Blog

By Brent Hoffmann, Class of 2005

“I like tours that take people to the south side of the city,” says Marcia, who grew up in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. “I think of Devil in the White City, White City Revisited and Discover Chicago: Open-top Bus as visits to an historic, but underappreciated, part of the city. A docent’s enthusiasm is contagious. On one of my Devil tours, which visits Jackson Park, a tour-taker said, ‘you made the neighborhood come alive’.”

Marcia’s interest in Chicago’s architecture and history began with excursions with her father throughout the city. She graduated with a BA in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Returning to Chicago, she worked in social services and adult education at a well-known building on the Chicago River: the Montgomery Ward warehouse building at 600 W. Chicago. “I worked on adult education programs for Ward employees. Now I love seeing the building from the river, adapted to a new use.”

Computer Programmer
In the early 2000s, Marcia retired from her second career — as a computer programmer and manager at Baxter Healthcare in Deerfield. She began volunteering with Preservation Chicago, working in finance and fund-raising, then served as a board member.

“I’ve been interested in the Chicago Architecture Foundation since I first visited the Glessner House as it was being restored in the 1960s,” explains Marcia. She took CAF tours, attended programs, and became a docent in 2008.

Oak Park, Too
In addition to her south-side tours, Marcia has a busy tour schedule that includes the Loop and Oak Park. She leads Architecture Conversations (private tours) plus Art Deco Skyscrapers: Downtown, Art Deco Skyscrapers; Riverfront Trolley and Walking Tour, Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, Chicago Board of Trade Building, Evolution of the Skyscraper, Frank Lloyd Wright by Bus, Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Historic Skyscrapers, Historic Treasures of Culture and Commerce, and Inland Steel Building tours.

She has served on the Docent Performance Review and the Docent Re-Design Program Transition Committees. Marcia was an Open House Chicago interpreter. She researched and participated in the training for Neighborhood Voices in South Shore, and has been a sponsor, coach and certifier for the Historic, Modern, Treasures, and Art Deco tours. She also is co-tour director of the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel and Chicago Board of Trade Building tours. In 2016, she was recognized with a service award for her work in tour development.

Deco in Porto
Retirement has made more time for travel. “Recently, I was in Porto, Portugal,” she says. “I visited an Art Deco house where I saw the work of designers who exhibited at the 1925 Paris exhibition that influenced Art Deco architecture in Chicago.” In Barcelona, Spain, she toured the Sagrada Familia Church and other buildings by Antoni Gaudi. In 2016, Marcia took an art and architecture tour in the Netherlands, including a stay in Amsterdam, where the guide told her that he’s writing a book with a chapter about Mies’s Farnsworth House. Marcia regaled him with stories about Chicago, and encouraged him to visit the city to see its world famous architecture.

Wright Plus 150
Ever the docent… she says, “I volunteer with the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, which is headquartered in the Rookery Building. And docents may be interested in the Wright Plus 150 Architectural Housewalk on May 20th. It includes four private Wright homes in Oak Park.”

Marcia adds that, “being a docent is the ‘gift that keeps on giving’ through learning, sharing what you love, and the good fellowship of the CAF docent corps and staff.”