Sauganash Hotel

Last updated

Sauganash Hotel
Sauganash2b.jpg
Sauganash Hotel, c. 1830–33 (the smaller building on the left was Chicago's first drug store)
Sauganash Hotel
General information
Completed1831;193 years ago (1831)
Closed1851;173 years ago (1851)
Technical details
Floor count2

Sauganash Hotel (originally Eagle Exchange Tavern) is a former hotel; regarded as the first hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1831, it was located at Wolf Point in the present day Loop community area at the intersection of the north, south and main branches of the Chicago River. The location at West Lake Street and North Wacker Drive (formerly Market Street) was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002. [1] The hotel changed proprietors often in its twenty-year existence and briefly served as Chicago's first theater. It was named after Sauganash, an interpreter in the British Indian Department.

Contents

History

Thompson's original 1830 58-block plat of Chicago showing the intersection of the branches of the Chicago River Thompson plat of Chicago 1830.png
Thompson's original 1830 58-block plat of Chicago showing the intersection of the branches of the Chicago River

Mark and Monique Beaubien, the owners and builders of the hotel, were French Indian traders. In 1826 they moved to Chicago on the advice of Mark's elder brother Jean, an established trader who lived next to Fort Dearborn. The Beaubiens settled in a small cabin on Wolf's Point and also traded with the Native Americans and other travelers to the growing settlement. [2] They built a tavern on the east bank of the south branch of the Chicago River at the point where the north and south branches meet. [1] [3] [4]

The tavern initially was named the Eagle Exchange Tavern. [5] In 1831, they added a frame to the log structure to create Chicago's first hotel, the Sauganash Hotel. [3] When completed, it was one of only two residential structures on the south side of the main branch of the Chicago River, the other being that of his brother, Col. Jean B. Beaubien. [6] The settlement had only twelve houses at the time. [5] The hostelry immediately became famous, [7] and when reconstructed later became the city's largest and finest hotel. [4] [8] Immediately adjacent to the hotel's public bar was Chicago's first drug store. [9] The Greek Revival trim of the new hotel contrasted with the other eleven buildings of Chicago. The symmetry of its facade was typical to contemporary Greek Revival practiced on the East Coast. Juliette Kinzie, who came to Chicago from Connecticut in 1831, described it as "a pretentios[ spelling? ] white two-story building, with bright blue wood shutters, the admiration of all the little circle at Wolf Point". [2] The hostelry's clientele transcended race, with natives and settlers enjoying each other's company. [10]

The flow of travelers and settlers intensified with the end of the Black Hawk War in 1832. [2] In 1833 the hotel housed election of the first town trustees of the newly formed Town of Chicago. [1] Beaubien kept the Hotel until 1834 and during his ownership he regularly entertained guests with his violin. [8] On August 18, 1835, two years after the Potawatomi natives signed the treaty agreeing to be moved to a reservation beyond the Mississippi River in northwestern Missouri, they selected 800 braves to perform their last war dance parade on a path that passed in front of the hotel. [11] [12] [13]

In 1835, a Mr. Davis assumed control of the hotel, which subsequently had a series of proprietors. [8] The building briefly served as Chicago's first theater, [1] and hosted the first Chicago Theatre company in November 1837 in an abandoned dining room. [14] [15] By 1839, it returned to service as a hotel, [8] but was destroyed by fire in 1851, [1] and subsequently torn down. [16] The Wigwam was built in its place nine years later. [17]

Honoree

Billy Caldwell "Sauganash", who served as an interpreter for the Indian Agents, [18] was the honoree of the hotel. [8] Born in approximately 1780, "Sauganash" was half native-american whose father was Colonel Caldwell, an Irish officer in the British Army stationed at Detroit; his mother was a Pottawatomi. He was schooled at a Jesuit school in Detroit, where he learned English and French. Caldwell learned several Indian dialects. Billy Caldwell's Indian Name was "Straight Tree", but he was known by "Sauganash", meaning Englishman in the Potawatomi language. As a warrior, Sauganash was under the influence of Tecumseh until his death in 1813, and he rose to the level of a Captain in the British Indian Department during the War of 1812. [19]

Theater

In 1834 (three years before Chicago incorporated as a city), the hotel hosted the first professional public performance in Chicago at a cost of $.50 (equivalent to $15.26in 2023) for adults and $.25 (equivalent to $7.63in 2023) for children. The show promised a wide variety of talents including ventriloquism. In the following two years, several traveling showmen performed at the hotel. In 1837, the Chicago Theater, which was the first local theater company, set up shop in the hotel's abandoned dining room. Co-managers Harry Isherwood and Alexander McKinzie procured an amusement license for the company from the city council, and it began performing a different billed show every night starting in late October or early November for approximately six weeks. The plays included titles The Idiot Witness, The Stranger, and The Carpenter of Rouen. Production of The Stranger took place in the dining room of the hotel. [20] Following a six-week engagement, the company went on tour until the following spring, when it returned to a different local venue. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Baptiste Point du Sable</span> Early founder of Chicago (died 1818)

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable is regarded as the first permanent non-native settler of what would later become Chicago, Illinois. He is recognized as the city's founder. The site where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River around the 1780s is memorialized as a National Historic Landmark, now located in Pioneer Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Dearborn</span> Historic fort built at site of Chicago, Illinois, USA

Fort Dearborn was a United States fort, first built in 1803 beside the Chicago River, in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by U.S. troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of Fort Dearborn during the War of 1812, and a replacement Fort Dearborn was constructed on the same site in 1816 and decommissioned by 1837.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Council Bluffs, Iowa</span> City in Iowa, United States

Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. Its population was 62,799 as of the 2020 census, making it the state's tenth most populous city, and the most populous city in Southwest Iowa. The Omaha metropolitan region of which Council Bluffs is a part, is the 58th largest in the United States, with an estimated population of 967,604 (2020). It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from Omaha, Nebraska. Until about 1853 Council Bluffs was known as Kanesville. Kanesville was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail. Kanesville is also the northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trails because there was a steam-powered boat which ferried the settlers' wagons and cattle across the Missouri River. In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad to California was connected to the existing U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potawatomi</span> Native American people of the Great Plains

The Potawatomi, also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie, are a Native American people of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquin family. The Potawatomi call themselves Neshnabé, a cognate of the word Anishinaabe. The Potawatomi are part of a long-term alliance, called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibway and Odawa (Ottawa). In the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi are considered the "youngest brother". Their people are referred to in this context as Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and refers to the council fire of three peoples.

Billy Caldwell, baptized Thomas Caldwell, known also as Sauganash, was a British-Potawatomi fur trader who was commissioned captain in the Indian Department of Canada during the War of 1812. He moved to the United States in 1818 and settled there. In 1829 and 1833, he negotiated treaties on behalf of the United Nations of Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi with the United States, and became a leader of a Potawatomi band at Trader's Point. He worked to gain the boundary long promised by the British between white settlers and Indians, but never achieved it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forest Glen, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Forest Glen is one of the 77 official city community areas of Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's Northwest Side. It comprises the neighborhoods of Forest Glen, Edgebrook and Sauganash, with sub-neighborhoods of Sauganash Park, Wildwood, North Edgebrook and Old Edgebrook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brush Park</span> United States historic place

The Brush Park Historic District is a neighborhood located in Detroit, Michigan. It is bounded by Mack Avenue on the north, Woodward Avenue on the west, Beaubien Street on the east, and the Fisher Freeway on the south. The Woodward East Historic District, a smaller historic district completely encompassed by the larger Brush Park neighborhood, is located on Alfred, Edmund, and Watson Streets, from Brush Street to John R. Street, and is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard</span> American pioneer

Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard was an American fur trader, insurance underwriter, and land speculator. He was influential in the development of the city of Chicago and responsible for its growth during the 19th century. First arriving in Chicago in 1818, he settled in the area in the late 1820s. He became one of the most prominent residents of the town and was one of its first trustees in 1833. He went on to build Chicago's first stockyard and help foment a land boom for Chicago in the East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Treaty Elm</span> Former Elm in Chicago

The Old Treaty Elm marked the Northern boundary of the Fort Dearborn Reservation, the approximate edge of the Billy Caldwell Reserve, and the trail to Lake Geneva. The tree was located in the Sauganash neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, and stood until 1934. The marker is placed several feet west of the actual location of the trunk of the tree, which stood approximately in the middle of what is now Kilbourn Avenue, just north of Rogers Avenue, which is the Old Indian Boundary Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wigwam (Chicago)</span> Convention center in Chicago (demolished)

The Wigwam was a convention center and meeting hall that served as the site of the 1860 Republican National Convention. It was located in Chicago, Illinois, at Lake Street and Market near the Chicago River. This site had previously been the site of the Sauganash Hotel, Chicago's first hotel. This is where supporters ushered Abraham Lincoln to the party nomination and the eventual U.S. Presidency. The location at Lake and Wacker was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002. The name "Wigwam" was later associated with host locations for both the 1864 Democratic National Convention and the 1892 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius White</span> Union Army officer in the American Civil War

Julius White was an American businessman and brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he served as U.S. Minister (ambassador) to Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Opera House</span> Offices and Theater in Chicago, USA

The Chicago Opera House was a theater complex in Chicago, Illinois, designed by the architectural firm of Cobb and Frost. The Chicago Opera House building took the cue provided by the Metropolitan Opera of New York as a mixed-used building: it housed both a theater and unrelated offices, used to subsidize the cost of the theater building. The theater itself was located in the middle of the complex and office structures flanked each side. The entire complex was known as the "Chicago Opera House Block," and was located at the Southwest corner of West Washington Avenue and North Clark Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolf Point, Chicago</span> Human settlement in Illinois, US

Wolf Point is the location at the confluence of the North, South and Main Branches of the Chicago River in the present day Near North Side, Loop, and Near West Side community areas of Chicago. This fork in the river is historically important in the development of early Chicago. Located about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) from Lake Michigan, this was the location of Chicago's first three taverns, its first hotel, Sauganash Hotel, its first ferry, its first drug store, its first church, its first theater company, and the first bridges across the Chicago River. The name is said to possibly derive from a Native American Chief whose name translated to wolf, but alternate theories exist.

Antoine Ouilmette was a fur trader and early resident of what is now Chicago, Illinois. He was of French Canadian and possibly Native American ancestry. The village of Wilmette, Illinois is named in his honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Salle Hotel</span> Former hotel in Chicago

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Baptiste Beaubien</span> American fur-trader (1787–1863)

Jean Baptiste Beaubien, a multi-lingual fur-trader born in Detroit, Michigan, became an early resident of what became Chicago, Illinois, as well as an early civic and militia leader in Cook County, Illinois during the Black Hawk War, before moving to Du Page County, Illinois in his final years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Robinson (chief)</span>

Alexander Robinson, was a British-Ottawa chief born on Mackinac Island who became a fur trader and ultimately settled near what later became Chicago. Multilingual in Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwa, English and French, Robinson also helped evacuate survivors of the Fort Dearborn Massacre in 1812. In 1816, Robinson was a translator for native peoples during the Treaty of St. Louis. He became a Potawatomi chief in 1829 and in that year and in 1833, he and fellow Metis Billy Caldwell negotiated treaties on behalf of the United Nations of Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi with the United States. Although Robinson helped lead Native Americans across the Mississippi River in 1835, unlike Caldwell, Robinson returned to the Chicago area by 1840 and lived as a respected citizen in western Cook County until his death decades later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1837 Chicago mayoral election</span> Election in Chicago

The 1837 Chicago mayoral election was held on May 2, 1837. It was the first Chicago mayoral election, taking place the same year as Chicago's incorporation as a city. Democratic candidate William B. Ogden defeated Whig incumbent Town President John H. Kinzie by a landslide 38.5 point margin.

Henry L. Newhouse (1874–1929) was an architect in Chicago, Illinois. His work includes the Milford Theatre (Chicago), Blackstone-State Theater, and Sutherland Hotel. He also designed Elam House (1903) and Chicago Defender Building.

Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen was an American settler who was the first president of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Chicago.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Site of the Sauganash Hotel/Wigwam". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Keating, Ann Durkin (2005). Chicagoland: city and suburbs in the railroad age . University of Chicago Press. ISBN   0-226-42882-6. pp. 39–40.
  3. 1 2 Berger, Molly (2005). "Hotels". Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago . Chicago Historical Society . Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "Wolf Point and Early Hotels". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. pp. 629–30. ISBN   1-143-91396-5 . Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  5. 1 2 Randall, Frank A. & John Randall (1999). History of the development of building construction in Chicago. University of Illinois Press. ISBN   0-252-02416-8 . Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  6. ↑ Wentworth, John (2010). Early Chicago. Fort Dearborn: An Address ... The British Library. p. 68. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  7. ↑ "At this date, Chicago was a village of only twelve houses" – Frank Alfred Randall, John D. Randall (1999). History of the development of building construction in Chicago . University of Illinois Press. ISBN   0-252-02416-8. p. 8.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "Wolf Point and Early Hotels". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. p. 633. ISBN   1-143-91396-5 . Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  9. ↑ Bulletin of pharmacy. Vol. 16. Nabu Press. 2010. p. 100. ISBN   978-1-144-46348-7 . Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  10. ↑ Vowell, Sarah (2001). Take the cannoli: stories from the New World. Simon & Schuster. p. 100. ISBN   0-7432-0540-5.
  11. ↑ William W. Williams; James Harrison Kennedy (1890). National magazine: a monthly journal of American history. Vol. 12. p. 647. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  12. ↑ Kirkland, Caroline (2010). Chicago yesterdays: a sheaf of reminiscences. Nabu Press. p. 7. ISBN   978-1-149-32245-1 . Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  13. ↑ Caton, John Dean (1879). Miscellanies. p. 142. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  14. 1 2 Adler, Tony (2004). Grossman, James R.; Keating, Ann Durkin; Reiff, Janice L. (eds.). Theater. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 815–6. ISBN   0-226-31015-9 . Retrieved July 18, 2010.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  15. ↑ Lewis, Charlton Thomas; Joseph H. Willsey, eds. (1895). Harper's book of facts: a classified history of the world; embracing science . Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  16. ↑ Sandburg, Carl & Edward C. Goodman (2007). Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years. Sterling. p. 117. ISBN   978-1-4027-4288-0 . Retrieved September 25, 2010.
  17. ↑ Pacyga, Dominic A. (2009). Chicago: its history and its builders, a century of marvelous growth. University of Chicago Press. p. 101. ISBN   978-0-226-64431-8 . Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  18. ↑ Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "United States Indian Agents And Factors At Chicago". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. p. 91. ISBN   1-143-91396-5 . Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  19. ↑ Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "Chicago From 1816 To 1830". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. p. 108. ISBN   1-143-91396-5 . Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  20. ↑ Zietz, Karyl Lynn; Karyl Charna Lynn (1996). The National Trust Guide to Great Opera Houses in America . Wiley. p.  91. ISBN   0-471-14421-5.

41°53′7.3″N87°38′11.2″W / 41.885361°N 87.636444°W / 41.885361; -87.636444

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.