The Palmer House Hilton

Palmer House Hotel
Palmer House Hotel
	The Palmer House Hotel
Location	17 E. Monroe Street Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates	41°52′49″N 87°37′37″W / 41.880344°N 87.626910°W
Built	1875
Rebuilt	1923-1925
Architect	John M. Van Osdel (original); Holabird & Roche (current)
Chicago Landmark
Designated	December 13, 2006
	Location of Palmer House Hotel in Chicago metropolitan area

The Palmer House Hilton is a famous and historic hotel in Chicago in the city's Loop area. Currently operating as the Palmer House - A Hilton Hotel, it is a Historic Hotel of America member,^[1] the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

History

Three Palmer House hotels have been located at the corner of State and Monroe streets in Chicago.

First Palmer House

The first (known as "The Palmer") was built as a wedding present from Potter Palmer to his bride Bertha Honoré. It opened on September 26, 1871, but burned down just 13 days later on October 9, 1871 in the Great Chicago Fire. Palmer immediately set to work rebuilding, and with a $1.7 million signature loan (believed to be the largest individual loan ever secured at that time), constructed one of the fanciest hotels worldwide in postfire Chicago.

Second Palmer House

Designed by architect John M. Van Osdel, the second Palmer House Hotel was seven stories. Its amenities included oversized rooms, luxurious decor, and sumptuous meals served in grand style. The floor of its barber shop was tiled and silver dollars were embedded in a diamond pattern. Constructed mainly of iron and brick, the hotel was widely advertised as, "The World's Only Fire Proof Hotel."^[2] Famous visitors included presidential hopefuls James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, William Jennings Bryan, and William McKinley; writers Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, and Oscar Wilde; and actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse.^{[citation needed]} It was completed in 1875.

Third Palmer House

File:Palmer hilton.jpg

The lobby of the Palmer House

By the 1920s, the business in downtown Chicago could support a much larger facility, and the Palmer Estate decided to erect a new 25-story hotel. They hired Holabird & Roche to design the building. Between 1923 and 1925, the hotel was rebuilt on the same site.^[3]

In December 1945, Conrad Hilton bought the Palmer House for $20 million and it was thereafter known as The Palmer House Hilton. In 2005, it was sold to Thor Equities, but it remains part of the Hilton chain.^[4]

From 2007 to 2009, the hotel was completely renovated and restored by the architecture firm Loebl Schlossman & Hackl.^[5] The total cost was over $170 million.^[6] The hotel has a total of 1,639 guest rooms, making it the second-largest hotel in the city after the Hyatt Regency Chicago.^[7] It has recently had its name adjusted to Palmer House - A Hilton Hotel.

In 1970, the hotel was the site of the murder of Evelyn Okubo, a young Japanese-American racial justice activist attending a Japanese American Citizens League convention held there.^[8]

References

^ Historic Hotel of America
^ Susan Bard Hall. "The Palmer House". Away.com Historic Traveller. Primedia Publications. Archived from the original on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2007-06-21. It opened as The Palmer, at the northwest corner of State and Quincy streets, with 225 rooms on September 26, 1871. Thirteen days later, it burned in the Great Chicago Fire.
^ Berger, Molly W. "Hotels" at the Encyclopedia of Chicago
^ "Thor Buys Historic Palmer House Hotel from Hilton Hotels Corporation". Hilton Hotels Corporation. August 17, 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-21. Thor Equities(SM) and Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE:HLT) announced today that Thor, through an affiliate, has acquired the historic Palmer House Hilton in Chicago from Hilton for $230 million. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
^ Weiner, Michael A. (Nov–Dec 2007). "Palmer House Hilton in process of restoring aging infrastructure". Hospitality Construction. 2 (6): 38. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
^ A Hotel Looks Back to Its 1920s Glamour. nytimes.com.
^ Chicago's Largest Hotels ranked by number of guest rooms as of 12/31/2006, Crain's Chicago Business
^ Harden, Jacelyn (2003). Double Cross: Japanese Americans in Black and White Chicago. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 128. ISBN 9781452905969. Retrieved 2017-09-13.

External links

Palmer House - official website
Palmer House - official Facebook page
Palmer House - A Hilton Hotel - official Hilton website with virtual tour
Chicago Historical Society - 1873 description by Rudyard Kipling following the Great Chicago Fire
Fred A. Bernstein, "A Hotel Looks Back to Its 1920s Glamour", New York Times, October 25, 2008
Palmer House Hilton Reviews - Reviews of guests who have visited the hotel

[1] Historic Hotel of America

[Away-2] Susan Bard Hall. "The Palmer House". Away.com Historic Traveller. Primedia Publications. Archived from the original on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2007-06-21. It opened as The Palmer, at the northwest corner of State and Quincy streets, with 225 rooms on September 26, 1871. Thirteen days later, it burned in the Great Chicago Fire.

[3] Berger, Molly W. "Hotels" at the Encyclopedia of Chicago

[Thor-4] "Thor Buys Historic Palmer House Hotel from Hilton Hotels Corporation". Hilton Hotels Corporation. August 17, 2005. Retrieved 2007-06-21. Thor Equities(SM) and Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE:HLT) announced today that Thor, through an affiliate, has acquired the historic Palmer House Hilton in Chicago from Hilton for $230 million. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

[5] Weiner, Michael A. (Nov–Dec 2007). "Palmer House Hilton in process of restoring aging infrastructure". Hospitality Construction. 2 (6): 38. Retrieved 25 July 2014.

[6] A Hotel Looks Back to Its 1920s Glamour. nytimes.com.

[7] Chicago's Largest Hotels ranked by number of guest rooms as of 12/31/2006, Crain's Chicago Business

[Harden-8] Harden, Jacelyn (2003). Double Cross: Japanese Americans in Black and White Chicago. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 128. ISBN 9781452905969. Retrieved 2017-09-13.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

v t e Chicago skyscrapers
Tallest buildings	875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly John Hancock Center) Aon Center Franklin Center St. Regis Chicago Trump International Hotel and Tower Two Prudential Plaza Willis Tower
Selected buildings with 20 or more floors	35 East Wacker 55 East Erie 71 South Wacker 77 West Wacker 110 North Wacker 111 South Wacker 151 North Franklin 155 North Wacker 181 West Madison 311 South Wacker 330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 333 South Wabash (formerly CNA Center) 333 Wacker Drive 340 on the Park 400 East Randolph 401 East Ontario 425 South Financial Place 541 North Fairbanks Court (formerly Time-Life Building) 540 West Madison 860-880 Lake Shore Drive 900 North Michigan 900 West Randolph 1700 East 56th Street Accenture Tower Aqua Bilandic Building The Blackstone Hotel BCBS Tower Boeing Building Builders Building Carbide & Carbon Building Chase Tower Chicago Board of Trade Building Chicago Place Chicago Temple Building City Hall Square Building Civic Opera House Coast at Lakeshore East Consumers Building Crain Communications Building Dirksen Federal Building Essex on the Park Field Building Fisher Building Grant Thornton Tower Harbor Point Hilton Chicago Home Insurance Building James R. Thompson Center Joffrey Tower Kluczynski Federal Building Lake Point Tower LaSalle–Wacker Building Legacy Tower Leo Burnett Building London Guarantee Building Lurie Children's Hospital Marina City Masonic Temple Mather Tower Metropolitan Tower Montauk Building NBC Tower NEMA Northwestern Memorial Hospital Olympia Centre One Bennett Park One Magnificent Mile One Museum Park One North LaSalle One North Wacker One Prudential Plaza Optima Signature Palmer House Hotel Palmolive Building Park Tower The Parkshore Peoples Gas Building Pittsfield Building Plaza 440 Powhatan Apartments Presidential Towers Regents Park Richard J. Daley Center River East Center Roanoke Building The Shoreham Skybridge Shirley Ryan AbilityLab The Buckingham The Fordham The Heritage The Grant The Pinnacle Three First National Plaza Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago Waldorf Astoria Chicago Warwick Allerton Water Tower Place Wolf Point East Tower Wrigley Building
Chicago Landmark skyscrapers with 12 or more floors	300 West Adams Building The Arc at Old Colony Auditorium Building Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Chicago Building Gage Group Buildings Heyworth Building Hilliard Towers Apartments Inland Steel Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Mundelein College Skyscraper Building New York Life Insurance Building Reliance Building Rookery Building Sullivan Center
See also	Architecture Art Deco Chicago City Hall Chicago School Washington Block
Buildings in italics have been demolished.

v t e Chicago Landmark skyscrapers
National Historic Landmark, National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Landmark	The Arc at Old Colony Auditorium Building Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building Chicago Board of Trade Building Fisher Building Manhattan Building Marquette Building Marshall Field and Company Building Monadnock Building Reliance Building Rookery Building
National Register of Historic Places, Chicago Landmark	860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments Gage Group Buildings Mundelein College Skyscraper Building One North LaSalle Palmolive Building The Blackstone Hotel Roanoke Building and Tower
Chicago Landmark	330 North Wabash 333 North Michigan 35 East Wacker Allerton Hotel Brooks Building Bryn Mawr Apartment Hotel Carbide & Carbon Building Chicago Building Civic Opera House Heyworth Building Inland Steel Building London Guarantee Building Mather Tower New York Life Insurance Building The Palmer House Hilton Powhatan Apartments Pittsfield Building Richard J. Daley Center Tribune Tower Virgin Hotels Chicago
See also	Washington Block

History

First Palmer House

Second Palmer House

Third Palmer House

See also

References

Further reading

External links