John B. Murphy Auditorium - 50 East Erie on The Gold Coast: This is worth a peek inside!

Last night I had the pleasure to a attend a reception for gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady at the Murphy Auditorium at 50 East Erie Street in the Gold Coast.

The reception was attended by about 150 people ( by my Dir. of Development quick count of the room methodology and years of counting head in the classroom). It was a nice affair, though I am a Democrat and still like Pat Quinn, even though he appears to believe in the Easter Bunny in matters of policy and administration and that hanging on to every word of Progressive loudmouths even though that has landed Illinois in its current fiscal jackpot.

Bill Brady was personable and sharp. He's supposed to be,

Now, the venue is wonderful! In fact I was delighted to see my cousin Cathy Carey running the place.

I remember drinking a quart of Drewery's on the steps of the Murphy Auditorium in 1973 with Mike Miller and Mike Stankewicz, between classes at Loyola LT. The place was gray and needed a good steam-cleaning - the whole section of the south Gold Coast was pretty bummy back then. We added to its charms -no doubt.

Today, adjacent to the Richard Driehaus Muesem and across from the Driehaus Building were the philanthropist parks his candy aplle red Phaeton on the sidewalk behind wrought iron gates, The Murphy Auditorium is magnificent.

The building was constructed by friends of John Benjamin Murphy, M.D. -Order of St. Gregory.

Murphy was born in a log cabin to Irish immigrant parents near Appleton, Wisconsin and died among the swells on Mackinac Island, Michigan, while staying at the Grand Hotel.

In between, Dr. John B. Murphy distinguished himself as an American surgeon and expert in gastrointestinal surgical techniques and the diagnoses of appendicitis symptoms. Murphy attended to the victims of the Haymarket Riots. When not in surgury, John B. Murphy conducted clinics for fellow cutters and saw bones from Mercy, Rush, and Cook County Hospitals. When Teddy Roosevelt was shot Dr. Murphy attended to the Bull Moose at Mercy hospital.



After Dr. Murphy's death, his many friends built an Auditorium to be used as clinical operating theater for surgeons. The Auditorium is built like a Cathedral and was modelled upon the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

The John B. Murphy Auditorium is worth a peek inside.