The Hyde Park House was a four-story wood frame upscale hotel built and run by Paul Cornell, that served as the centerpiece for Hyde Park

Hyde Park, Chicago

Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...

 social life from 1857 until 1879. It was located on 53rd Street adjacent to Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 on land currently occupied by the Hampton House.

Cornell successfully marketed Hyde Park as an affluent suburb and resort area. Hyde Park retained this image until the 1930s. The hotel not only served as host to affluent Chicagoans with leisure time and discretionary income, but also served as host to visiting dignitaries. Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...

 brought her sons, Robert and Tad

Tad Lincoln

Thomas "Tad" Lincoln was the fourth and youngest son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln. The nickname "Tad" was given to him by his father who found Thomas "as wriggly as a tadpole" when he was a baby. Tad was known to be impulsive, unrestrained, and did not attend school...

, there after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 where they stayed for two and half months before moving downtown. It also served as host to Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

, Albert Edward

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

during his 1860 visit to Chicago.

The hotel also served as lodging for those studying new homesites in the region and for those overseeing new residential construction.