Brevoort Hotel II, 120 W. Madison building
Life Span: 1906-Present
Location: North aide of Madison street, between Clark and LaSalle streets
Architect: H. R. Wilson and Benjamin H. Marshall.
- Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1907
New Hotel Brevoort, 143 Madison
Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1911
New Hotel Brevoort, 118-122 W. Madison tel. Franklin-2367.
Chicago Tribune, May 28, 1907
New Brevoort Hotel Conveyed.
There was fled for record yesterday a conveyance of the new Brevoort hotel property, 143-145 Madison street, by Alexander D. Hannah and David Hogg, to Thomas W. Sprague, for a stated consideration of $10, subject to an incumbrance of $60,000, not assumed by the grantee, and to a lease by the grantors to the Brevoort hotel company, composed of Hannah & Hogg. The conveyance is said to be for convenience, and to have no significance outside of this.
Advertisement, Inter Ocean, September 23, 1906
A new standard has been set for the first-class hotels of Chicago by the New Brevoort, which was opened to the public recently by the owners, Messrs. A. D. Hannah and David Hogg, under the management of Mr. Arthur M. Grant.
This is Chicago’s Twentieth Century hotel-the first strictly new building of its kind erected in this city within ten years. Modern in very detail, this palatial hostelry will bid for the favor of its former guests and seek new patronage with facilities equaled by no other hotel in the city. In planning to secure this increased business, the owners of the New Brevoort call attention to feature of the building which appeals most strongly to the traveling public—namely, the fact that this is a model of the most recent development of fireproof construction.
While making ample provision for the safety of the patrons, the owners have sacrificed nothing that would add to their comfort. To the commercial man, the shopper, or the family spending a few days in town, as well as to the permanent guest, there are offered all the conveniences of home with none of its vexations. Representing an outlay of $1.500,000, the New Brevoort stands today as an institution of which Chicago may well be proud. The structure was planned by and rected under the direction of Messrs. Egan & Prindeville, architects, and Marshall Field & Co. are responsible for most of the interior furnishings and decorations.
The New Brevoort has all the requirements that make for success. In thé four emential particulars of a hotel’e attractiveness namely, location, construction, equipment, and service it stands unexcelled.
Central Location.
The building on Madison Street—one block from the City Hall—is far from the rumble of trains, and yet within cary reach of all depots. It is closer to the main trunk lines of the surface and elevated traction roads than any other first class hotel, and has easier access to the business and amusement center of the city. It is in the very heart of the financial district. Car lines passing the hotel entrance lead to the city’s principal parks, clubs, churches, and residence quarters.
A dignity of treatment prevails in all the architectural work. Unessential frills are absent from all 350 guest rooms, and yet each is a model for comfort and safety. The principal endeavor of the designers was to assure the protection of the occupants, and the term “absolutely fireproof” was never used with truer meaning with respect to a hotel building.
Ideal Construction
Floors in the rooms and corridors throughout are made of polished cement, on which the carpets are spread. The stairways, with treads of inlaid rubber, are built of steel and concrete, and the balustrades of bronze, while fireproof glass is used in every window. The only wood in the building is that in the doors and casings. There are two flights of stairs from the first to the top floor, and three passenger elevators and one service elevator make the means of perpendicular transit complete. In fact, from the bottom of its stone caissons, starting 95 feet below the level of the street, up through its fifteen stories, containing more than 20,000 tons of steel, terra cotta and brick, the ideal in hotel construction has been attained.
The elevator system itself merite a word of special descrip tion. The New Brevoort elevators are of the latest plunger type built by the Standard Plunger Elevator Company of New York City—the first of the kind installed in Chicago. There elevators have shown such surprising superiority that numerous hotels and office buildings in New York and the east are superseding their former plants by there machines. Instead of suspending the car from above by cables winding on wheels or drums, this hype of elevator supports it from beneath by a steel plunger operated by hydraulic pressure, thus rendering a falling wreck impossible and securing a perfection of control the hitherto unattainable. The rapid development pf this type o elevator by the Standard Plunger Elevator Company is the most significant advance ever made in the history of elevator engineering, and has initiated a new era in the art of vertical transportation.
The stately exterior of the building, which rises to a height of 175 feet above the sidewalk in Madison Street, gives promise of the attractions within. The front of the hotel is a model of the simplicity and strength of construction to be found throughout, showing a sensible blending of the utilitarian with the artistic.
Viewed from the sidewalk, the main entrance is an introduction to the interior splendor. With its walls of white marble, and its dazzling ceiling and frieze of glazed mosaic tiling, wrought in tasteful design, this doorway gives a treat for the eyes. Entering the lobby with its decorations of ivory and gold and its costly paintings and furniture, the visitor is struck by the artistic arrangement. An impression of ample space is given, and yet the look of coziness in not disturbed. It is a cheerful rendezvous for visitors to the city.
Brilliant Rotunda
To the left is the clerk’s desk and the office, and to the right the elevators and stairway leading to the mezzanine floor. This floor, overlooking the rotunda of the hotel, is fitted up for a ladies’ rest room with.comfortable chairs and settees. All the office furniture is of mahogany. The marble work here and elsewhere in the building was furnished and set in place by the Peoria Stone and Marble Works, while the rich mosaics and tile throughout, including the mosaic mat at the main entrance, were provided and laid by the George H. Rees Co. The guests’ register rests on a counter top of pure onyx inlaid with ivory and gold, while all metal work is of green bronze. Comfortable chairs around the office invite the caller to be at ease. Soft shaded incandescent lights are fitted nicely into the ceilings and pillars. The entire rotunda is finished in modern French style of the Florentine renaissance, which leads itself to a happy blending of ease and luxury.
The Grill Room
Adjoining the lobby on the north is the Grill Room. Here, too, the same high standard of decorative work is maintained. The series of oil paintings on the four walls represent a royal feast and its preparation in early Tyrolean times. On the east wall is a banquet scene, showing a feudal lord in the center of hie feast, surrounded by his courtiers, entertaining a visiting knight. On the north wall are depicted a courtyard and exterior of a castle, with some huntsmen bringing home trophies of the hunt. On the south wall are represented peasants plowing the earth and gathering products of the field. The west wall shows groups of peasants tending an orchard, and shepherd boys guarding a flock. Every detail in these designs is accurate, exhibiting careful study of medieval costumes and history. This room, as well as the restaurant, was decorated by Marshall Field & Co.
Set into the west wall is a window of art glass representing important Scottish shields and coats of arms. Above this window is inscribed Burns’ famous grace:
- Some has meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it:
But we has meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thanket.
The Moorish Buffet
Passing, into the next room the guest enters the Moorish Buffet. Here the height of splendor, Oriental in its extravagance, is attained. The electrical illumination effects are dazzling, and there is no comparison in richness except with room in one of the imperial palaces of an Indian Maharaja. Moorish arches surround the twenty-four sided room, in the center of which in the bar with its glittering front of opalescent, iridescent and gold glass mosaic of elaborate design. Cut glass treasures rise from the center of the bar, and another rare effect is added by the illuminated hand rail. Mirrors and leather settees are on all sides of the room, and the Oriental lavishness of the designers is augmented by the gorgeous ceiling with its lighted domes and hanging lamps. A beautiful study, in art glass is shown on one of the wall panels, depicting a dancing girl. This, as well as the decorative domes and the glass mosaic front of the bar, is a sample of the fine work of the Linden Glam Co. The room was designed and furnished by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company.
The Restaurant—A Rainbow Room
The main restaurant, aptly called the Rainbow Room—is reached by the elevators as well as by two broad lights of marble stairs, one leading from the lobby and the other from the street entrance. This room derives its name from the unusual placing of colors in the mural decorations. The artist has run the range of the chromatic scale in a series of paintings, from the orange and yellow hues, through greens and blues, to the violet and purple, and the arrangement of these in such as to suggest the cheerfulness of the rainbow. In the decorations of the restaurant the artist, in a pictorial way, relates how all portions of the earth contribute to the pleasures of the dining table. In all these mural paintings the colors harmonize nicely, producing a general effect restful to the senses. The paintings are the work of Messe. H. G. Maratta, Edmund P. Kellogg, and Roy L. Terwilliger, of Marshall Field & Co. Being located in the center of the theater district, no place could be more convenient or satisfactory than this for after-theater parties. The dishes and other crockery, including a special pattern of the famous Lambert china-ware, were provided by Albert Pick & Co., while the silverware for the house was supplied by the Gorham Company.
Among the oil paintings in the rotunda and the main corridors of the hotel are several art treasures. Occupying the north panel in the lobby is a large painting, “Treasury of the World,” by Frank Bromley, deceased, and Frank Russell Green. This was one of Bromley’s masterpieces, and was much sought after by art institutions. Among the other canvases are: Bryson’s “Dance of the Nymphs,’ Mulvaney’s “Two Governors,” Peeble’s “After the Bath,” and “Egyptian Beauty,” Bromley’s “Mount Hood,” and Green’s “Time and Place.”
The Guest Rooms
Guest rooms occupy all the floors from the second to the top. Each of these is an outside room and two hundred have baths connecting. All bath and toilet rooms are finished in marble, mosaic, and mahogany, while the fixtures are of solid porcelain. Throughout the building all connecting rooms have doors hung on both sides of the jamb, thus shutting out all noise. The entire tenth floor is arranged for sample rooms, in which the representatives of commercial houses may display their wares. In every room there is a long-distance telephone establishing direct communication with the outside world and with the different departments of the hotel. The entire electrical equipment, including electric light, power and fire alarm, was installed by L. K. Comstock & Co. of New York, one of the best known firms of electrical engineers in the country. The gas and electric fixtures throughout the building were supplied by the Acme Metal Manufacturing Company.
Bachelor Apartments
A new idea of the Brevoort equipment are the “Bachelor Apartments,” fifty in number, on the eleventh and twelfth floors. These rooms are divided into suites connected by private corridors with a bath, giving additional privacy to the occupants. Every guest room in the building is fitted out with mahogany furniture and beds of brass. Another exclusive feature of the New Brevoort is the arrangement by which quarters for the hotel servants are located in a separate building.
Facing the elevators at each floor landing in a cozy nook furnished with sofas, chairs, pictures and mirrors. In every detail of equipment the hotel owners have maintained the highest standard. The barber shop and manicure rooms on the main floor are the most completely equipped in Chicago. The ventilating and heating plants are unsurpassed, the best illustration of this fact being given, in the lobby and the main restaurant, where, by a new device, the temperature is kept normal all the time without the use of radiators. The plumbing and house drainage furnished by M. J. Corboy are a guarantee of the sanitary perfection of thie detail. Fresh air in a feature of the structure, and the drinking water, supplied from the hotel’s own well, 1298 feet deep. in unsurpassed for purity.
With all these fine appointments, second to none in the country, the New Brevoort will not depart from its policy of moderate pricen for everything. A well trained corps of servante will attend to every want of the guests. In every way it is a desirable and comfortable abode.
Chicago Tribune, November 28, 1861
Plan Redoing Brevoort as Modern Office Bldg.
By James M. Gavin
The Brevoort hotel, 120 W. Madison st., a Chicago fixture since 1872, will be converted into an office building designed for professional tenants such as lawyers, accountants, brokers, engineers, and retired executives who desire Loop space, the hotel’s new owners announced yesterday.
The hotel’s doors will be closed some time in January and the conversion work is scheduled to begin in February. Occupancy is expected by early 1963. The present Brevoort was built in 1906. It replaced the first Brevoort on that site which dated from 1872.
Cost is 2 Millions
The conversion will mean that the front of the building will be taken off and replaced with a glass and aluminum facade. Only the structural steel, concrete floors, and the other three brick walls will be used in the existing building Cost of the conversion will be 2 million dollars.
Two Chicago attorneys, Plato Foufas and Joseph Stefan, who with a group of 10 other Chicago business men bought the hotel for $800,000 in October, said that the building is ideally situated in the financial district and converting it to office space was their reason for purchasing it.
Recessed Arcade Planned
The office building will be called the 120 Madison building and will have total floor area in excess of 100,000 square feet. The building will be air conditioned and have an executive suite on one of the floors with secretarial and switchboard service for retired executives.
The new lobby will have a recessed arcade, with terrazzo floors and marble walls. The new buildings facade will be framed with either a marble or granite column.
Chicago Tribune, September 23, 1906
- The New Brevoort Hotel
1906.
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