Clifton Hotel

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Clifton Hotel, Windsor-Clifton House
Life Span: 1873-1926
Location: NW corner of Wabash and Monroe streets
Architect: John M. Van Osdel

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Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1874
Clifton House, Jenkins & Holmes, proprs. Wabash av. nw. cor. Monroe

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Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
Clifton House, Manger Bros. props. Wabash av. nw. cor. Monroe

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Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1885
Clifton House, Woodcock & Loring props. Monroe nw. cor. Wabash av.

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Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899
Clifton House, C. C. Collins, props. Monroe nw. cor. Wabash av.

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Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
Windsor-Clifton Hotel, Monroe nw. cor. Wabash av.

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Chicago Evening Post, October 5, 1872

THE CLIFTON.
The Clifton Hotei Company are erecting a new house on the northwest corner of Monroe street and Wabash avenue, opposite the Palmer House. The main front, 172 feet, is on Monroe street. The frontage on Wa-bash is 80 feet. The material of the fronts will be red pressed brick, with heavy and highly ornamental stone trimmings. There will be a main entrance on each street leading to the office rotunda on the first floor in the center of the building. Over the doors will be handsome porches with Corinthian columns in relief and iron balconies above each. The handsome galvanized iron cornice will be capped with pediments over the entrances. The height will be five stories over a high basement. The old lessees, Messrs. Jenkins & Holmes, will have charge of the new hotel.

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Chicago Evening, August 14, 1873

One of the most interesting public incidents which has yet occurred in the bright annals of that department of our local history which pertains to the palace hotels for which the new city is extending its fame abroad, across all waters and over all lands and around the world, is the grand opening, to-day, of the new Clifton House, on Wabash avenue and Monroe street, in a style of magnificence corresponding with public expectations and with the fair record of the worthy proprietors, Messers. Jenkins & Holmes, as landlords worthy of their reputation and history and quite up to all the requirements and necessities of a great public and popular home. The old Clifton house before the fire will be remembered as a first-class hotel of large accommodations, distinguished for the luxury, refinement, taste and elegance in which it was managed and con-ducted, and for the liberal, first-class patronage which its attractions always secured. The occupancy by the proprietors, after the fire, of the smaller premises on West Washington and Halsted street, until a recent period, is also a matter of our hotel history. The event of to-day which has been anticipated by an expectant public with great interest and curiosity, is made interesting not only by the history which precedes it, but by the fact that the new hotel rendered by its magnitude, the costly elegance of its construction and equipment and the extent of its first-class accommodations, entitled to public attention as one of the great and grand hotels which constitute to the great world and the great public outside of Chicago, the main attractions of the new city.

The Building.
The new Clifton House is a lofty, stately and magnificent building six stories and basement, of commanding height and impressing the spectator with the sense of magnitude. One of the broad high walls of the structure which is of the finest pressed brick, trimmed and decorated with artificial granite from the Frear Stone Company, faces on Monroe street, the other on Wabash. The design of the building, which is by the well-known architects, J. M. Van Osdel & Co., is remarkable for the great simplicity and precision in the outline, relieved and beautified by tasteful and appropriate decoration, giving expression, countenance and interest to the coldness of the lofty form, and combining in perfect unity great elegance and grace with the general expression of solidity, massiveness and strength.

It is said that the same architects have planned not less than a mile and a half of the new frontage of the city, the same expression of unity in proportions and decoration being characteristic of all their buildings. The front walls of the new hotel are handsomely ornamented with galvanized iron cornices with Corinthian portico, surmounted by balustrade, at the Monroe street entrance, and a beautiful balcony nearly the entire length of the Wabash avenue side, surmounted also by an ornamental balustrade.

The internal construction is regarded as perfect. The basement space has been so utilized that the house in furnished with one of the best boiler rooms, the most complete laundry rooms, the best elevator apparatus, the most commodious store-rooms, the most elaborately furnished culinary department, and one of the finest billiard roots, to be seen together in any establishment in the world. The general oftice on the first floor is a model of elegant and expensive architecture and mechanical taste. The office counter, by the Northwestern Marble and Granite Company, 147, 151 South Jefferson street, is admired as a most beautiful piece of work. The body is of Italian marble, with Lisben marble panels trimmed with Irish black marble, and base of Columbian marble. It is probably the handsomest, most elaborate and most expensive piece of work of the kind to be seen in the city. The marble mantles of the entire building, including many elegant and beautiful designs, were by the same company. The parlors, reception rooms, main dining-room, etc., are all located on the second floor, and are regarded as equal in style, furniture, equipment, and decoration to those of any hotel in the world.

An Office Ornament.
The rear of the office is decorated with an article of furniture intended to be as useful as ornamental a large and beautiful iron safe, of Diebold & Kienzle’s manufacture, with large front and door beautifully embellished with landscape painting and handsome scroll work, making it an appropriate, attractive and conspicuous feature in the general decoration of the office. The safe is of ample proportions to accommodate the entire hotel, guests and proprietors, and will afford perfect security for all the money and valuables which travelers carry with them. The name of Diebold & Kienzle carries with it a sense of safety and security. There were eight hundred of them under the Chicago fire and only five per cent failed to to keep their contents unscorched and unharmed. The extreme tests through which they have so triumphantly passed have given them a reputation in Chicago which is well illustrated in the fact that they are used in every newspaper office in the city, and nearly all the banks and railroad offices in the State. Many beautiful varieties of these safes are on exposition at the office of the Chicago agent, Mr. D.S. Covert, No. 57 State street.

The Carpeting, Etc.
The carpets constitute a splendid feature in the general equipment, and the broad Royal English Wiltons, thick, firm, soft, and strong. bright hued, and invested with all the colors of the rainbow, that are spread like mantles of beauty over the broad hall-ways and long and roomy corridors of the main floors, afford a most attractive spectacle. All the carpeting of the hotel is from the carpet department of Field, Leiter & Co. Most of the rooms laid with the best English body Brussels, the others with the royal English Wiltons—nothing cheaper nor more common being visible in the whole house than the body Brussels. The ladies’ parlor is ornamented with an Axminster medallion, a single piece. Some of the private rooms, also, are laid with the Axminsters, making the outfit, in the department of carpets, the most complete and the richest, probably, to be seen at any house of public entertainment in the country. The halls are all bordered to match the carpets, and each separate room carpeted in a style to be in tasteful keeping with the other items of decoration and furniture, among which the chandeliers and gas fixtures furnished by J. S. Bassett & Co., No. 113 Clark street, form a conspicuous and attractive feature. The dining-room is decorated with seven great chandeliers, one 16 lights—a centre ornament—two 6 lights and four 5 lights. The crystal chandeliers of the parlor and reception room, also, add much to the splendid appearance of those apariments.

The Billiard Room.
The billiard saloon is furnished with six very handsome tables from the well known factory of Mr. A. Zeller, Nos. 24 and 26 West Washington, and Nos. 37 and 39 South Canal street. The tables are regarded as among the best that are made. Each table is constructed after a separate design and of various material. One of them is a somewhat costly table, and a model of beauty and taste in mechanism. The body is walnut, hand-inlaid with white holly stripes and tulip stars. Of the others, one is a beautiful rosewood, inlaid with maple, and another a maple inlaid with rosewood. All are of the late style of beveled tables. The billiard saloon will be one of the attractions and popular features of the new hotel.

The Painting, Iron Trimmings, Etc.
The painting of the entire hotel was done by Pearson & Myers, No. 167 Wabash avenue, and is regarded as a most creditable and successful job. The prevailing color is dead white, the graining being French walnut, American walnut and ebony. The job was a big one and included about 3,500 feet of wainscoting, grained in walnut, ash and ebony. The same finish and the same laborious attention to details prevails throughout the whole building.

All the hardware used in furnishing the building, was supplied by the firm of Edwin Hunt & Sons, Nos. 58 and 60 Lake street. This includes the handsome door trimmings, locks, knobs, hinges, etc., used in the two hundred private apartments, and the large, ornamental bronze goods used in the great doors of the parlors, dining-rooms, and other public apartments. The firm have a wide reputation for supplying the best goods in this line, and have furnished all the great hotels of the city with their outfit in iron trimmings.

A Splendid Parlor Ornament—The Knabe Piano.
One of the great features in the outfit and equipment of the house is the presence in the ladies’ parlor of a splendid rosewood full grand piano of the Knabe manufacture, and furnished from the piano and organ warerooms of Julius Bauer & Co., Palmer House building, corner of State and Monroe streets. The style of tho piano, its mechanical form and finish, is such as to match and correspond with the gorgeous furniture of the apartment, and makes an attractive feature in the decoration of the room. The proprietors made their selection with great pains and caution, and have secured perhaps as fine an instrument as could be purchased on the continent. The tone of the Knabe piano is known to combine great power and sweetness with splendid singing qualities, as well as great purity of intonation and evenness throughout the entire scale. The touch is pliant and elastic and entirely free from the stiffness found in pianos of inferior construction. It will prove a source of comfort and recreation to the lady guests of the hotel, and is an item of furniture that will be appreciated. Julius Bauer & Co., by whom the splendid instrument was furnished, are well known as prominent dealers in pianos, organs and musical merchandise.

Halliday and Roberts.
The only one of the spacious stores yet occupied is the commodious apartments just west of the Monroe street entrance, where Messrs. Halliday & Roberts, the well known engravers, stationers, and die sinkers, have established themselves in permanent quarters. The house is an old one and well known to the whole community as a popular headquarters for everything in the line of copper plate engraving, wedding, visiting, and party invitations, cards, etc. The old quarters of the firm before the fire will be remembered at No. 3 East Washington street. They now welcome their old friends at their new place under the Clifton House.

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Andreas’ History of Chicago, 1884

Prior to the great fire, W. A. Jenkins and Albert A. Holmes were proprietors of the Clifton House, and when this hostelry went down, Mr. Jenkins secured the building at the northwest corner of Washington and Halsted streets, and opened it as a hotel, which he called The Clifton. He continued in its management until the early part of 1873, when M. E Vincent became proprietor, and so continued until the opening of the new Clifton House. The latter was erected by W. A. Jenkins and Ira Holmes, and completed in the latter part of 1873. It stands at the northwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Monroe Street, and has a frontage on the former thoroughfare of eighty feet and extends back about one hundred and eighty feet. It is six stories in height above the basement, built of the finest brick, and cost $237, 400. The furniture cost $105,000. It has a total of two hundred and twenty-five rooms, of which one hundred and seventy-live are devoted to sleeping-rooms. It has an average capacity for five hundred guests, but during a run has accommodated six hundred and twenty people. Colonel Jenkins opened the hotel in 1873, and continued as manager until 1878, when he withdrew and Munger Bros, became the lessees and managers. They remained in the house until 1882, when the property was purchased by Messrs. Woodcock & Loring, and they assumed the management, the Munger Bros, moving to the Matteson House, which Woodcock & Loring hail just vacated.

When the latter parties took the Clifton House, they gave it a thorough renovation and spent over $60,000 in re-arranging ami furnishing the interior. The Clifton has always been among the most popular houses in the city, and under its present management is a prosperous and well-paying property

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Windsor-Clifton Hotel

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The Windsor-Clifton Hotel, at the northwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Monroe Street, was built in 1872 and razed in 1927 to make way for the Men’s Store of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company. For many years it was one of Chicago’s leading hotels. The old Chicago Club, afterwards De Jonghe’s Hotel and Restaurant, is seen west of the Windsor-Clifton. It was originally called the Clifton House till 1909 when it was purchased by Samuel Gregsten (Windsor European).

After the great fire, Mr. Gregsten built the Windsor hotel on Dearborn street, between Monroe and Madison. This was the first and for many years the only European hotel in Chicago and in it was never conducted a bar during the many years Mr. Gregsten was the owner and proprietor. The Windsor had the reputation of being the home of people from small towns and the country. It was preeminently respectable. No man was ever so strict and severe in the management of a hotel as Sam Gregsten, who, upon finding anything wrong or suspicious did not hesitate to throw guests out into the street at midnight and return to them their money.

He later purchased the Clifton Hotel, on the northwest corner of E. Monroe and S. Wabash streets, renaming it the Windsor-Clifton. This hotel was an extremely well known “European” hotel of the time.

The architect was John M. Van Osdel.

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1907 postcard from the Windsor-Clifton Hotel

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Chicago’s First Half Century, Inter Ocean, 1883

THE CLIFTON HOUSE.
A Cozy and Comfortable Hotel.
For those who want a cozy and comfortable house, without the noise and confusion that cannot be avoided at the larger hotels, we cordially recommend the Clifton House, one of the neatest, nicest, and most luxurious hostelries in the country. Here everything is quiet, genteel, and aristocratic, and the proprietors pride themselves upon the high character of the people who make the Clifton their stopping place. It is situated at the corner of Monroe street and Wabash avenue, just at the edge of the wholesale district, and is surrounded by the finest retail establishments in the city. It was reopened a little more than a year ago by Messrs. Woodcock and Loring, formerly of the Matteson House, and was then newly furnished throughout.

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Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1926

WINDSOR-CLIFTON TO CLOSE TODAY AFTER 54 YEARS
After fifty-four years of continuous operation, the Windsor-Clifton hotel at Wabash avenue and Monroe street is to be closed officially today.

All guests have been notified to vacate their rooms this morning. Only a few are left, as the management has declined to accept any new ones for the last week. The furnishings are to be auctioned and the building will be ready for wreckers on April 15.

The site is to be used for a sixteen story office building designed by D. H. Burnham & Co. Last fall, when plans were announced, it was stated that the F. W. Woolworth company had taken a thirty-five year lease on the first, second and third floors at $199,275 a year.

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Windsor-Clifton Hotel
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1906

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