“On July 6, 1925, the Tribune opened the doors of Tribune Tower to the public. Perhaps spurred by the paper’s hype of its own building, an estimated 20,000 people showed up, a story reported the next day.
“Tribune Tower was conceived as a work of art. A totem pole in the form of a skyscraper, its iconography celebrated the greatest newspaper in the fairest city of them all.
“‘Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that can not be limited without being lost,’ Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1786. That line appears in the tower’s Hall of Inscriptions, along with quotations from Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Euripides and Daniel Webster.
“Col. Robert R. McCormick’s hymn to newspapering was chiseled into a mantel piece on the 24th floor: ‘The newspaper is an institution developed by modern civilization to present the news of the day, to foster commerce and industry, to inform and lead public opinion, and to furnish that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide.’
“Tribune Tower’s story began in 1922, when management recognized the paper had outgrown its headquarters at Dearborn and Madison streets. The Tribune had won a circulation war with William Randolph Hearst’s Herald-Examiner, gaining 250,000 readers.
“Joseph Patterson, the paper’s other co-owner with McCormick, thought it possible to transform a problem into an opportunity, Katherine Solomonson reports in ‘The Chicago Tribune Tower Competition.’
“On June 10, the contest was announced: “Make for The Tribune a picture of the most beautiful building in the modern world and the prize is won.”
“Perhaps because architects didn’t have to provide detailed blueprints and construction specifications, the contest drew more than 263 entries from 23 countries on three continents.
“The Finish architect Eliel Sarrinen took second place and won $20,000. His entry missed the August 1 deadline, but the judges decided it was too important to be left out.
“First place and $50,000 was awarded to the New York firm of Howells and Hood for their Gothic revival design.
“Accordingly, Tribune Tower became a medieval cathedral draped over a 20th century steel frame.” (Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 7/8/25)