Prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for the Chicago Tribune brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request of Colonel McCormick. Many of these reliefs have been incorporated into the lowest levels of the building and are labeled with their location of origin. Stones included in the wall are from such sites as the Trondheim Cathedral, Taj Mahal, Clementine Hall, the Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, Corregidor Island, Palace of Westminster, petrified wood from the Redwood National and State Parks, the Great Pyramid, The Alamo, Notre-Dame, Abraham Lincoln’s Tomb, the Great Wall of China, Independence Hall, Fort Santiago, the Berlin Wall, Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Banteay Srei among others.
A friend in Chicago, knowing I was a history buff, added the Tribune Tower to the tour he took me on. I think it was my favourite thing on the day, and that’s saying something. To steal a line, Chicago is my kind of town.