Arts & Entertainment
Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum Pays Tribute to City’s History in Heart of Financial District
Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum, located at 141 W. Jackson, during a ribbon-cutting event on July 8, 2025. (Courtesy of R2 Companies)
A newly opened museum aims to pay tribute to Chicago’s trading history, along with the broader legacy and future of downtown’s financial district.
Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum, 141 W. Jackson Blvd., is free and open to the public. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays.
The space aims to honor the people, architecture and innovation that shaped both Chicago and modern trading through immersive video, historic artifacts – like trading jackets and teletype machines – and first-person audio stories from traders, according to a news release.
The 2,000-square-foot exhibit is housed in a formerly vacant retail space in the Chicago Board of Trade Building’s north lobby. The private equity real estate firm R2 Companies partnered with the asset management firm Apollo Global Management in 2023 to revitalize the historic building, according to R2 Companies’ website.
“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,” R2 Companies partner Gary Stoltz said in a statement.
The museum received a $250,000 grant from the city’s Small Business Improvement Fund, as part of an effort to revitalize vacancies near the LaSalle Street corridor, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.
City officials and stakeholders gathered Tuesday for a ribbon cutting of the newly unveiled museum.
“The museum is one of five initial SBIF grant recipients downtown and among the first to complete a buildout project,” Chicago Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright said in a statement. “We’d love to see more destination-oriented projects like this advance and contribute to the Loop’s mixed-use vitality.”
For more information, visit the Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum’s website.
Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]
