World Architecture Images- Chicago- Blackstone Hotel

	Essential Architecture- Chicago Loop South Blackstone Hotel
architect	Marshall & Fox
location	636 S. Michigan Ave.
date	1908-10
style	Beaux-Arts with Second Empire details
construction	steel frame, masonry cladding
type	Hotel



Considered the city's best example of a turn-of-the-century luxury hotel, the Blackstone also represents--both its exterior and interior--an excellent and rare example of the Modern French style of Beaux-Arts, (Classical Revival) architecture. Built by prominent hoteliers Tracy and John Drake, the Blackstone became known as the "Hotel of Presidents," serving as host to a dozen U.S. Presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. The Blackstone was the location of the famous "smoke-filled rooms" where Warren G. Harding was chosen as the compromise Republican nominee for President in June 1920. (The term, which has since become a political cliche, was coined by a reporter covering the convention.) The hotel was named for Timothy B. Blackstone, a prominent railroad executive and the founding president of the Union Stock Yards, whose mansion had stood on the site.
links	With special thanks to the City of Chicago website, www.egov.cityofchicago.org , for much of the info on this page. Photos copyright City of Chicago.
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