La Salle Hotel
Encyclopedia
The La Salle Hotel was a historic hotel that was located on the northwest corner of La Salle Street and Madison Avenue in the Chicago Loop
community area
of Chicago
, Illinois
, United States
. It was situated to the southwest of Chicago City Hall
and in very close proximity to St. Peter's Church
. It was built between 1908 and 1909 by Holabird & Roche
, contemporaneously with the Blackstone Hotel
designed by Benjamin Marshall
in a very similar style and at the time was Chicago's finest hotel.
After a major fire in the hotel in June 1946, it was rebuilt at a cost of US$ 2 million and reopened in July 1947; it flourished for 29 more years, until it was demolished in 1976 to make room for office towers.
. The La Salle Hotel built between 1908 and 1909 as a 23-story, 1,000 bedroom building in the Chicago Loop community area of Chicago. the site on the northwest corner of N. LaSalle and W. Madison streets, had previously been occupied by the five-story La Salle Building from 1872 to 1908. Known as the “Empire Block,” it housed the Metropolitan National Bank.
The hotel was named in honor of Robert, Cavalier de LaSalle
. Built at a cost of approximately $3,500,000, or 44 cents per cubic foot, the architects were Holabird & Roche
while the engineers were the firm of Purdy & Henderson. At one time Chicago's largest hotel, the LaSalle was opened in 1909 by the family of John Paul Stevens
. It was run by Ernest J. Stevens, father of the Supreme Court Justice
.
The hotel was planned, designed and built in the commercial district of Chicago as an upscale hotel for an elite and influential clientele, with luxurious and stately walnut
-paneled rooms and lobbies. An elegant roof top garden was planned as a major attraction. When it was opened in 1909, it was hailed as the "largest, safest, and most modern hotel west of New York." The Republican Party of Illinois had their offices located in the luxurious Blue Fountain Room of the hotel. During one of his long visits to Chicago, President Howard Taft stayed in the presidential suite on the third floor of this hotel, converting it into de facto White House
. A formal visit was also paid to the hotel by President Calvin Coolidge
and his wife in 1925. Other visitors came as convention guests.
However, all this history ended with a disastrous fire (see below) in the hotel on June 5, 1946, which was compounded by the fact that the hotel did not live up to its professed "safest hotel" claim, as there was lack of basic fire prevention, warning and firefighting facilities. At the time of the fire, guests occupied 886 rooms of the hotel with 103 employees at work and it turning the building into a death trap. However, the hotel was rebuilt and renamed, at a cost of US $2 million, started functioning from July 1947 and flourished for 29 more years until it was razed in 1976 to construct office towers. The famous Silver Grill Cocktail Lounge in the hotel was renamed "The Hour Glass" after renovation.
". A special feature of this style is the "Chicago window" with a large pane of plate glass for each window flanked by constricted windows which could be opened. This created an illusion that the entire building was made up of glass.
La Salle billed itself as "Chicago's Finest Hotel" and was a symbol of upper class extravagance in Chicago in the early twentieth century, with its grand ballrooms and luxury restaurants exuding a grandeur of the fine palace hotels of Europe. The hotel was 22 stories high and claimed 1000 rooms. It was one of Chicago's leading hotels until North Michigan Avenue
became host to the Drake Hotel
(1918–20) and the Allerton Hotel
(1923–4). Resembling hotels of New York City, it had a particular similarity to the 1904 Hotel Astor.
s and had two basements. The hotel frontage on La Salle Street was 178 ft (54.3 m) while the Madison Street frontage was 161 ft (49.1 m). Its architectural style was also defined as "beaux-arts."
s. There were over-sized, upholstered chairs, as well as shorter ones for women and children.
Another fountain, this one glowing and blue, was located in the aptly named Blue Fountain Room. Proposed as a more intimate place to relax, the room was fitted with a marble statuette of Venus de' Medici
and a lower, vaulted ceiling. The woodwork was silver maple. Its unique light fixtures were red globes.
Two large chandelier
s hung from the gilded and vaulted ceiling of the green and gold themed Louis XVI Dining Room. Brass sconces were built in between the windows. A gilded and vaulted ceiling, and a repeating green and gold theme drew on the style of the Main Lobby.
Another eating area was the Dutch Room (or German Grill). It was noted for its enormous red brick supports which supported the heavy-beamed and paneled ceilings. The room was furnished with wooden and leather chairs and had blue tiled walls and terra cotta
tiled floors. It was here that electric grilling started in Chicago.
Considered by some to be Chicago's most beautiful hotel dining room, the Palm Room featured an Italian fountain after a model by Donatello
as its centerpiece. It was built of cream-colored stone, Rookwood tile, and gray terra cotta, while featuring high-beamed ceilings.
The ambiguously named Buffet was actually the hotel's bar. It was decorated in the style of a medieval castle with heavy beams, paneled ceilings, and wooden booths. There were murals, lead glass windows, and metal chandeliers.
The ballroom was designed with arched windows and vaulted ceilings. These were painted trims of blue, gold and green. The curtains and chairs were accented with red velvet. Large chandeliers provided light.
Accessed from a double-loaded corridor, Floors 2 through 18 were sleeping rooms, arranged in a square doughnut formation. A central light well was built into the hotel, extending from the lobby to the top of the building. They were designed as suites of paired rooms, each with its own bathroom.
Large enough to accommodate a grand piano, the Presidential Suite featured a white marble fireplace.
around 12:15 a.m. but they didn't receive their first notification of the fire until 12:35 a.m. The fire quickly spread through the highly-varnished wood paneling in the lounge and the mezzanine balcony overlooking the lobby. While a significant number died from flames, a greater number of deaths were caused by suffocation from the thick, black smoke. Around 900 guests were able to leave the building but some 150 had to be rescued by the fire services and by heroic members of the public, including two sailors who were reported to have rescued 27 people between them. Two-thirds of hotel fire deaths in 1946 occurred in the La Salle and Winecoff (Atlanta) fires. The hotel fire was so devastating, it resulted in the Chicago city council enacting new hotel building codes and fire-fighting procedures, including the installation of automatic alarm systems and instructions of fire safety inside the hotel rooms.
The hotel was refurbished after the fire and was finally demolished in July 1976, to be occupied by the Two North LaSalle office building. This skyscraper was completed on the site in 1979.
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
community area
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was situated to the southwest of Chicago City Hall
Chicago City Hall
Chicago City Hall is the official seat of government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. Adjacent to the Richard J. Daley Center and the James R...
and in very close proximity to St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Church, or variations on that name including Old St. Peter's Church, may refer to:-Bermuda:* St. Peter's Church, St. George's, the oldest-surviving Anglican church outside the British Isles, and the oldest surviving Protestant church in the New World.-Ireland:* St. Peter's Church,...
. It was built between 1908 and 1909 by Holabird & Roche
Holabird & Roche
The architectural firm of Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm's designs have changed many times — from the Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.-History:...
, contemporaneously with the Blackstone Hotel
Blackstone Hotel
The Renaissance Blackstone Hotel is located on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Street in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. This 21-story hotel was built from 1908 to 1910 and designed by Marshall and Fox. On May 29, 1998, the...
designed by Benjamin Marshall
Benjamin Marshall
Benjamin Marshall was an English sporting and animal painter. He was a follower of George Stubbs and studied under Lemuel Abbott for a short period of time. After 1792, he began painting animals, settling at Newmarket in 1812 near the racetrack. He returned to London in 1825 and died in 1835....
in a very similar style and at the time was Chicago's finest hotel.
After a major fire in the hotel in June 1946, it was rebuilt at a cost of US$ 2 million and reopened in July 1947; it flourished for 29 more years, until it was demolished in 1976 to make room for office towers.
History
Chicago's luxury hotels evolved as part of the architectural revolution that found form as skyscraper buildingsSkyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
. The La Salle Hotel built between 1908 and 1909 as a 23-story, 1,000 bedroom building in the Chicago Loop community area of Chicago. the site on the northwest corner of N. LaSalle and W. Madison streets, had previously been occupied by the five-story La Salle Building from 1872 to 1908. Known as the “Empire Block,” it housed the Metropolitan National Bank.
The hotel was named in honor of Robert, Cavalier de LaSalle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...
. Built at a cost of approximately $3,500,000, or 44 cents per cubic foot, the architects were Holabird & Roche
Holabird & Roche
The architectural firm of Holabird & Root was founded in Chicago in 1880. Over the years, the firm's designs have changed many times — from the Chicago School to Art Deco to Modern Architecture to Sustainable Architecture.-History:...
while the engineers were the firm of Purdy & Henderson. At one time Chicago's largest hotel, the LaSalle was opened in 1909 by the family of John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from December 19, 1975 until his retirement on June 29, 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the oldest member of the Court and the third-longest serving justice in the Court's history...
. It was run by Ernest J. Stevens, father of the Supreme Court Justice
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
.
The hotel was planned, designed and built in the commercial district of Chicago as an upscale hotel for an elite and influential clientele, with luxurious and stately walnut
Walnut
Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
-paneled rooms and lobbies. An elegant roof top garden was planned as a major attraction. When it was opened in 1909, it was hailed as the "largest, safest, and most modern hotel west of New York." The Republican Party of Illinois had their offices located in the luxurious Blue Fountain Room of the hotel. During one of his long visits to Chicago, President Howard Taft stayed in the presidential suite on the third floor of this hotel, converting it into de facto White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. A formal visit was also paid to the hotel by President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
and his wife in 1925. Other visitors came as convention guests.
However, all this history ended with a disastrous fire (see below) in the hotel on June 5, 1946, which was compounded by the fact that the hotel did not live up to its professed "safest hotel" claim, as there was lack of basic fire prevention, warning and firefighting facilities. At the time of the fire, guests occupied 886 rooms of the hotel with 103 employees at work and it turning the building into a death trap. However, the hotel was rebuilt and renamed, at a cost of US $2 million, started functioning from July 1947 and flourished for 29 more years until it was razed in 1976 to construct office towers. The famous Silver Grill Cocktail Lounge in the hotel was renamed "The Hour Glass" after renovation.
Architecture
The architects of this skyscraper building developed their own innovative architectural style within the "Chicago SchoolChicago school
Chicago school may refer to:* Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago School of Professional Psychology...
". A special feature of this style is the "Chicago window" with a large pane of plate glass for each window flanked by constricted windows which could be opened. This created an illusion that the entire building was made up of glass.
La Salle billed itself as "Chicago's Finest Hotel" and was a symbol of upper class extravagance in Chicago in the early twentieth century, with its grand ballrooms and luxury restaurants exuding a grandeur of the fine palace hotels of Europe. The hotel was 22 stories high and claimed 1000 rooms. It was one of Chicago's leading hotels until North Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
became host to the Drake Hotel
Drake Hotel (Chicago)
The Drake 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...
(1918–20) and the Allerton Hotel
Allerton Hotel
The Allerton Hotel is a 25-story 360 foot hotel skyscraper along the Magnificent Mile in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It was the first building to feature pronounced setbacks and towers resulting from the 1923 zoning law...
(1923–4). Resembling hotels of New York City, it had a particular similarity to the 1904 Hotel Astor.
Exterior
The 80.47 m above ground level, 22 story building was built on rock caissonCaisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...
s and had two basements. The hotel frontage on La Salle Street was 178 ft (54.3 m) while the Madison Street frontage was 161 ft (49.1 m). Its architectural style was also defined as "beaux-arts."
Interior
The hotel's Main Lobby was dramatic and opulent with green and gold decorations, carrying the theme through its carpets and drapes. It was furbished with marble throughout: floors, statues and a desk. Accents included brass fixtures and spittoonSpittoon
A spittoon is a receptacle made for spitting into, especially by users of chewing and dipping tobacco. It is also known as a cuspidor , although that term is also used for a type of spitting sink used in dentistry."Spittoon" can also be slang American English...
s. There were over-sized, upholstered chairs, as well as shorter ones for women and children.
Another fountain, this one glowing and blue, was located in the aptly named Blue Fountain Room. Proposed as a more intimate place to relax, the room was fitted with a marble statuette of Venus de' Medici
Venus de' Medici
The Venus de' Medici or Medici Venus is a lifesize Hellenistic marble sculpture depicting the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite. It is a 1st century BC marble copy, perhaps made in Athens, of a bronze original Greek sculpture, following the type of the Aphrodite of Cnidos, which would have been made...
and a lower, vaulted ceiling. The woodwork was silver maple. Its unique light fixtures were red globes.
Two large chandelier
Chandelier
A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...
s hung from the gilded and vaulted ceiling of the green and gold themed Louis XVI Dining Room. Brass sconces were built in between the windows. A gilded and vaulted ceiling, and a repeating green and gold theme drew on the style of the Main Lobby.
Another eating area was the Dutch Room (or German Grill). It was noted for its enormous red brick supports which supported the heavy-beamed and paneled ceilings. The room was furnished with wooden and leather chairs and had blue tiled walls and terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
tiled floors. It was here that electric grilling started in Chicago.
Considered by some to be Chicago's most beautiful hotel dining room, the Palm Room featured an Italian fountain after a model by Donatello
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
as its centerpiece. It was built of cream-colored stone, Rookwood tile, and gray terra cotta, while featuring high-beamed ceilings.
The ambiguously named Buffet was actually the hotel's bar. It was decorated in the style of a medieval castle with heavy beams, paneled ceilings, and wooden booths. There were murals, lead glass windows, and metal chandeliers.
The ballroom was designed with arched windows and vaulted ceilings. These were painted trims of blue, gold and green. The curtains and chairs were accented with red velvet. Large chandeliers provided light.
Accessed from a double-loaded corridor, Floors 2 through 18 were sleeping rooms, arranged in a square doughnut formation. A central light well was built into the hotel, extending from the lobby to the top of the building. They were designed as suites of paired rooms, each with its own bathroom.
Large enough to accommodate a grand piano, the Presidential Suite featured a white marble fireplace.
Fire
On June 5, 1946, a fire broke out in the hotel, killing 61 people, many of them children. The fire began in the Silver Grill Cocktail Lounge on the lower floor on the La Salle Street side adjacent to the lobby before ascending stairwells and shafts The fire started either in the walls or in the ceiling according to the Chicago Fire DepartmentChicago Fire Department
The Chicago Fire Department, also known as the CFD, is the principal fire suppression, prevention, and rescue agency of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the mayor of Chicago. The Chicago Fire Department is the second largest fire department in the United States after the New York City...
around 12:15 a.m. but they didn't receive their first notification of the fire until 12:35 a.m. The fire quickly spread through the highly-varnished wood paneling in the lounge and the mezzanine balcony overlooking the lobby. While a significant number died from flames, a greater number of deaths were caused by suffocation from the thick, black smoke. Around 900 guests were able to leave the building but some 150 had to be rescued by the fire services and by heroic members of the public, including two sailors who were reported to have rescued 27 people between them. Two-thirds of hotel fire deaths in 1946 occurred in the La Salle and Winecoff (Atlanta) fires. The hotel fire was so devastating, it resulted in the Chicago city council enacting new hotel building codes and fire-fighting procedures, including the installation of automatic alarm systems and instructions of fire safety inside the hotel rooms.
The hotel was refurbished after the fire and was finally demolished in July 1976, to be occupied by the Two North LaSalle office building. This skyscraper was completed on the site in 1979.