McCoy’s European Hotel II

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McCoy’s European Hotel, Victoria Hotel
Life Span: 1883-~1949
Location: NW corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, 330-38 S. Clark Street
Architect: Gregory Vigeant

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1884

McCoy’s New European Hotel

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
Victoria Hotel, 216 N. Clark

Chicago Tribune, November 19, 1882

A New Hotel.
Last Friday morning The Tribune made brief mention of the fact that Mr. McCoy, of McCoy’s European Hotel, had decided to erect a new hotel at the corner of Van Buren and State streets, to be run on the same plan as that now controlled by him. Since that publication Mr. McCoy has been seen and the plans for the new structure have been viewed. The real projectors of this new and important hotel scheme are Mr. William McCoy, the present successful proprietor of McCoy’s European Hotel on Madison street, and Mr. M. A. Devine, one of the best known business men in the city. These gentlemen have leased from Messrs. Albert and Henry Keep the lot at the northwest corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, with a frontage ninety-five feet on the former and 108 on the latter. The lease is for ninety-nine years, the price for the first ten years being $7,000 per annum and for the remaining eighty-nine years $8,000 per annum. The lease also contains provision for fifty years additional at an annual rental of $12,000. Real-estate men who ought to be excellent judges express the opinion that this lease is exceedingly favorable one for Messrs. McCoy and Devine. Upon this fine piece of ground there will be erected (work to commence March 1, 1883), an eight-story brick or stone hotel, with basement, the entire structure to contain a total of 225 rooms. The first floor will be devoted to store purposes, four of which will be rented to suitable tenants, and two reserved for the use of the hotel restaurant and bar. The office will be on the second floor and will be reached by the main stairway in the centre of he Clark street front, also by a stairway from the ladies’ entrance on Van Buren street. As regards the location, it will, by the time it is completed, be fully as desirable and valuable as that of any hotel in Chicago. It will be in immediate proximity to the new Board of Trade, and within one block of the Rock Island and Lake Shore depot, the Grand Pacific Hotel, Post-Office, Custom-House, new union depot, and the finest office buildings in the city.

Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1883
A New European Hotel.
By courtesy of Architect Gregory Vigeant, who has been awarded the contract for constructing, and Mr. William McCoy. the projector of the improvement, The Tribune is this morning permitted to furnish its readers a detailed description of the fine new European which within a year Mr. McCoy will erect in Chicago. The building will occupy the lot at the northwest corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, facing 95.6 feet on Clark street and 109.10 feet on Van Buren street. The building wiU be constructed of pressed brick. sprinkled through with stone belts enough to cut the perpendicular lines, but there will be very little of this. for the reason that the decorations will be principally terra cotta. The panels which are formed between the second and third story windows and the fourth and fifth story windows will be of the latter material in high relief. Though the fifth story window-heads are square. still over them the finish will be circular arches and panels of terra cotta. The main entablature of the whole structure will rest directly on the sixth story windows. This entablature will be carried up to about two feet above the seventh floor. The seventh story, though an attic on the exterior in point of architecture, will be a full story inside, as the windows are ordinary bight above the floor and usual length, and the rooms will be full length and the usual bight ten feet inside.

The Exterior.
On the corner there is a five-story oriel window, with Venetian roof finish, and a balcony circling this window, which is also circular, extending around the same at the fifth story. Immediately over the ladies’ entrance on Van Buren street the building will be crowned by a conical tower; and on each side of this about equidistant between this tower and the corner and the west side of the building there will be prominent gables extending about eight feet above the highest point of the main roof, flanked with coupled smoke stacks of terra-cotta. The whole pediment of these gables will be fitted with solid panel of sc ulptured terra cotta. Right in the centre of the elevation on Clark street the whole building is crowned with a conieallXower and a brick gable extending up Imo the same. The aim of the designer was to produce full beget interiors throughout, still to diminish the apparent bight Of the exterior, and be has resorted to this manner of constructing the seventh story of the building principally with Venetian roof over the overhanging oriel windows, gables. and towers, and the whole, combined wan the terra cotta smokestacks, etc., form a design most picturesque. The portion between the walls over the seventh story and top of the main roof will apparently be devoted to a mansard, though it is very shallow and built principally to give a dark surface behind the brick teeing, etc., in order to bring out all the striking features of the crowning whole. The general treatment may be properly called Venetian, but It has a later European characteristic.

The First Floor.
The whole or the first floor will he occupied by the restaurant. which is to be a feature of the house, and which occupies about one-half of the entire area of the building; and on the corer will be a storeroom twenty-live feet on Clark and forty-eight feet on Van Buren street, with four large show-windows with entrances on Van Buren and Clark. Just north of the Clark street store is another store 20 by 48 feet. At the west end of the building on Van Buren street there are also two stores, each 20 by 44 feet, with a partition that will enable the owner to make two into one. Just west of these stores on Van Buren there is a drive into an inner court, which is intended to be used tor light, ventilation, and the accommodation of vehicles of all sorts.

The main entrance which leads to the elevator, is on the Van Buren street side. This leads also to the restaurant and the second floor. It Is twelve feet wide, and both ends are to be filled with stained-glass panels. It may be remembered that on a line with the transom-bar up to the ceiling, extending all around the building, the space will be filled with stained glass, and below this there will be plate glass. There is also a large entrance leading to the second story, or office floor, from Clark street. The restaurant will be amply provided with all of the conveniences of a first-class resort, of the character, and the whole front and rear of this part is of plate-glass wall iron supports.

The Second Floor.
In the second story there is a striking feature worthy of special mention. This is in the office. The clerk’s stand is at the north end of the building, looking south, and both main staircases and elevator are in full view of the man on watch, and no one can enter or leave the house without coming under his eye. The same is also true of the staircase leading to the upper floors from the office. There is a space in the south and southwest part of the office which is inclosed or made comparatively private by a system of colonades. This is called the ladies’ lobby. The elevator is located in this portion and partly one of the main stairs which used by ladies leading to the upper floors. This arrangement is made in order that ladies ascending in the elevator, though practically in the office, will find therein a retired place, and yet one under the observation of the clerk. The colums of tins colonade are placed about six feet apart and are crowned with Moorish arches. On the corner of Clark and Van Buren streets is the main parlor. which is 27×22 feet, and just west of this is another parlor 20×22 feet. And north of the main parlor, on Clark street, is the gentlemen’s parlor, which is 20×22 feet. North of the Clark street entrance is the gents’ reading-rooms, and further north a suite of chambers. West of the main entrance. on Van Buren street there are three large chambers, and two additional chambers on the court side of the house. The club-room is on the west side of the house, and is twenty-two thirty-four feet. In the northwest corner of the house are located the wash-rooms, etc. A special feature of the structure is that the entire water system is located in this corner of the house and is in the same position on each floor, permitting all pipes to run straight up and down with proper ventilation. In this part of structure is also located the main smoke-stack, and close to this, separated by a thin brick partition, is the ventilating shaft, which gives good air to all of the lavatories on the various floors. Also in this part of the house may be noticed a large brick flue, extending to the top of the house which is used as an ash-chute, into which the ashes from all of the floors may be deposited and conducted into an iron box in an open court on the ground floor. Just back of the clerk’s stand are the cloak and trunk rooms and one of the stairways leading to the upper floors. Under the main stairway is the stairway leading to the restaurant. The office is in the centre of the building. and is furnished with light from above, being directly under the area, which is 14×60 feet.

The Upper Floors.
On the upper floors are located the sleeping-chambers, those facing the inner shaft or area deriving light and air therefrom. The main halls extend around the outside of the inner row of rooms, and continue clear and open to both the northeast and southwest corners of the building, opening directly into fire-escapes. A prominent idea in arranging the interior has been to afford opportunities for escape in case of fire, and every floor is provided with three fire-escapes, easily accessible, as the halls are ail open and lead to the same at three diagonal extremities of the building. The one fire-escape which is in the outside court, is a regular iron staircase, twenty-six feet wide, with iron railings, and extending from the pavement to the top of the house. This was constructed in this manner, as it was deemed best for the use of ladies and servants in case of fire. The staircases are also located nearly at diagonal extremities of the house, and by looking over the plans it seems next to impossible for one to be cut off by fire from the various avenues of escape, as there are five of them on each floor, two being inner staircases and three outside escapes, the outer escapes opening into the inner halls.

On the third and fourth floors there are thirty-two rooms each, and on the fifth, sixth. and seventh, there are thirty-six each, and on the main floor there are eleven, including parlors, making altogether 185 rooms.

The Elevator.
The passenger elevator, which starts from the ground floor, opens into the ladies’ lobby on the second floor, continuing its way up on the inside on the third floor inside of the inner-light shaft.

The arrangement of all the rooms of the house from the third floor up is the same, except that as one goes up the rooms become smaller. The inner-light shaft is built of hollow tile, and is consequently fire-proof. The main construction of the basement and first floor will be principally brick walls, and the whole interior will rest on iron columns, covered with patent fireproofing. This is resorted to in order that no columns may become heated, and a crash will be imposable. All means will be employed to render fireproof all woodwork in the building and to make the whole secure against any possibility of conflagration.

On the third floor will be the housekeeper’s apartments, and close at hand will be a soiled-linen chute leading to a closed closet to the laundry, which is in the basement, so arranged as to save labor.

Marquis’ Hand-Book of Chicago, 1885:

McCoy’s European Hotel (later known as the Hotel Victoria) is the best appointed and most elegant hotel west of New York, conducted exclusively on the European plan; and it is the only strictly first-class European hotel in Chicago. Its site was well chosen, being easily accessible from all parts of the city. It is just across the street from the Rock Island and Lake Shore Depot, and only one square away from the post office; and it is adjacent to the New Board of Trade and convenient to the large wholesale and retail stores and principal places of amusement and interest. The locality is improving with greater rapidity than any other portion of the city, and many massive and handsome business blocks have recently been erected in the neighborhood. The building is seven stories in height above the basement, and is crowned with three ornamental towers. It was designed by the well-known architect, Greg. Vigeant, is essentially fire proof, and is one of the best constructed and most substantial hotels in the world. The walls are of red pressed brick, and the columns, girders, towers, mansard, gables and stairways are all of iron.

There is a large double fire escape on each front of the building, immediately accessible from hallways on each floor, and each contiguous window is provided with a spacious iron balcony. And a complete iron stairway in the court in the rear, extending the entire height of the building, also affords easy means of escape in case of fire. The building has a frontage of 95½ feet on Clark Street and 110 on Van Buren, and a court in the rear separates it from all other buildings. There are 200 rooms for guests, and each apartment is luxuriously furnished, and provided with all modern conveniences. The finish of the first two stories is of hard wood—oak. The rotunda, in which is situated the office commanding a view of each entrance, is located on the second floor.

It is reached by wide stairways from both streets, and by a superb hydraulic elevator near the Van Buren Street entrances. The three main parlors and tie reception and club rooms are on the same floor, and all the rooms on the entire floor are so arranged that they can be thrown into one grand salon, at pleasure. The restaurant is on the first floor, and adjoining the grand dining-hall are convenient private dining and toilet-rooms. The Ave upper stories are divided into suites and single rooms, each with natural light and perfect ventilation, and a new and original system of alarms by which every guest may be immediately awakened, this being the only hotel in the world having this device. Everything seems to have been done to make the house homelike, comfortable and attractive.

The rates range from $1 a day upwards. The cost of the hotel was about $500,000. It was completed and opened June 1, 1884, and has rapidly grown in popular favor. Wm. McCoy is the sole owner and proprietor. The first McCoy’s Hotel was located at 140 and 142 Madison Street, and was originally called Burk’s Hotel. Mr. McCoy bought it in 1879, and afterward changed the name to McCoy’s Hotel.

Rand McNally’s Bird’s Eye Views of Chicago, 1893

② McCoy’s European Hotel,
At the northwest corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, is celebrated in Irish circles as the rendezvous of prominent Hibernians. It has a massive brick, cut-stone, and iron exterior, with 80 feet on Clark, 100 feet on Van Buren Street, and a height of 100 feet, in 7 stories and basement. There is 1 elevator. The lower part of the building is divided into 6 store-rooms, and there are 250 rooms in the hotel, which is strictly European. The office is upstairs. There, is an excellent café on the main floor. Erected in 1884 for William C. McCoy.

Inter Ocean, September 29, 1910

VICTORIA HOTEL IS SOLD.
Toledo Man Gets Loop Hostelry for $90,000.
The Victoria hotel, formerly McCoy’a hotel, at Clark and Van Buren streets, has ben sold la E. C. Puffer af Toledo. Ohio, for $90,000, by O. A. McClintock, proprietor of the Wellington hotel. The Victoria has been refitted from cellar to garret and modern appliances installed throughout the house. A lease for fifteen years is held on the building, which is owned by William McCoy.

Edward Carr, manager of the Victoria, becomes manager af the Wellington..

Chicago Tribune, November 5, 1939

VICTORIA HOTEL REMODELING HAS BEEN COMPLETED
Remodeling of the Victoria hotel at the northwest corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, has been completed, according to the architects, Koenigsberg & Weisfeld. The entire hotel has been modernized, they said. New bathrooms, lobbies, foyers, and entrances were built. A new electric wiring system, with new light fixtures, has been installed. The cost of remodeling was $60,000 and new furniture cost $30,000, it was said.

The property was leased by the Victoria Hotel corporation from the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust company for 20 years. Llody C. Wheeler, vice president and secretary of the corporation, will manage the hotel.

Hogan & Farwell represented the lessors. The Coffman Realty company was broker for the lessee.

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