Editing Navy Pier (section)

=== Military usage ===
[[File:NavyPier1915.jpg|thumb|left|During construction, 1915 (''Chicago Daily News'')]]
Navy Pier opened to the public on July 15, 1916.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-navy-pier-updates-20160427-htmlstory.html|title=Navy Pier at 100: How the Chicago icon will be changing
|author=Bentle, Kyle|date=April 28, 2016|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=May 1, 2016}}</ref> Originally known as the "Municipal Pier", the pier was built by [[Charles Sumner Frost]], a nationally known architect, with a design based on the [[Burnham Plan of Chicago|1909 Plan of Chicago]] by  [[Daniel Burnham]] and [[Edward H. Bennett]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://navypier.com/pdf15/The_Centennial_Vision.pdf|title=PDF of Navy Pier|access-date=April 24, 2016|archive-date=April 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423153356/http://navypier.com/pdf15/The_Centennial_Vision.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Its original purpose was to serve as a dock for freighters, passenger ships, and indoor and outdoor recreation; events like expositions and pageants were held there. The pier was built atop 20,000 logs imported from [[Oregon]] that were piled into the lake bed of [[Lake Michigan]].

In mid-1918, the pier was also used as a jail for draft dodgers. In 1927, the pier was renamed Navy Pier to honor the naval veterans who served in [[World War I]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/retrofitchicago/home/participants/navy-pier.html#:~:text=Designed%20to%20be%20the%20%27people%27s,WWI%20Navy%20personnel%20in%201927. | title=Navy Pier | access-date=February 25, 2023 | archive-date=February 25, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230225150334/https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/retrofitchicago/home/participants/navy-pier.html#:~:text=Designed%20to%20be%20the%20%27people%27s,WWI%20Navy%20personnel%20in%201927. | url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1941, during [[World War II]], the pier became a training center for the [[United States Navy]]; about 10,000 people worked, trained and lived there. The pier contained a 2,500-seat theater, gym, 12-chair barber shop, tailor, cobbler shops, soda fountain and a vast kitchen and hospital.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2012/01/08/navy-piers-zany-past/|title=Chicago history, Chicago Flashback: Navy Pier|work =Chicago Tribune|date=January 8, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media
 | title =The former USS Sable (IX-81) and USS Wolverine (IX-64) moored near the Navy Pier, awaiting disposal
 | date =1946
 | url =http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/46/094606404.jpg }}</ref>

[[File:Navy Pier campus of UIC 1960s (IA catalog196364univ) (1).jpg|thumb|circa 1963]]

Beginning in 1946, as the Navy was winding down from its mission, the [[University of Illinois]] held classes at the pier, especially to serve the high demand from returning service members. As the maximum capacity was exceeded, the school outgrew the pier, the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]] was partly founded as a result.<ref name="pier">{{cite news | last1= Grossman|first1=Ron|title=University of Illinois at Navy Pier opened in 1946 to serve WWII veterans|url= http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-navy-pier-university-illinois-flashback-perspec-0710-md-20160707-story.html|access-date=January 27, 2018|work=Chicago Tribune|date=July 8, 2016}}</ref> After the university left, Navy Pier became underutilized.