Drake Hotel
- Year
- 1920
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Drake Hotel opened in 1920 at 140 East Walton Place, on the lake side of Michigan Avenue two blocks north of the John Hancock Center, and quickly became one of Chicago's landmark hotels and a longtime rival to the Palmer House. Second-generation hotel magnates Tracy Drake and John Drake Jr. acquired the site from the estate of Potter Palmer in 1916, financing construction with a syndicate that included members of the Palmer, Armour, Swift, and McCormick families alongside the hotel's own architects, Benjamin Marshall and Charles Fox.
the building
535 rooms and the Palm Court. The hotel has 535 bedrooms, including a six-room Presidential Suite, two large ballrooms, and the Palm Court, a secluded, club-like lobby where afternoon tea is served; Club International, a members-only club, was added in the 1940s.
the style
Marshall and Fox designed the Drake in the Italian Renaissance style, its silhouette and rooftop sign now a fixture of the Gold Coast skyline.
More on Renaissance Revivalthe architect
The firm of Marshall and Fox — the same partnership behind the Edgewater Beach Hotel — designed the Drake; the architects themselves were among the investors who financed its construction.
significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Palmolive Building
- Bryan Lathrop House
- Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
- 875 North Michigan Avenue
- 227 East Walton Place Apartment Building
- Sofitel Chicago Water Tower