1313 GROUP

Missing from that list, perhaps because they had already moved out by 1963, are some of the original 17 organizations, still well known and active today, like the Federation of Tax Administrators, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International City Management Association, and the Municipal Finance Officers Association.

The building was constructed for the purpose of housing these organizations on land donated by the University of Chicago. It was funded by a grant from the Spelman Foundation and served its purpose well. The Hyde Park News story has a nice description of the interior of this "amiably gothic" building.

But in the 1950s it became a target of conspiracy theorists:

...[D]uring the MacArthyite 1950s, [1313] represented to
the conspiracy-minded a secret nest and nexus of totalitarian evil in the U.S. One lead voice in the chorus of accusations was a woman from southern California named Jo Hindman. In 1959 and 1960 she published six articles in the American Mercury magazine that identified an insidious threat to American values and traditions that she termed “Metropolitan Government”--Metro, for short.

In a 1963 book entitled Terrible 1313 Revisited, Hindman disclosed to the world that

“. . ..in the late 1950’s, location of the Metro capital was discovered at 1313 E. 60th Street, Chicago 37, Illinois, a twenty-two organization clearing house. This arsenal of totalitarianism spews Metro directives, programs, and projects all over target U.S.A.

“In concept, practices, and in rapidly multiplying instances, Metro has wrecked private homes, businesses, property rights, and the ballot franchise. Upon the shambles of these basic concepts in American government, Metro seeks to force upon Americans collectivized Metropolitan Government, totally.”