Chicago Beach Hotel

This article is about the hotel built in 1892. For the building built in 1929, see Chicago Beach Apartments.
Chicago Beach Hotel Postcard (1910)

The Chicago Beach Hotel was a luxury resort hotel located at 1660 East Hyde Park Boulevard in the Indian Village neighborhood of the Kenwood community area of Chicago, Illinois.

The hotel was built in 1892[1] by Warren Leland [2] and was one of many speculative hotels built to accommodate the hordes of tourists drawn by the upcoming Columbian Exposition of 1893.[1] It contained 450 rooms, with 175 bathrooms.[3] The property extended to Lake Michigan.[4] The building resembled the Hyde Park Hotel and probably shared architects.[1] Many Chicagoans of high social standing became residents and members.[4] The building had private access to the beach until 1915 when the city created an adjacent bathhouse.[5] It lost its beach frontage entirely in 1920 when the shoreline was moved more than a block eastward with a landfill project that created South Lake Shore Drive.[3]

Chicago Beach Hotel Postcard (1911)

In 1921 a huge 12 story, 545-room addition was constructed on the eastern portion of the property.[6] The original structure, by now outdated, was then demolished in 1927.[7] The Algonquin Apartments, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, were built on the site of the original wing in 1950.[8]

During World War II the new wing of the hotel was commandeered by the military and served as Gardiner General Hospital. After the war the building served as the 5th Army Headquarters.[9] It was demolished in the early 1970s. The Regents Park apartments were constructed on the property in the 1970s.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "Chicago Beach Hotel". Retrieved March 26, 2007.
  2. ↑ Press Club of Chicago (1922). Official Reference Book. p. 202. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Hudson, L. (2003). Hyde Park. Arcadia. p. 101. ISBN 9780738531984. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Chicago Beach Hotel, c.1903". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. 2005. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
  5. ↑ "Bathers at the Chicago Beach Hotel, 1913". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. 2005. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
  6. ↑ "The Milwaukee Sentinel - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  7. ↑ Davis, S.O.C.; Vinci, J. (2013). Chicago's Historic Hyde Park. University of Chicago Press. p. 121. ISBN 9780226925196. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  8. ↑ Davis, S.O.C.; Vinci, J. (2013). Chicago's Historic Hyde Park. University of Chicago Press. p. 443. ISBN 9780226925196. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Regents Park". Emporis.com. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
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