a possible salvage in the near future.

the tower club was initially known as the electric club, founded in 1916 by opera enthusiast samuel insull, who established commonwealth edison and, according to legend, was the inspiration for monopoly character rich "uncle pennybags". the club, located at north dearborn street and west calhoun place, was originally an elite fellowship for titans of the electrical industry. after insull commissioned the building of the civic opera house, the club moved there in 1929. but the electric club nearly closed during the great depression, which put the organization deeply in debt and bankrupted insull. it rebounded in the late 1930's and '40's, diversified its membership and rose to wider prominence. in 1952 the name was changed to the tower club.