(Left) Elevator lobby of west residential tower from 1965 film This Is Marina City.

It was the Marina City Land Rush of 1962. More than 3,500 people filled out rental applications for 896 available apartments.

The ones who moved in between October 14, 1962, and December 23, 1964, when the last unit was occupied, may not have felt so lucky.

To get to their apartments, they walked across muddy wooden planks. The common areas were lit by bare bulbs and heated using butane tanks. There was no laundry room, or storage areas, or mailboxes. The lobby had no carpeting and newspapers coated the cold hallway floors. It was damp from the wet concrete that had not yet cured.

On February 14, 1963, one of the butane tanks exploded and set fire to five other tanks. No one was injured and damage was minor but 50 people were evacuated.

At least the residents were appreciated.

When Betty McFarlane (now Betty Hogeorges) moved in on January 31, 1963, she received a dozen red roses, a free subscription to the Chicago Tribune, a frozen turkey at Thanksgiving, and a set of salt and pepper shakers at Christmas. Betty (right, with baseball legend “Yogi” Berra) had watched Marina City being built from nearby Executive House, where she was catering manager.

“From my office windows I could see what was going up across the river,” she recalled in 2009 from her home, still at Marina City, “and was intrigued by the two strange-looking round structures. Later, of course, when I learned they were to be residential buildings, I was interested in the idea of living so close to work.”

She looked at the model apartments on West Randolph Street, submitted an application, and was approved for a one-bedroom apartment on the 24th floor of the east tower.

Marina City was the place to live, she recalls, at least in the beginning. Its wealthy residents and overall trendiness were at odds with Marina City being intended as affordable housing for middle-income workers.