Palmer House

Aquarium Art Institute Berghoff Restaurant Botanic Garden Christmas Market D'Amato's Bakery Field Museum Gold Coast Islamic Center Lawry's Lincoln Park Marshall Field Store Millennium Park Navy Pier Palmer House River Tour Science and Industry Stained Glass Summer Skyline Terry's Toffee the Tour University of Chicago

Palmer House

 

the lobby

The were four Palmer Houses. Today's Palmer House, also located along Monroe Street between State and Wabash, was built in the twenties. It was, with the Grand Pacific and the Sherman House, one of the fanciest hotels in post-fire Chicago. Its amenities included oversized rooms, luxurious decor, and sumptuous meals served in grand style. The floor of the Palmer House barber shop was tiled with silver dollars, and its service staff consisted largely of members of Chicago's small black community, which comprised a little more than one percent of the population of the city. Rudyard Kipling, who described Chicago as "inhabited by savages," was equally scornful of this showplace: "They told me to go to the Palmer House, which is a gilded and mirrored rabbit-warren, and there I found a huge hall of tessellated marble, crammed with people talking about money and spitting about everywhere. Other barbarians charged in and out of this inferno with letters and telegrams in their hands, and yet others shouted at each other. A man who had drunk quite as much as was good for him told me that this was 'the finest hotel in the finest city on God Almighty's earth.'" Note that the Palmer House advertised itself as the "only thoroughly fireproof hotel in the United States."

 

grand stairway

 

 

 


 

 

Peacock Dooror

 

 

 

 

lobby ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand stairway to Ballroom

 

 

the ballroom

 

 

elevators

 

elevator lobby

 

mail chute

 

 

carpet design

 

guest room

 

bath

 

Return to Chicago page


Aquarium Art Institute Berghoff Restaurant Botanic Garden Christmas Market D'Amato's Bakery Field Museum Gold Coast Islamic Center Lawry's Lincoln Park Marshall Field Store Millennium Park Navy Pier Palmer House River Tour Science and Industry Stained Glass Summer Skyline Terry's Toffee the Tour University of Chicago

Beans and Corn Cahokia Chester Chicago Covered Bridges Frank Lloyd Wright Galesburg Grave Markers I & M Canal Lake County La Salle Litchfield Our Lady of the Snows Rt 66 to Branson Rosemont Springfield Starved Rock Utica

World Heritage Mosaics Roman World Africa Antarctica Asia Atlantic Islands Australia Caribbean Central America Europe Indian Ocean Middle East North America Pacific Islands South America The Traveler Recent Adventures Adventure Travel

 

People and Places