Arlington Hotel
1899-1918 (approximate)
Around 1899, the building took on a different function – this time as the Arlington Hotel. Advertised as a “first class family hotel” with “superior accommodations,” including spacious airy rooms, single or ensuite, with some of the most desirable “handsomely furnished” rooms at the front of the hotel facing out on Dearborn. The Arlington offered modern conveniences for the time, such as hot and cold running water, steam heat, private baths and an elevator. The hotel welcomed either permanent or transient residents. It advertised being “walking distance” to the downtown district and convenient for convention attendees.
The Arlington boasted an excellent table for boarders and a beautiful dining room, along with a private dining room for guests to use. In 1905, the hotel purchased Everet Farm in Wheaton and began offering its guests farm-to-table board – including chicken, milk, eggs and all produce – from its own farm.
As a result of Chicago’s street renumbering in 1909, the hotel’s address changed from 247 to 839 North Dearborn. During that same year, the Arlington reopened under new management, with ads stating it was newly renovated and refurbished throughout. The reopened hotel offered cool, airy rooms at reasonable rates with “perfect light.” There was a telephone and running water in every room.
The history of the hotel and its guests is intertwined with the history of the city. In 1905, an Arlington resident was connected with a shocking story all over the news about the White City, a recreational area whose name recalls the chalky white buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition, that operated on the South Side from 1905 until the 1950s. Soon after its opening, a car full of guests derailed on the park railway. One man died and three people were injured in the accident. Mrs. Charles E. Brown, who lived at the Arlington was “probably fatally injured,” with a broken back, according to the Chicago Tribune. The accident was blamed on boys who threw a brick on the track after having been driven from a nearby lot by the park’s policemen. [1]
The hotel itself saw its share of drama. In 1913, a thief, surprised while breaking into a room through the window, slid down a drainpipe and escaped by jumping through the plate glass window in the hotel’s dining room. Guests were thrown into chaos as the hotel clerk and janitor, both armed with revolvers, fired “shot after shot” at the fugitive. [2] During the same year, another burglar stole $1 worth of jewelry from the hotel. [3]
In 1917, an armed burglar broke into a room in the Arlington, hiding in a closet, and then attacking the guest – Mrs. Harry Powell. When she told her there was no money hidden in the room, he tied her hands, gagged her, and threw her under the bed where her husband and hotel employees eventually found her. The robber escaped through the fire escape. [4]
[1] Chicago Tribune, 3 July 1905, Page 1
[2] Chicago Examiner, 7 January, 1913, Page 5
[3] The Day Book, 7 January, 1913 page 6
[4] The Day Book, 24 March 1917, Page 12; Chicago Tribune, 24 March, 1917, Page 13