(Above) A narrow walkway overlooking the Chicago River would run the length of Phillips Pier 66 at Marina City in this vision by R. A. Johnson in 1963. The walkway was part of the marina until about 2000. It was used to access equipment along the ceiling of the marina, including air pumps that were used as de-icers. Note the stairs at left, leading from the walkway down to the river. Image provided by The Art Institute of Chicago.

1,000 boats in 1959. 700 boats in 1961. And in 1963, the estimate for number of boats the marina at Marina City would accommodate was down to 500.

Still, on November 6, 1963, Phillips Petroleum Company (now ConocoPhillips Company) signed a 20-year, multi-million dollar lease to operate the marina. Phillips operated a “Pier 66” in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and planned to call this marina Pier 66, also. They eventually settled on the name “Phillips 66 Marina.”

Six large slips would be built to move boats to and from the water. A concrete and steel seawall, built by Chicago and North Western Railway when it owned the property, kept water away from the slips while they were constructed. Later that month, divers removed the 280-foot bulkhead, allowing water into the marina.

(Left) The seawall is still in place in this detail from a 1963 postcard that was photographed by Larry Dodson for Cameo Greeting Cards, Inc.

Dynamite was used to do this. Precision Blasting Company of St. Charles, Illinois did the honors over a few days, beginning on Wednesday, November 27, 1963.

A barge was tied up alongside the seawall and closest to the State Street Bridge. Large mats were placed over the area being blasted to limit noise and debris. Windows were reinforced on the restaurant under construction above the marina. Water was pumped into the slips behind the bulkhead to equalize pressure.

More than 80 pounds of dynamite were used to break up the reinforced concrete. Holes were drilled into the concrete, into which sticks of dynamite were placed and then detonated. After rubble from the blast was hauled onto the barge, a diver then cut away the steel at the bottom of the seawall.

Former resident Earl Meech was home in the west tower when the seawall was blasted. “Since my balcony was directly over the river, I had a good view. I had guests at the time and we were sitting in the living room when hearing and feeling the first blast.”

He says the mats muffled the sound, “but we knew it was close.”

The blasting did not completely knock down the seawall. According to Marko Lucht, a former marina employee, there is still a “stub” of the seawall at the bottom of the marina slips.

“We had a sailboat stay the night during which the river level went down less than a foot, trapping it,” he recalled in 2012. “We had to enlist every available marina worker, janitor, and truck driver to stand on one side of the sailboat to heel her enough to slip out.”

(Above) The hoist control, photographed in 2007. (Inset) In 1964, marina manager Tom Dollnig was photographed operating an electric hoist capable of lifting a craft weighing six tons.

A Marina City newsletter from 1964 says a boat could be launched in five minutes “with a casual flip of a switch and push of a button.”

A special mechanism was installed to keep water from freezing in the slips in winter. It sent warmer water at the bottom of the river up to the surface. Boats could be stored at the marina during summer or winter, and owners would pay rent based on the size of their boat. The minimum would be $180 for summer storage and $100 for winter storage.

When the marina opened on June 1, 1964, manager Tom Dollnig expected a sales showroom to be completed by mid-July.

(Above) The marina at Marina City, photographed in 2010 from the Chicago River.