The history of the building

Funded by the Newberry estate

After the Great Chicago Fire, the neighborhood around the Newberry Mansion and Washington Square Park was rebuilt by some of Chicago’s best early architects into what is now the largest group of early post-fire residences still standing in the city. The Newberry Mansion, the rowhouses that run along Dearborn south of the mansion and the Newberry Library were all built by the estate of Walter Loomis Newberry. The trustees of the estate broke ground on the site of the Newberry Mansion and connected rowhouses in September 1878. 

Learn more about the building's origins.

Built to house a school for young women

Even before construction started, the house had been leased for five years to the Misses Grant, who wanted to use it for their school, the Misses Grants Seminary for Young Ladies, progressive in its recognition of the importance of preparing young women for college. The school catalog advertised it as an elegant building located on “one of the most beautiful avenues of the city.” Newspaper articles describe brilliant receptions and commencements in the building’s large parlors, libraries and reception rooms. During the funeral of one of the founders, “the parlors were filled during the service by some of the most refined and culture residents of the city.” Partway through its existence, the school was renamed the Grant Collegiate Institute.

Learn more about Misses Grants Seminary.

Life as a family hotel

Around the turn of the 20th century, the Newberry Mansion was converted into the Arlington Hotel, a “first-class family hotel” that ads describe as having spacious airy rooms, an excellent table for “refined” boarders and even farm-to-table meals (from a farm in Wheaton owned by the hotel). 

Learn more about the Arlington Hotel. 

The musical years

In June 1918, the Bush Conservatory of Music began advertising its new building at 839 N. Dearborn. The Conservatory was the only in the city that provided dormitories for out-of-state students. It flourished in the location until the financial duress of the Great Depression led to its merging with the Chicago Conservatory College, and the building was about to take on yet another transformation.

Learn more about the Bush Conservatory.

Rooms by the day or week

Around 1933, the Lakeside Hotel opened up in the Newberry Mansion. It was a (seedy) rooming house, in keeping with the character of the neighborhood in the ensuing decades. Rooms cost $16 per week in 1955. Newspaper stories describe two major fires happening within two weeks of each other at the hotel in 1973.

Learn more about the Lakeside Hotel. [COMING SOON]

Six family homes

As the neighborhood started to gentrify again in the 70s, the 90-room Newberry was developed by architect Lowell Wohlfeil into six condos that were put on the market in 1980. The original condos cost between $265-295,000 and monthly maintenance was $226-252.

Learn more about the Newberry Mansion condo building. [COMING SOON]