Ribbon cut for new Chicago Board of Trade Museum
The ribbon was cut this week for the new , honoring the history and innovations of trading in Chicago.
R2 companies, Ald. Bill Conway (34th), and Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright were among those who cut the ribbon for the new museum at the Board of Trade building, at 141 W. Jackson Blvd. downtown.
As described in a news release, the Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum "honors the people, architecture and innovation that shaped both the city and modern trading." The 2,000 square-foot exhibit is housed in a formerly vacant retail space in the north lobby of the building, and features large-scale graphics and video, historical artifacts such as trading jackets and teletype machines, and traders' first-person spoken stories, the release said.
"The vision for the museum was to create something that invites people into the story of this building and the people whose lives it impacted," Gary Stoltz, Partner at R2 Companies, said in a news release. "From traders to architecture enthusiasts to school groups, this space gives everyone an opportunity to experience the legacy of LaSalle Street up close, and we're thrilled to have this opportunity to pay tribute to such an important part of Chicago's architectural and economic history."
The website for the museum notes that the Chicago Board of Trade was founded as a cash market for crop commodities to help farmers determine their prices. The Board of Trade building was commissioned by the celebrated architectural firm Holabird & Root in 2025, and opened its doors on June 9, 1930.
The main trading floor at the Board of Trade with its octagonal pits once had 2,700 miles of telephone and telegraph wires hidden within it. Traders famously use coded hand gestures to signal information about trades from across the pit.
In addition to the Board of Trade itself and its training floor, was once home to the studios for WCIU-TV, Channel 26, which hosted the debut of "Soul Train" on that station in 1970. The trading floor at the Board of Trade also made an appearance in the 1986 classic movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
The Board of Trade Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and is closed on weekends and federal holidays. Museum entry is free and does not require reservations.
