Chicago Board of Trade

1931 The Chicago Board of Trade is the world's largest and oldest futures exchange. It was founded in March of 1848 in order to combat an inefficient grain distribution system. The Board's current location at 141 West Jackson Street was designed and built by the architectural firm of Holabird & Root. The building, completed in 1930, led to the appearance of Chicago's first "skyscraper quarter" in a then undeveloped area of the city. Various companies and institutions, eager to be located near the most important building of the midwestern economy, began construction of a cluster of their own commercial buildings on LaSalle Street, mimicking the Board's vertical style. The resulting solid row of powerhouses came to be known as "Commerce Canyon." At the head of this canyon, the Board of Trade rises 45 stories in to the air. Its 9-story base covers a city block. The 36-story tower resting on this base is crowned with a pyramid-shaped roof on which stands a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and harvest.