Historic Hotels & Inns in Illinois

Ways in

Themes in Illinois

Chicago’s grand hotels

Chicago’s landmark hotels cluster in the Loop and along Michigan Avenue. The Palmer House, a name since 1871, was rebuilt in stages from 1924 to 1927 without closing; the Congress Plaza opened in 1893 for the World’s Columbian Exposition; Republican leaders chose Warren G. Harding in the Blackstone’s ‘smoke-filled room’ in 1920; and The Drake opened on New Year’s Eve that year. Others fill converted landmarks: the Reliance Building, the Carbide and Carbon Building and Mies van der Rohe’s IBM Building.

Galena, where Lincoln spoke and Grant campaigned

Eight of the state’s historic inns are in Galena, whose National Register district, listed in 1969, covers about 85% of the city. The DeSoto House opened in 1855 as the ‘Largest Hotel in the West’; Lincoln spoke from its balcony in 1856, and Grant later ran his presidential campaign from two of its rooms. Around it are B&Bs in houses from 1845 to 1870, a steamboat captain’s 1855 Gothic Revival mansion, an 1876 brewery icehouse and the 1878 county jail, now the Jail Hill Inn.

State-park lodges built by the CCC

During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the rustic lodges and cabins at Starved Rock, Pere Marquette and White Pines, all designed by Joseph F. Booten and all listed on the National Register in 1985. Starved Rock Lodge opened in 1939 with a two-sided limestone fireplace the lodge calls the largest in Illinois; ask for the historic lodge rooms or log cabins, since the hotel wing is newer. Pere Marquette Lodge, on the Illinois River near Grafton, opened in 1940 around a 700-ton stone fireplace, and at White Pines Forest State Park 21 log cabins still take guests.

Haunted stays

In Chicago, the Congress Plaza has the biggest reputation, with stories of Al Capone’s ghost and Room 441, and The Drake has its ‘Lady in Red’. Elsewhere, Hotel Baker in St. Charles has the legend of a jilted chambermaid, the Ruebel Hotel in Grafton a little girl called Abigail, Springfield’s Inn at 835 its original owner, Bell Miller, and Galena’s DeSoto House apparitions in old-fashioned dress. We report these as stories guests and staff tell, not fact.

Road trip

Chicago to Galena, inn to inn

Chicago

Start with two nights downtown: the Palmer House in the Loop, or the Blackstone or Congress Plaza facing Grant Park. Pick a hotel from our Chicago guide.

St. Charles

Stop on the Fox River at Hotel Baker, Colonel Edward J. Baker’s 1928 Spanish Revival hotel, known from the 1930s to the 1950s as the ‘Honeymoon Hotel.’

Mount Morris

Spend a night in one of the Civilian Conservation Corps log cabins at White Pines Forest State Park; the stand-alone cabins take dogs.

Galena

Finish with two nights in Galena; see our Galena guide. Stay at the DeSoto House, where Lincoln spoke from the balcony in 1856, at a Prospect Street B&B such as The Steamboat House or the Avery House, or at the Jail Hill Inn above Main Street.

Context

History and architecture

The state’s historic hotels follow its growth. In Galena, local investors opened the DeSoto House in 1855 as the Illinois Central Railroad arrived; as the town’s economy faded, the hotel lost its top two floors in 1880, and houses from the 1840s to the 1870s survive as B&Bs. Chicago’s first Palmer House opened in 1871 and burned 13 days later in the Great Chicago Fire, and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition brought the Congress Plaza. The 1920s added The Drake, the Allerton, the Stevens (now Hilton Chicago) and Hotel Baker in St. Charles, and in the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps built the lodges at Starved Rock, Pere Marquette and White Pines.