September 27, 1830 – Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Jr. buys Chicago’s “Block 1” for $685. Marina City will be built on the land 130 years later.

September 14, 1959 – Plans for Marina City are announced to the local news media.

September 1, 1961 – Financing for Marina City is completed when Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company announces it will loan the project $5 million toward the $10 million office building.

September 15, 1961 – Three construction workers, 33-year-old Homer Fields, 42-year-old Wallace Kump, and 24-year-old James Toner, fall 43 stories and are killed in an accident inside the core of the east tower.

September 18, 1962 – Scrap lumber from concrete forms catches fire on the 61st floor of the east tower. It is extinguished with water pumped up through the building.

September 24, 1962 – William Jones, age 44, a plasterer who had been working at Marina City for about five months, falls off a construction platform on the 40th floor of the east tower. He lands on the State Street Bridge and is the fourth construction worker to die while building Marina City.

September 1962 – Several office buildings are competing for National Design Center, but Marina City wins a ten-year lease.

September 1964 – WBKB (now WLS-TV) starts broadcasting from a transmitter and tower at Marina City.

September 10, 1964 – James Bell, age 30, tries to rob Marina City Bank but does not appear to have a weapon on him and the teller refuses to give him money. He flees but is soon caught.

September 21, 1968 – Morris Swibel is robbed in the Marina City rental office he manages of $500 by two men carrying a sawed-off shotgun in a flowered shopping bag.

September 5, 1969 – A crowd estimated at 1,500 – mostly men – gathers on the Marina City plaza to watch 14 women drop their bras into a basket. It is part of a “Braless Friday” demonstration by a local radio station.

September 25, 1970 – Marina Cinemas, a triplex movie theater, opens at Marina City with The Hawaiians, Hello, Dolly! and M*A*S*H.

September 15, 1977 – The conversion of Marina City residences from rental to condominium units begins. Marina City Sales, Inc., a new company led by Charles Swibel, announces condo units will be offered for between $26,000 and $80,000.

September 21, 1979 – For the Paramount Pictures film The Hunter, starring Steve McQueen, a green 1980 Grand Prix Pontiac is launched off the west tower parking ramp into the Chicago River.

September 21, 1990 – The Chicago Plan Commission approves a proposal to build a two-story retail building near the east tower over space occupied by the skating rink, convert the upper floors of the office building into a hotel, but keep the theater building.

September 27, 1992 – Writing in the Chicago Tribune, J. Linn Allen describes Marina City as “a seedy, crumbling wreck, overwhelmed by so many problems that any near-term solution appears unlikely.” In a September 29 editorial about Marina City, the Chicago Tribune uses the word “blight.”

September 14, 1995 – Developer John Marks and entrepreneur Isaac Tigrett announce plans for a 1,500-seat concert hall, 400-room hotel, nightclub, restaurant, and a dock for a boat that would provide music and live entertainment on the Chicago River. Tigrett arrives at the House of Blues groundbreaking ceremony in a vintage railroad car with actors Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, and John Goodman.