Grant Park Parking Garage Contract Let -- January 13, 1953

A parking garage beneath Grant Park today seems like a no-brainer today.  Imagine
if this 1934 scene were still a part of Chicago's front yard!  (Google Image)

On this date way back in 1953 Chicago began to acknowledge that the automobile was here to stay when the park board awarded a contract to John Griffith and Son Construction Company for construction of the city’s first underground parking garage.  Built beneath Grant Park with entrances and exits from Michigan Avenue, it would have space for 2,350 autos.  The contract price, which included stripping of topsoil from the park, excavation beneath the park, Michigan and Randolph Streets was $6,539,539.  Someone must have liked odd numbers.  Initial estimates for the completion of the project provided a figure of 675 days.  Things moved along quickly, and the new garage opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by a 50-piece band on September 1, 1954.