The Grand Pacific Hotel was one of the first two prominent hotels built in Chicago, Illinois, after the Great Chicago Fire.[1] The hotel, designed by William W. Boyington and managed for more than 20 years by John Drake, was located on the block bounded by Clark Street, LaSalle, Quincy and Jackson.[2] It was a replacement for the Paficic Hotel, which had been built in 1871 (also designed by Boyington), only to burn in the fire later that year.[3]
Drake hosted "Great Game Dinners" featuring exotic cuisines at this hotel.[2] These dinners were a Chicago social institution for more than 50 years.[2] Newspapers devoted 4inches to its menu and guests.[2]
Along with contemporary Chicago luxury hotels such as the Palmer House, Tremont House, and Sherman House, it was built in the palazzo architectural style of the day.[4] The hotel also accommodated wealthy permanent residents in addition to transient guests who enjoyed the palace hotel.[4]
Many notable celebrities stayed here, including Oscar Wilde on his first visit to Chicago as part of his 1882 lecture tour of America.[5]James A. Garfield stayed at the hotel during the 1880 Republican National Convention, during which time he was nominated on the 34th ballot to represent the party in the election for President of the United States.[6] The hotel was the site where Standard time was adopted on October 11, 1883.[7]
The western half of the 1873 structure was demolished in 1895 in order to make way for the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank building.[7] The remaining eastern half was remodeled by the architectural firm Jenney and Mundie.[7] It reopened March 12, 1898, with 188 rooms, and remained open until 1921.[2] In 1921, it was demolished to make way for the Continental Illinois Bank building.[7]
Michigan Avenue is a north-south street in Chicago that runs at 100 east on the Chicago grid. Despite being 100 east, if you take into consideration that Wabash and Michigan avenues are evenly placed between State Street and Indiana Avenue, Michigan Avenue is actually closer to 166 or 167 east, to be precise. The northern end of the street is at Lake Shore Drive on the shore of Lake Michigan in the Gold Coast Historic District. The street's southern terminus is at Sibley Boulevard in the southern suburb of Dolton, but like many other Chicago streets, it exists in several disjointed segments.
The Chicago Water Tower is a contributing property and landmark in the Old Chicago Water Tower District in Chicago, Illinois, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built to enclose the tall machinery of a powerful water pump in 1869, it became particularly well known when it survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, although the area around it was burnt to the ground.
The Palmer House – A Hilton Hotel is a historic hotel in Chicago's Loop area. It is a member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Palmer House was the city's first hotel with elevators, and the first hotel with electric light bulbs and telephones in the guest rooms. Although the hotel has been dubbed the longest continuously operating hotel in North America, it closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reopened on June 17, 2021.
The Drake, a Hilton Hotel, 140 East Walton Place, Chicago, Illinois, is a luxury, full-service hotel, located downtown on the lake side of Michigan Avenue two blocks north of the John Hancock Center and a block south of Oak Street Beach at the top of the Magnificent Mile. Overlooking Lake Michigan, it was founded in 1920, and soon became one of Chicago's landmark hotels and a longtime rival of the Palmer House. It has 535 bedrooms, a six-room Presidential Suite, several restaurants, two large ballrooms, the "Palm Court", and Club International. Designed in the Italian Renaissance style by the firm of Marshall and Fox, the hotel's silhouette and sign contribute to the Gold Coast skyline.
The Queen City Hotel was constructed in 1871 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in Cumberland, Maryland to serve both as a train station and as a destination. Hosting 174 rooms, it also had such features as formal gardens with a fountain, a ballroom and 400-seat dining room. It was torn down in 1972 to make room for a new main United States Post Office and Distribution facility with a much smaller station for Amtrak service between the new Post Office and the railroad tracks.
William Warren Boyington was an architect who designed several notable structures in and around Chicago, Illinois. He was also mayor of Highland Park, Illinois.
The Hampton House is a residential condominium located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois on the property that once housed the Hyde Park House, a hotel built by Hyde Park founder Paul Cornell in the 1850s. The property was originally named the Sisson Hotel when constructed in 1918.
Paul Cornell was an American lawyer and Chicago real estate speculator who founded the Hyde Park Township that included most of what are now known as the south and far southeast sides of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. He turned the south side Lake Michigan lakefront area, especially the Hyde Park community area and neighboring Kenwood and Woodlawn neighborhoods, into a resort community that had its heyday from the 1850s through the early 20th century. He was also an urban planner who paved the way for and preserved many of the parks that are now in the Chicago Park District. Additionally, he was a successful entrepreneur with interests in manufacturing, cemeteries, and hotels.
The Hyde Park House was a four-story wood frame upscale hotel in Chicago, built and run by Paul Cornell, that served as the centerpiece for Hyde Park social life from 1857 until 1879. It was located on 53rd Street adjacent to Lake Michigan on land currently occupied by the Hampton House.
John Burroughs Drake was a hotelier who was part owner of the Tremont House hotel in Chicago, Illinois. He managed the Grand Pacific Hotel from 1874–1895. His sons, John B. Drake and Tracy C. Drake were the developers and proprietors of the Blackstone Hotel and Drake Hotel, which are both located along Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The former is located in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District and the latter along the Magnificent Mile. The Blackstone Hotel and Blackstone Theatre (now known as the Merle Reskin Theatre were built by his sons on the former site of the mansion of his business partner, Timothy Blackstone.
The Tremont House was a hotel located in Chicago, Illinois. A modern hotel also bears the same name.
Douglass Park is a part of the Chicago Park District on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. Established in 1869 and initially named South Park, its 173 acres (0.70 km2) are in the North Lawndale community area with an official address of 1401 S. Sacramento Drive.
The Soldiers' Home is an historic Italianate style building in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Located at 739 E. 35th Street, the Home was built in a series of phases from 1864 to 1923, designed by William W. Boyington and other architects. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996. The Soldiers' Home is the last surviving building in Chicago with exact association to the American Civil War. During the war, the oldest part of the home was built to serve as a hospital for injured soldiers. After the war, it became a home for disabled and aged Union Army Veterans.
The Morrison Hotel was a high rise hotel at the corner of Madison and Clark Streets in the downtown Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by the architectural firm of Holabird & Roche and completed in 1925. The hotel was demolished in 1965 to make room for the First National Bank Building.
Morton College is a public community college in Cicero, Illinois. It is the second oldest community college in the state. While the campus itself was constructed in 1975, the college was established in 1924. Before the construction of the campus, the college was housed in the same building as the local high school. It is named after Julius Sterling Morton, a Nebraska newspaper editor and politician who served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture.
The La Salle Hotel was a historic hotel located on the northwest corner of La Salle Street and Madison Street in the Chicago Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was designed by Holabird & Roche and opened in 1909. After a major fire in 1946, the hotel was refurbished and reopened in 1947. It closed in 1976 and was demolished for construction of an office building.
The Sherman House was a hotel in Chicago, Illinois that operated from 1837 until 1973, with four iterations standing at the same site at the northwest corner of Randolph Street and Clark Street. Long one of the city's major hotels, the hotel’s fortunes declined in the 1950s amid changes to its surrounding area, and it closed in 1973. The fourth and final building it had occupied was demolished in 1980 to make room for the James R. Thompson Center.
The Fremont Hotel was a hotel in the Bunker Hill suburb of Downtown Los Angeles, California. Situated at 401 South Olive Street on the southwest corner of Fourth and Olive streets, the hotel opened in September 1902 on California Admission Day and closed in the 1940s. The hotel was demolished in 1955.
Hotel Windermere was a hotel in Hyde Park, Chicago, United States, located at 56th Street and Cornell Avenue. It was built in 1892 for the Columbian Exposition. In 1924 it was rebuilt with a West and East hotel under Rapp & Rapp, who also built the Chicago Theatre and the Tivoli Theatre. The 12-story hotel had 482 guest rooms and 200 apartments and had a tunnel connecting the two hotels. Over the years Windermere East attracted guests such as John Rockefeller, Philip Roth, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and American football teams. Windermere West was demolished in 1959 to make way for a parking lot, and in 1981 Windermere East was converted into apartments and placed on the National Register of Historic Places a year later under the title Hotel Windermere East.
McVicker's Theater (1857–1984) was a playhouse in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built for actor James Hubert McVicker, the theater was the leading stage for comedic plays in Chicago's early years. It often hosted performances by Edwin Booth, who married McVicker's daughter and was once targeted there in an attempted murder. Adler & Sullivan designed a remodel in 1883. Although destroyed in two fires, including the Great Chicago Fire, McVicker's remained an operating theater until 1984. It was demolished the next year.
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The preceding Pacific Hotel after the 1871 Great Chicago Fire
in 1912
Empire Room one of 15 dining rooms in 1913
