Historic site in Northwest corner of Randolph Street and Clark Street in Chicago Illinois
Sherman House Hotel
Postcard image showing the fourth iteration of the hotel (right, completed in 1911) and its annex (left, completed in 1925) with "Hotel Sherman" signage
Location of Sherman House Hotel in Chicago metropolitan area
The Sherman House (sometimes called, Hotel Sherman) was a
hotel in
Chicago,
Illinois that operated from 1837 until 1973, with four iterations standing at the same site at the northwest corner of
Randolph Street and
Clark Street. Long one of the city's major hotels, the hotel's fortunes declined in the 1950s amid changes to its surrounding area, and it closed in 1973. The fourth and final building it had occupied was demolished in 1980 to make room for the
James R. Thompson Center.
First hotel
From 1836 to 1837,
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]
Second 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 entrance 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 a western section of the building along Couch Place that rose seven stories.[1] The building was designed in modern Italian style.[1]
Journalist James W. Sheahan wrote that the hotel's public spaces, including its Grand Hall, parlors, and reception rooms, "are not surpassed in size or general convenience by any similar hotel apartments in the country."[5]
Illustration of a panicked scene outside of the hotel on the night of the
Great Chicago Fire
Ruins of the second hotel following the Great Chicago Fire
Little Sherman House
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
The hotel was rebuilt again.[8] From 1872 to 1873, the hotel's third structure was constructed at the same site as the previous hotels.[2][8][6] The third hotel, as with the second, was designed by William W. Boyington.[2][8][6] The building was 160 feet long along Randolph Street and 181 feet long along Clark Street.[6] As with the previous building, the entrance was located along Clark Street.[6] The ladies' entrance was along Randolph Street.[6] The building had a courtyard, and featured
fireproofvaults.[6] The building was constructed from grey
sandstone quarried from a newly opened
quarry in
Kankakee, Illinois.[6] The building was 115 feet tall.[6] It contained 300 luxurious rooms, including
suites.[6]
In 1904, Joseph Beifeld became owner of the hotel.[6] 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.[6]
The hotel was home to the famous College Inn
restaurant.[6]
In September 1909, the hotel closed to be replaced with a new structure.[2][6]
Fourth hotel
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 from the time it opened, until the 1950s.[2][8][9] 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.[10]
The hotel contained a new College Inn.[2][11] This would be a very popular site for
big band music performances.[12]
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.[13][14] However, in 1932, the Cook County Democratic Party moved its headquarters to the third floor of the
Morrison Hotel.[15]
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
AMradio station
WLS began broadcasting from a studio in the hotel.[16][17]
Ernie Byfield, one of the hotel's owners, built a two-story, four-bedroom residence atop the hotel's roof, with plans of living there himself. However, he never lived there, as there proved to be tremendous demand by politicians and famous actors to stay in this apartment. The first people to stay in that apartment were
PresidentCalvin Coolidge and
First LadyGrace Coolidge.[18]
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 College Inn was a popular venue for musicians to perform at.[12] The hotel, for years, anchored a vibrant district of the city full of popular theaters, restaurants, and hotels.[2] It attracted many celebrities.[14] It was also a popular gathering place for politicians who worked at nearby
Chicago City Hall.[12] It hosted events, such as the
1938 NFL Draft.[19][20] In the 1950s and 1960s, however, 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] In the 1950s, the hotel's reputation began to decline.[9]
In 1969, a 10x57 large foot concrete relif sculpture entitled The Form Makers: 1836–1969 by
Nehemia Azaz was added to the lobby of the hotel.[21]
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
glasscurtain wall,[2] transforming the building into an apparel mart named the "Sherman Fashion Plaza". A new 28-floor hotel structure was planned to be built adjacent to it.[18] At the time this decision was made, the hotel was still operated by Ernie Byfield.[22] The hotel was closed in 1973, fixtures were stripped from it, contents were sold, and the building subsequently sat vacant for roughly seven or eight years.[12][2] The renovation never materialized, as ownership had been unsuccessful in receiving financing for the partial demolition and reconstruction of the building.[2] The owners had taken a loan from the
Teamster Local 710 pension fund in 1974, and the pension fund began legal proceedings in January 1976 to attempt to foreclose the building's ownership after they failed to repay the loan.[23]
In November 1978, Mayor
Michael Bilandic, as part of a broader $7.4 billion five-year public works plan that was planned to reshape much of the city, proposed building a new State of Illinois office building on the site occupied by the structure of former hotel.[24] In 1980, the building was demolished to be replaced by the State of Illinois Center (since renamed the
James R. Thompson Center).[2][8][9][25] While the majority of the building had been vacant after the hotel's closure, prior to shortly before the building's demolition, street level businesses continued to operate out of the building's storefronts until they were ordered by a Circuit Court judge to vacate so that demolition could begin on the structure. Due to its location at a busy area of the
Chicago Loop, it was decided to dismantle the building floor by floor, as opposed to
imploding it. A number of other neighboring structures were also demolished in order to make room for the new state office building.[12]