Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry Records

The Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the organizational successor of the Joliet Association of Commerce founded in 1914.  Although records for the 1914-1916 period have not been located, the minutes of the 1918 annual meeting of the Association refer to the meeting as the fourth annual meeting of the Association.  By-laws of the Association, adopted in 1918, indicated the broad purpose of the association “shall be to promote the general welfare of Joliet and surrounding territory.”  In 1916 membership in the Association stood at approximately 400 and activities included: promotion of good roads; attracting new industries to the area; establishing a deep waterways committee; cooperation in the war effort; preparation of an economic survey of Joliet (1922); and active promotion of the idea of a Joliet city plan. Merger discussions with related organizations had taken place during the 1919-1924 period resulting in a merger with the Commercial Club and the Merchants Association to form a new organization, the Joliet Chamber of Commerce. Throughout the twenties the organization remained the Chamber of Commerce but early in 1934 another reorganization took place resulting in a new Joliet Association of Commerce incorporated later that same year.  During these years (1934-1940) minutes of the meetings of the Board of Director’s are dominated by Depression related subjects: bank closings, plant shut-downs, unemployment and New Deal “alphabet” agencies and their activities in the Joliet region. Membership in the Association declined drastically to 200 in 1938 and the closing of steel mills in the area and the resulting unemployment and poverty generated fears of violence and social unrest.  With the coming of World War II Joliet, as well as the rest of the nation, began to recover from the most severe depression in American history.  Joliet’s heavy industrial base served it well during the war years.  Ordnance plants employed approximately 13,000 persons in 1941 and provided a tremendous boost to the local economy.  Despite war-time shortages of automobiles, fuel, rubber, and certain commodities, retail sales volume for 1941 was the highest in Joliet’s history. In 1946 J.E. Farrell, incoming President of the Association, called for the development of a long term plan for the JAC to serve as the basis for a Joliet city plan.  This emphasis on planning became one of the dominant themes in Association work during the post-war period. The Association’s members were instrumental in the development of a city plan, and in 1955 the firms that sponsored the drafting of the Joliet Plan created the Greater Joliet Committee to oversee the implementation of the Plan.  That same year, 1955, partly through the Association’s efforts, Joliet received an All American City Award. The Association changed its name to the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce in 1962 and continued to expand its areas of interest through its several organizational divisions: government affairs, community development, economic development and organizational affairs. Among the Chamber’s special projects instituted over the last two decades are: the World of Work in Economic Education designed to improve the skills of educators; Counties Organized for Regional Development; Salute to Industry; Court Monitors Project; Fourth of July Committee; Intra- Industry Tours; and the Downtown Development Council.  In order to more accurately reflect its activities the Chamber in 1979 changed its name to the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

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