Blackstone Hotel, Chicago
[Blackstone Hotel (1908) Marshall & Fox, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
During his career and partnership with Charles Fox, architect Benjamin Marshall designed some of Chicago's most elaborately decorated building exteriors. He used the plasticity of terra-cotta to adorn his buildings like a baker piping out acres of ornamental icing on a cake. In 1908, when the team drew-up plans for the Blackstone Hotel, the red brick tower was trimmed in a sea of white-glazed, confectioner's sugar.
[Blackstone Hotel, 636 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
The hotel was built by the sons of John Drake a pioneer Chicago hotel man. Drake became famous as the man who took a chance, and with luck on his side, made one of the great purchases of a lifetime. As the Chicago Fire started to burn the awnings of Drake's 1850s-era Tremont House the hotel owner salvaged as much cash and silver as he could from the safe, squeezed into a wagon and headed for the safety of the lake's waters. There, on the corner of Congress Street, stood the worn and outdated Michigan Avenue Hotel looming in front of him. With a leap of faith, he walked in and offered the owner cash on the spot for the hotel and its contents. As the fire approached the shoreline it turned north, and Drake's hasty purchase not only survived the inferno, it became the only downtown hotel to remain standing in the city's 2,000 acre burn district.
[Blackstone Hotel /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Jump forward to 1908, and Chicago sees one of the last remnants of the formerly opulent Michigan Avenue residential district disappear when Mrs. Timothy B. Blackstone vacates her 50 year old mansion. She was leaving her home of 45 years for another large house on elite Prairie Avenue because the house was going to be torn down and replaced by the Drake brother's Blackstone Hotel. Soon after the fire, John Drake sold his Michigan Avenue property and became owner and manager one of the city's premiere hotels, the Grand Pacific. That hotel closed in April, 1895 and Drake died the following November. His sons John, Jr. and Tracy got back into the business with the Blackstone, providing top-of-the-line luxury accommodations with a view of the lake. Soon the stopping off point of U.S. presidents, the green mansard roof provided cover for millions of the Drake's guests until the brothers lost the business during the Great Depression.
The Blackstone became one of those "oh, I remember when" places to stay, tattered, in need of a redo and loaded with nostalgia. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the building became renowned as the venue for two of the city's longest running entertainment productions. The Jazz Showcase arrived in 1972 offering a devoted clientele a weekly dose of great music until 1995 when new owners took over the building. The theatrical whoddunit Shear Madness arrived in 1982, bringing 1.3 million people through the Michigan Avenue entrance before closing up shop in 1999 when the building was shut down by the city for having over 1,000 building code violations. The former grande dame of Chicago hoteleries sat empty until 2005 when a $128 million update and rehab, with Marshall & Fox's swirls and swags cleaned and refurbished, launched the Blackstone into a new, bright and shiny future.
See another Marshall & Fox extravaganza at: Old World Elegance.
Posted by designslinger at 3/21/2011 3:48 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Architects, Preservation
Tags: Marshall and Fox hotels Michigan Avenue
Categories: Architecture, History, Architects, Preservation
Tags: Marshall and Fox hotels Michigan Avenue
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