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Inside the Murphy Auditorium Photo: Allen Bourgeois
The John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium was built in 1926 for the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in Chicago. Designed by the firm Marshall and Fox, it borrowed heavily from the Chapelle de Notre Dame de Consolation in Paris. The auditorium was attached to the 1883 Nickerson Mansion, also owned by the college from 1919 until 2003, when the late philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus purchased the grand home known as the “Marble Palace” in its day for its lavish interior.
After a five-year restoration process, Driehaus opened the mansion as a museum largely dedicated to the art and design of the Gilded Age, while the auditorium stayed in the possession of the college. “The idea was always there to join these two back together with a common purpose,” says Anna Musci, who was recently named the museum’s executive director, and this week the museum announced it had purchased the auditorium wit