Chicago Motor Club

The Chicago Motor Club Building is an exceptional example of an Art Deco-style skyscraper that also exemplifies the importance of the automobile to the history of early 20th-century Chicago. Built in 1928, the building was the long-time headquarters of the Chicago Motor Club, a nationally-prominent motor club founded in 1906 to promote automobile ownership and to advocate on behalf of motorists, good roads and traffic safety. An early affiliate of the American Automobile Association (AAA), the club played a major role locally in lobbying for the implementation of improvements proposed in Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett’s 1909 Plan of Chicago to better accommodate automobile traffic in the City’s central business district.