Brown, Orange, Pink, and Purple Lines. LaSalle/Van Buren is one of the nine stations on the Loop. The station was opened on October 3, 1897...

 is between the CBOT and the Chicago Stock Exchange. Additionally, CTA Blue Line
Blue Line (Chicago Transit Authority)
The Blue Line consists of a long trunk line in the Chicago Transit Authority's rapid transit system which extends through Chicago's Loop from O'Hare International Airport at the far northwest end of the city, through downtown via the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway, and across the West Side to its...

 service is provided at the Jackson
Jackson/Dearborn (CTA)
Jackson is a subway station on the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system, serving the Blue Line. This station just completed a remodeling project that made it look closer in appearance to the Jackson/State.-Bus connections:CTA...

 and LaSalle
LaSalle (CTA Blue Line)
LaSalle is an 'L' station on the Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line. It is a subway station with a single island platform located at 150 West Congress Parkway in the Loop district of Chicago, Illinois...

 stations, each two blocks away. Union Station
Union Station (Chicago)
Union Station is a major train station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, replacing an earlier 1881 station. It is now the only intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the city's primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between Adams...

 stands five blocks to the west on Jackson Boulevard, providing terminal service
Terminal Station
Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

 for Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

 and select service for Metra
Metra
Metra is the commuter rail division of the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. The system serves Chicago and its metropolitan area through 240 stations on 11 different rail lines. Throughout the 21st century, Metra has been the second busiest commuter rail system in the United States by...

. Additional Metra service is provided at the LaSalle Street Station
LaSalle Street Station
LaSalle Street Station is a commuter rail terminal at 414 S. LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, serving Metra's Rock Island District. It was a major intercity rail terminal for the New York Central Railroad until 1968 and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad until 1978. The...

, two blocks due south.

Tenants

The CME Group
CME Group
The CME Group bases prices for US gasoline on Brent Crude rather than West Texas Intermediate Crude , which many believe is responsible for artificially high gas prices for US consumers...

 occupies 33 percent of available space, while financial and trading concerns occupy 54 percent of the three-building complex. In addition to Ceres Restaurant on the first floor of the lobby, other businesses provide banking, insurance, travel services, beauty services, and healthcare. Some business have been in the building for over 40 years, and throughout its history, commodities speculators, such as "Prince of the Pit" Richard Dennis
Richard Dennis
Richard J. Dennis, a commodities speculator once known as the "Prince of the Pit," was born in Chicago, in January, 1949. In the early 1970s, he borrowed $1,600 and reportedly made $200 million in about ten years. When a futures trading fund under his management incurred significant losses in the...

, have maintained offices in the building. In 2007, the U.S. Futures Exchange
U.S. Futures Exchange
U.S. Futures Exchange was a Chicago-based, electronic futures exchange that terminated all exchange operations effective December 31, 2008. On December 17, 2008, MF Global had announced USFE was for sale or would be closed by December 31, 2008. USFE was originally Eurex US who bought BrokerTec,...

, a competitor of the CBOT formerly known as Eurex
Eurex
Eurex is one of the world's leading derivatives exchanges, providing European benchmark derivatives featuring open and low-cost electronic access globally...

 US, announced a move from the Sears Tower
Sears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...

 into the 14th floor of the CBOT building.

Visitors

The CBOT building has been the site of a number of visits by dignitaries, including the Prince of Wales
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...

 in October 1977. In 1991, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

 became the first President of the United States to visit the Exchange, where he delivered a speech from the soybean pit regarding the importance of agriculture
Agriculture in the United States
Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is a net exporter of food. As of the last census of agriculture in 2007, there were 2.2 million farms, covering an area of , an average of per farm.-History:...

 to the American economy
Economy of the United States
The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be nearly $14.5 trillion in 2010, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. The European Union has a larger collective economy, but is not a single nation...

. A visit from former Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 leader Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

 followed on May 7, 1992. In 2006, former US President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 and wife Rosalyn toured the CBOT while campaigning for their son Jack
Jack Carter (politician)
John William "Jack" Carter, , is an American businessman and politician who unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate in Nevada in 2006. Carter is the eldest child of former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter....

's run for a U.S. Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 seat from Nevada. During the 1996 Democratic National Convention
1996 Democratic National Convention
The 1996 Democratic National Convention of the was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois from August 26 to August 29, 1996. Incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton was renominated for President of United States.-Site selection:...

, US Vice President Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

 was hosted at the Exchange's Democratic Senatorial Campaign reception. When US President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 toured the agricultural trading floor on January 6, 2006, he was hailed from the corn trading pit with "Hook 'em, Horns!"
Hook 'em Horns
Hook 'em Horns is the slogan and hand signal of The University of Texas at Austin. Students and alumni of the university employ a greeting consisting of the phrase "Hook 'em" or "Hook 'em Horns" and also use the phrase as a parting good-bye or as the closing line in a letter or story.The gesture is...

, a reference to his adopted home state of Texas. Interest groups such as the Chicago Architecture Foundation
Chicago Architecture Foundation
The Chicago Architecture Foundation is a nonprofit group in Chicago, Illinois, USA, dedicated to increasing the public's understanding of architecture and design...

 provide scheduled tours showcasing the architecture and selected portions of the trading operations.

Awards and honors

  • 1985: the 23-story addition won the Best Structure Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois.
  • 2006: the building was awarded the Landmarks Illinois’ annual Real Estate and Building Industries Council award for its preservation efforts.
  • 2006: the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago presented the CBOT building with The Office Building of the Year award recognizing the high quality of office space and excellence in management of the building.

In popular culture

Film and television
Trading operations have been used as scenes in movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 American teen coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by John Hughes.The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller , who decides to skip school and spend the day in downtown Chicago...

, and the streetscape in the LaSalle Street canyon is used in the movies The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1987 film)
The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime-drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet. Based on the book The Untouchables, the film stars Kevin Costner as government agent Eliot Ness. It also stars Robert De Niro as gang leader Al Capone and Sean Connery as Irish-American...

and Road to Perdition
Road to Perdition
Road to Perdition is a 2002 American crime film directed by Sam Mendes. The screenplay was adapted by David Self, from the graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins. The film stars Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig...

. In the 2005 film Batman Begins
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...

the building serves as the headquarters of the fictional Wayne Enterprises
Wayne Enterprises
Wayne Enterprises is a company in the DC Universe, owned by Bruce Wayne and run by his business manager, Lucius Fox. It was founded by merchant ancestors of the Wayne family in the 17th century as a merchant house, although the company changed when the heir of Judge Solomon Wayne, Alan, utilized...

, but in the 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...

, Wayne Enterprises was represented by the Richard J. Daley Center
Richard J. Daley Center
The Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its courtyard Daley Plaza and named after longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, is the premier civic center of the City of Chicago in Illinois. Situated on Randolph and Washington Streets between Dearborn and Clark Streets, the Richard J. Daley Center is...

. The building itself appears in The Dark Knight.

While maintaining studios in the building for many years, WCIU-TV
WCIU-TV
WCIU-TV is an independent television station located in Chicago, Illinois. It operates on UHF digital channel 27 and is Chicago's oldest UHF station, signing on the air in 1964. WCIU-TV is the flagship station of Weigel Broadcasting, a locally-based broadcaster which has owned the station since...

 broadcast the Stock Market Observer, a daily seven-hour live business television news program
News broadcasting
News broadcasting is the broadcasting of various news events and other information via television, radio or internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or television studio newsroom, or by a broadcast network...

 that is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

 for the show telecast the most hours. Additionally, the station broadcasts First Business
First Business
First Business is a nationally syndicated financial news and analysis television program, produced by First Business Network LLC, a subsidiary of Weigel Broadcasting, in Chicago...

with news of the Chicago Board of Trade. Former WVON-AM radio personality Don Cornelius
Don Cornelius
Donald Cortez "Don" Cornelius is an American television show host and producer who is best known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance/music franchise Soul Train, which he hosted from 1971-1993...

 began the popular dance show Soul Train
Soul Train
Soul Train is an American musical variety show that aired in syndication from October 1971 to March 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists have also appeared.As a nod to Soul Trains...

in a cramped studio on the 43rd floor in 1970. When Cornelius moved the show to Los Angeles a year later, his assistant, Clinton Ghent took over the local show until it ended in 1976. Prior to Soul Train, shows filmed in the building were Kiddie A Go-Go, a dance show aimed at the pre-teen market which premiered in 1965 and Red Hot and Blues, a teen dance show hosted by local DJ Big Bill Hill which premiered in 1967.

Graphic arts
Although depicted with the tower in a Rand McNally
Rand McNally
Rand McNally is an American publisher of maps, atlases, textbooks, and globes for travel, reference, commercial, and educational uses. It also provides online consumer street maps and directions, as well as commercial transportation routing software and mileage data...

 map from 1893, later lithographs of the first 141 Jackson Street location display a red-roofed building without a tower. Memorabilia of the current building is abundant, with postcards of panoramic scenes from LaSalle Street, the clock, and lighted upper decks having been produced for decades. In views from the Museum Campus, the building's crown is framed by the middle floors of the taller Sears Tower
Sears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...

 in the background. Photographer Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky is a German visual artist known for his enormous architecture and landscape color photographs, often employing a high point of view...

 has used the location for still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...

 prints such as 1997's Chicago Board of Trade, I and 1999's Chicago Board of Trade, II. A photograph of the exterior, from the Museum series by Thomas Struth
Thomas Struth
Thomas Struth is a German photographer whose wide-ranging work includes depictions of detailed cityscapes, Asian jungles and family portraits. He is one of Germany's most widely exhibited and collected fine art photographers...

, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 in New York City. An often-reproduced painting by Leslie Ragan for the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...

 depicts streamliner
Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...

 locomotives idling at LaSalle Street Station
LaSalle Street Station
LaSalle Street Station is a commuter rail terminal at 414 S. LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois, serving Metra's Rock Island District. It was a major intercity rail terminal for the New York Central Railroad until 1968 and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad until 1978. The...

 with the Board of Trade Building looming prominently in the background.

At 1211 North LaSalle Street on the city's Near North Side
Near North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located north and east of the Chicago River, just north of the central business district . To its east is Lake Michigan and its northern boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago,...

, a 16-story apartment hotel built in 1929 and converted into an apartment building in 1981 was used by muralist Richard Haas
Richard Haas
Richard John Haas is an American muralist who is best known for architectural murals and his use of the Trompe l'oeil style.-Works:...

 for trompe-l'œil murals in homage to Chicago School architecture. One of the building's sides features the Chicago Board of Trade Building, intended as a reflection of the actual building two miles (3 km) south.

Literature
The 1885 building and trading pits were prominently featured in The Pit
The Pit (novel)
The Pit is a 1903 novel by Frank Norris. Detailing wheat speculation and the trading pits at the Chicago Board of Trade Building, it was the second book in what was to be the Epic of Wheat trilogy . The third book, Wolf, was never completed.The Pit was the basis for A Corner in Wheat, a 1909 short...

, the second novel by Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...

 in the Epic of Wheat trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...

. Life on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade is detailed in the nonfiction 2004 book Leg the Spread by Cari Lynn.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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