ORAL HISTORY OF CHARLES F. MURPHY Interviewed by Carter H. Manny Compiled under the auspices of the Chicago Architects Oral History Project The Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings Department of Architecture The Art Institute of Chicago Copyright © 1995 Revised Edition © 2003 The Art Institute of Chicago This manuscript is hereby made available to the public for research purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publication, are reserved to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago. No part of this manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of The Art Institute of Chicago. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword iv Preface v Outline of Topics viii Oral History 1 Selected References 57 Curriculum Vitæ 59 Index of Names and Buildings 61 iii FOREWORD The Department of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to include this document, an interview of Charles F. Murphy by Carter Manny, in our collection of oral histories of Chicago architects. Carter Manny, a close associate of Murphy's, deserves our lasting thanks for his perception in recognizing the historical significance of Murphy's so often casually told stories and for his efforts to given them permanent form. It is an important addition to our collection because it brings to light many aspects of the practice of architecture in Chicago in the early years that only a privileged few could address. We share Carter's regret that we could not have had more of Murphy's recollections, but are indeed appreciative for what is here. This oral history text is available for study in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at The Art Institute of Chicago, as well as in a complete electronic version on the Chicago Architects Oral History Project's section of The Art Institute of Chicago website, www.artic.edu/aic Our sincere thanks to Carter for offering this interview to the Art Institute and to TapeWriter, who helped shape its final form. Betty J. Blum Director, CAOHP 1995 iv PREFACE Any future historian of Chicago architecture who is concerned with work of the twentieth century will sooner or later encounter the names: Shaw, Naess and Murphy; Naess and Murphy; C.F. Murphy Associates and Murphy/Jahn. The Murphy in this succession of firm names is Charles Francis Murphy (1890-1985). His seventy-year career in architecture, which started with Daniel Burnham in 1911 and drew to a close with Helmut Jahn during the early 1980s, was one of the longest in the history of the city. My thirty-year-plus association with Mr. Murphy began in 1948, when, just out of architecture school, I was hired by the firm then known as Naess and Murphy. I served a lengthy apprenticeship carrying out a variety of low-level assignments. Then during the mid-1950s I began to shoulder greater responsibility thanks largely to Mr. Murphy's son, Charles Jr., who came into the firm around 1954. In 1955 Mr. Murphy invited me to be a trustee of what later became the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, which he was beginning to organize as the executor of Ernest Graham's will. In 1957 I joined him and Sigurd Naess as one of four new junior partners in the firm. During the years that followed, I had many opportunities to hear stories that Mr. Murphy loved to tell about his experiences in architecture. As he neared the end of this life, I suggested that he jot down these stories or record them using a tape recorder. I didn't have much success with my suggestion, but after some prodding he agreed to let me come to his apartment for two recording sessions in June 1981. He was ninety-one years old and his mind was still very clear. He seemed to enjoy talking to me; Mrs. Murphy occasionally would join us when she overheard something from another room that she thought needed correcting or embellishing. Mr. Murphy was a congenial man who made friends easily and was well-liked by everyone he met. As he recounts on these tapes, he began as a specifications typist in the office of D.H. Burnham and Company in 1911. His big chance came a year or two later when he became the private secretary to Ernest Graham, who became head of the firm after Burnham died suddenly on a trip to Europe in 1912. Under Graham, the firm continued its national prominence, first as Graham Burnham and Company and then after 1917 as Graham, Anderson, Probst and White. v Mr. Murphy had no prior schooling in architecture, but at Graham's side he learned the ins and outs of maintaining a large architectural practice and eventually satisfied state requirements to become a licensed architect. He never practiced as an architectural designer, but, like Graham, devoted himself to the business side of the practice: to land the jobs and orchestrate the skills of others, to see that projects were successfully executed and that clients were kept satisfied. He grew to be more than Graham's secretary: he became his trusted confidant and executor of his will. But, as Murphy tells, Graham unfortunately remarked to friends that he knew more about his business than his partners, a remark that got back to the partners and so provoked their resentment that they fired Murphy and two other young Graham favorites within days of Graham's death in 1936. The others, Alfred Shaw and Sigurd Naess, joined Murphy in forming a new firm, the first of the succession of firms that bore the Murphy name. These firms were to be responsible for some major Chicago works of their time, beginning with the Prudential Building, in 1954, the first major building in the city following the depression and World War II, and continuing with such works as O'Hare International Airport, the Continental Insurance Building, Daley Center, the First National Bank and the Xerox Center. Regrettably, I had no experience or training taking oral histories but only wanted to preserve some of Mr. Murphy's stories in some chronological sequence. I realize now how much I missed that he could have told. There is little mention, for instance, of Mr. Murphy's role in organizing the Graham Foundation. This is a sad omission, since his efforts in this regard may have been his most lasting contribution to architecture. The serious reader can learn something of this story from a brief history of the foundation which I prepared for the trustees shortly before I retired as director in 1993. As part of my wind-up activities at the foundation, I also thought it might be a good idea to leave a transcript of the tapes in a file devoted to Mr. Murphy. During the fall of 1993, I asked Carolyn Kelly of the foundation staff to see what she could do. It proved to be a daunting task. The tapes were often garbled and thus I felt obliged to make some clarifying additions and corrections. Unfortunately, Mr. Murphy had no chance to check my editing, which occurred eight years after his death and twelve years after the taping sessions. Some of my editing reflects later events and vi afterthoughts, but I believe it does not distort the essence of this man's story that is told with candor about how architecture was practiced years ago in the city of Chicago. Researchers can find most of the working drawings of the various Murphy firms from 1937- 1973 at the Chicago Historical Society where they were given by Helmut Jahn in about 1990. Mr. Murphy would be pleased, I believe, that the C.F. Murphy Architectural Study Center at the Chicago Historical Society bears his name, the result of a grant from the Graham Foundation in 1989. There are also a few design drawings for some projects at the Ernest R. Graham Center for the Study of Architectural Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. The collection at the Chicago Historical Society also includes a list of the many people who worked in the later Murphy organizations. There is also material which describes the roles of key individuals on various projects. In many cases one can determine the hand on unsigned drawings by comparing the initials on the drawing with names on the employment list. I am pleased that the transcript of these tapes, made informally and limited as they are, have been included in the oral history collection of Chicago architects in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago. Carter H. Manny June 1994 The above preface remains unchanged since it was written. However the intervening years have brought change. Electronic communication has vastly increased in importance as a method by which information is transmitted. We are grateful to the Barker Trust for support to scan, reformat, and make this entire text available on the Art Institute of Chicago's website, www.artic.edu. We are grateful for this opportunity to make Charles Murphy's oral history accessible for research worldwide. Annemarie van Roessel deserves our thanks for her skillful handling of the process. Betty J. Blum Director, CAOHP November 2003 vii OUTLINE OF TOPICS Working for Thurber Art Galleries 1 D.H. Burnham and Company 3 Secretary to Ernest Graham 5 Burnham's Death and Reorganization of Firm 6 Graham, Anderson, Probst and White 7 Zoning and the Equitable Building 8 Insurance Exchange Building 10 D.H. Burnham and Ernest Graham 13 Alfred Shaw 16 Civic Opera House 18 Field Building 20 Shaw, Naess and Murphy 22 Ernest Graham 23 William "Billy" Leffingwell Graham 27 Ernest Graham's Will and Ruby 28 Merchandise Mart and Other Buildings 33 Century of Progress International Exposition 40 Prudential Building and Air Rights 41 Central District Filtration Plant 46 First National Bank 48 About the Builders Building 51 Chris Paschen 53 viii Charles F.