Sherman House Hotel

From 1836 to 1836, Francis Cornwall Sherman constructed the hotel at the northwest corner of Randolph Street as the "City Hotel".[1] It was three stories tall.[1][2] It was renamed the Sherman House in 1844 after Sherman remodeled it, with two stories added to it.[1][2]

In 1839, Sherman retired from managing the hotel, handing over management to the firm of James Williamson and A.H. Squier.[1] The next year, Williamson retired from the firm, and William Rickards acquired his interest.[1] Proprietorship of the hotel remained in the possession of Rickards and Squier until 1851, when they sold their proprietorship to the firm of Brown & Tuttle.[1] In 1854, the firm became Tuttle & Patmor when A. H. Patmor acquired Brown's share in that firm.[1] In 1858, proprietorship was acquired by Martin Hodge and Hiram Longly.[1]

The second Sherman House Hotel

The second Sherman House Hotel

At the same site as the first hotel, Francis Cornwall Sherman built a new structure, breaking ground on May 1, 1860 and opening the new structure to guests on July 1, 1861.[3] The structure was designed by William W. Boyington.[1] It became one of the city's grand hotels, alongside the Tremont House.[4] The front of the building was made of Athens marble on the levels above it storefronts.[1][3] Its primary entrance was along Clark street, with a two-story portico.[3] To the right of the main enterance was the building's ladies' entrance.[1] The building was 161 feet long along Randolph Street and 181 feet long along Clark Street.[2][1][3] The building had an open court in its center, and rose six stories.[1] There was an western section of the building along Couch Place that rose seven stories.[1] The building was designed in modern Italian style.[1]

The hotel was lost in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.[5] Before the fire, the hotel was operated by George W. Gage.[6]

Following the fire, the hotel operation briefly relocated to the former Gault House at Madison Street and Clinton Street, until they could build their new structure.[2] While operating at this site, it was referred to as the "Little Sherman House".[2]

Third hotel

Third hotel

Francis Cornwall Sherman rebuilt his hotel.[7] From 1872 to 1873, the hotel's third structure was constructed at the same site as the previous hotels.[2][7][5] The third hotel, as with the second, was designed by William W. Boyington.[2][7][5] The building was 160 feet long along Randolph Street and 181 feet long along Clark Street.[5] As with the previous building, the entrance was located along Clark Street.[5] The ladies' entrance was along Randolph Street.[5] The building had a courtyard, and featured fireproof vaults.[5] The building was constructed from grey sandstone quarried from a newly-opened quarry in Kankakee, Illinois.[5] The building was 115 feet tall.[5] It contained 300 luxurious rooms, including suites.[5]

The hotel was one of the city's "big four" post-fire hotels, the other three being the Grand Pacific, Palmer House, and the Tremont House.[5]

The hotel attracted high-profile theatre actors to reside in it, including Joseph Jefferson and Maurice Barrymore.[5]

The hotel came to be the Chicago headquarters of the Democratic Party.[5]

In 1904, Joseph Beifeld became owner of the hotel.[5] For the twenty years prior to that, the hotel had been run by J. Irving Pierce, who had been proceeded by three generations of the Sherman family in operating the hotel.[5]

The hotel was home to the famous College Inn restaurant.[5]

In September 1909, the hotel closed to be replaced with a new structure.[2][5]

Constructed from 1910 to 1911, and designed by Holabird and Roche, the new 757-room Sherman House Hotel retained the establishment's status of being one the nicest hotels in the city at the time it opened, until the 1950s.[2][7][8] It was a modern hotel housed in a twelve-story skyscraper of steel and masonry construction.[2] It was constructed in the second empire style.[9] In the 1950s, its reputation began to decline.[8]

The hotel contained a new College Inn.[2][10]

As with the previous hotel, the new hotel was the Chicago headquarters of the Democratic Party, housing the formal headquarters of the Cook County Democratic Party.[11][12]

In 1920, the building's decorative mansard roof was demolished and an additional six floors were added to the building, bringing it to seventeen stories.[2]

On April 12, 1924, the AM radio station WLS began broadcasting from a studio in the hotel.[13][14]

An 23-floor annex was constructed in 1925.[2][8]

The hotel's venues, such as the College Inn, Panther Room, Well of the Sea, and Scuttlebutt Lounge, for years, were famed institutions.[2] The hotel, for years, anchored a vibrant district of the city full of popular theaters, restaurants, and hotels.[2] It attracted many celebrities.[12] It hosted events, such as the 1938 NFL Draft.[15][16] In the 1950s and 1960s, the demolition of the adjacent Ashland Block skyscraper (and its replacement with a Greyhound Lines bus terminal), the demolition of the Garrick Theatre/Schiller Building, and the land clearance taking place to make way for the Chicago Civic Center (now named the Richard J. Daley Center) greatly diminished the liveliness of this district.[2]

The structure that was completed in 1911 was demolished in the early 1950s, leaving only the 1925 annex.[8]

In 1969, a 10x57 large foot concrete relif sculpture entitled The Form Makers: 1836–1969 by Nehemia Azaz added to the lobby of the hotel.[17]

In either the 1971 or 1972, a decision was made to strip the building to its steel frame and reconstruct it as a modern building with a glass curtain wall.[2] At the time the hotel was operated by Ernie Byfield.[18] The hotel was closed in 1973, its contents were sold, and the building subsequently sat vacant for roughly seven or eight years.[2] The renovation never materialized, as ownership had been unsuccessful in receiving financing for the partial demolition and reconstruction of the building.[2]

In 1980 the remaining building (the 1925 annex) was demolished to be replaced with the State of Illinois Center (since renamed the James R. Thompson Center).[2][7][8][19]