DUBUQUE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Dinnerware once used by the Chamber. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

DUBUQUE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Organization whose goals are the promotion of the Dubuque area for a broad range of commercial and industrial activities and promotion of the quality of life in the Dubuque area.

The Chamber is a member of a long line of organizations whose goal has been to improve the business climate of the city. The first BOARD OF TRADE was organized on September 28,1854, at a meeting held in the Globe Hotel. The officers included F. V. Goodrick, president; Edwin James, Jr., secretary; and M. Mobley, treasurer. Efforts were made by this group to expand the trade territory of Dubuque, but the organization, faced with the hardships caused by the CIVIL WAR, lasted only a few years before disbanding.

On January 8, 1876, the second Board of Trade was founded at a meeting held in the offices of the Dubuque Agricultural Society. H. S. Hetherington was elected president and John Samuel HANCOCK, secretary. Membership grew from ninety-six members in the first year to one hundred fifty the second year. In 1911 this organization, renamed the Commercial Club, sponsored the Dubuque Industrial Corporation that raised funds to attract the BRUNSWICK-BALKE-COLLENDER COMPANY, the first large industrial firm to locate in the city.

Shortly after the organization of the DUBUQUE INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION, the Commercial Club members on February 16,1920, changed the name of their group to the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce. In 1922 when the Chamber purchased the former site of the Dubuque Club, it became one of the few Chambers of Commerce in the United States to be the owner of a modern building in which civic activities could be centered.

In 1991 the Chamber received a Certificate of Achievement in the field of member retention awarded by the National Association of Membership Directors.