Arthur Rubloff

Rubloff was born to a Jewish family on June 25, 1902 in Duluth, Minnesota, the eldest of five children born to Solomon Rubloff, an immigrant from Russia who owned several jewelry and dry goods stores.[1] The family moved to Chisholm, Minnesota but lost everything to a fire in 1908 which destroyed the town.[1] In 1914, at the age of 12, Rubloff ran away to Duluth, Minnesota where he worked as galley boy on the J.S. Stevenson, an ore boat.[1] In 1915, he moved to Cincinnati where he worked at a furniture manufacturer.[1] In 1917, he moved to Chicago where his parents had moved and worked for his father's ladies clothing manufacturing company.[1] His parent's factory burned down and his father enlisted his son to lease some real estate he had accumulated and was serendipitously offered a job by the lessee who liked his gumption.[1] In 1919, he went to work for the Robert White & Co selling downtown office space in Chicago.[1] In 1930, he went into business for himself with only $700, having squandered all the money he made.[1] He named the company the Arthur Rubloff & Co.[1] His break came when he negotiated a complicated and large North Kansas City development project for investment-banking firm, Allen & Co.[1] Using the proceeds from that transaction and leveraging his relationship with Allen and Co, he developed – in the late 1940s – Evergreen Plaza, one of the first shopping malls.[1] He promoted, developed, and transformed North Michigan Avenue into the "Magnificent Mile".[1] He helped to developed the Old Town neighborhood in Chicago, and the Southland and Sun Valley projects in San Francisco as well as co-developing Carl Sandburg Village, the Ft. Dearborn Project, and proposing the North Loop project known as the Chicago 21 Plan.[1] Sara Miller, later to win renown as a sculptor, was for many years an executive with Rubloff's firm.[2]

Rubloff estimated his net worth at $100 million.[1]

In 1934, he married Josephine Sheehan; she died in 1974.[1] In 1980, he married New York native Mary (née Hilem) Taylor,[3][1] former wife of actor Rod Taylor and adopted her daughter, Felicia Taylor. After Rubloff's death, Hilem married Florida real estate developer Lewis M. Schott. [4] Rubloff died on May 24, 1986 at his home in Chicago.[1] Services were held at Temple Sholom in Chicago.[1]