As mentioned in the parallel post, our recent stay at the Great Northern Hotel in London had sent me wandering/wondering in Google and led me to a great many other Great Northern Hotels, prompting me to gather together links to all the OTHER "Great Northern Hotels" not in London.
These are organized by location:
Chicag0
New York City
Twin Peaks
Other
Another feature of the hotel, according to Early Chicago Hotels (IL) (Postcard History Series)
was the Silver Dollar Bar, so named because its proprietor William S. Eden, who had been a barber at the Palmer House when he persuaded it to inlay silver dollars in barbershop floor, did so also on a floor of the Great Northern Hotel, and the bar became "one fo the most exclusive spots" in the hotel.
According to a page in Route 66 In Chicago (IL) (Images of America)
, notes that a 1930's remodeling resulted in a reduction to 400 rooms with private baths. Joseph J. Korom's The American Skyscraper 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height
says that the hotel (now 17 stories!) was "one of the greatest Chicago School skyscrapers." In this context, note that Carl W. Condit, in his The Chicago School of Architecture A History of Commercial and Public Building in the Chicago Area, 1875-1925
, has more detail about the architects, and says that if "it were standing today, it would still be one of the few hotels in the United States to reveal a genuine architectural sophistication."
And to add to the confusion, according to Frank Alfred Randall, and John D. Randall's The History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago
, the hotel was originally the "Northern Hotel"!
Great Northern Hotel demolition announced Sun, Jan 14, 1940 – 36 · Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States of America) · Newspapers.comThe hotel was demolished in 1940. Had to go to Newspapers.com to find the story. According to the Chicago Tribune, "the high cost of new foundations necessary when the Dearborn street subway is built was the reason" for the owners (the estate of Marshall Field) to demolish the building and replace it with a "one story taxpayer." However, I cannot see that the latter was built, and eventually the hotel site later become part of the Dirksen Federal Building, being used for the Dirksen's south half.
While not finding as much about guests or events at the hotel as in New York, the Masterson Magic site reports on Harry Houdini was put to the test on the night after Feb. 6, 1922, where "in the Crystal Room of the Great Northern Hotel, Houdini encountered a young unknown Canadian sleight-of-hand artist who put him to the test." After a long night of dinner and magic, "Houdini’s longtime New York pal Sam Margules pulled Houdini over to a small group to witness 27 year old Dai Vernon’s mystifications with a deck of cards. Vernon performed an ingenious and deft card sleight that fooled Houdini not just three but seven times in a row. Finally, Sam advised, 'Admit it Harry, he’s got you.' and Houdini, without admitting defeat, left the hotel. The story spread and Dai Vernon became 'The Man Who Fooled Houdini'."
This was the personally amusing find for me, since we have stayed a few times at Le Parker Meridien, now The Parker (!), and turns out it was built on the site of the Great Northern Hotel, although it appears the address was flipped from 118 West 57th St. to 119 West 56th St. Interestingly, this hotel must not have had the importance as the Chicago one as it is harder to find anything on the Internet about it. Here is a William Roege photograph from 1910.
This date may coincide with the year it was built, as a Metropolis Magazine story on Le Parker Meridien notes that "it replaced the 12-story Great Northern Hotel designed by Schwartz & Gross in 1910."
And it is important to know that, according to the September 1910 issue of Ice and Refrigeration, the hotel was opening equipped with a refrigerating and ice making plant.
According to the Oct. 13, 1914 issue of New York Hotel Record, the hotel had 400 rooms and 400 baths (or 300 baths from another part of the issue), and was one of a chain of hotels controlled by the Manger Brothers.
Maybe, being New York, the hotel seems more important for who stayed there. Thus, I find from one website that the new hotel was built in 1981 "on the site of the Great Northern Hotel, home to Isadora Duncan (1922-23) and William Saroyan (1935)." Another article informs me that it was also Prokofiev's home while he was in New York starting in September 1918. Then, Eugene V. Moran's A People's History of English and American Literature
quotes a New York Times story that William Saroyan famously wrote "The Time of Your Life" in six days at the Great Northern Hotel. In addition, according to Mike Katz and Crispin Kott's Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City
, the Doors stayed there for two weeks in June 1967 during their two-week residency at Steve Paul's The Scene.
And later, I find a boxing site, which tells me that "Along with his famous Dempsey’s Restaurant and a string of business ventures, Jack Dempsey also owned The Great Northern Hotel"! Not sure when he bought it but looks like it got sold in 1946 (but he stayed in penthouse). Jack Dempsey selling Great Northern Hotel Tue, Oct 29, 1946 – 35 · Daily News (New York, New York, United States of America) · Newspapers.com
In 1912, the Bahai 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at the hotel, but invited African Americans were not present. The hotel "owner refused to let them enter the building. 'If the people see that one colored person has entered my hotel,' Mahmud [Mahmud-i-Zarqani] heard him say, 'no respectable person will ever set foot in it and my business will go to the winds.'"
An article about Edith Wynner reports how she was at the hotel on March 24, 1939, where "a meeting of the “Great Pro-American Mass Meeting in Behalf of Free Speech and Americanism,” a gathering of several anti-immigrant, anti-Communist, reactionary organizations" had re-congregated after being refused at Carnegie Hall.
One article notes that the hotel was on of the few in New York in the 1920's to treat men and women as equals (that is, not to subject women travelers with various restrictions).
The hotel was also noted for its 24-hour hair salon. This was apparently started by Larry Matthews in 1953. Located "near Carnegie Hall, enabling him to cater to show-business people. He reasoned that a hotel was a nice location for all-night beauty parlors because there was someone protective in the lobby."
The Fine Recording Studios were located in the hotel from 1957 to 1971. The hotel "had converted its ballroom and kitchen into recording space." Sear Sound was also located there for 16 years, Walter Sear having trained at the Fine.
In 1955, an episode of What's My Line featured Virginia Hall who stumped the panel: "Miss Hall is the hotel house detective at Manhattan's Great Northern Hotel."
See a billboard outside of Trenton, New Jersey.
These are organized by location:
Chicag0
New York City
Twin Peaks
Other
Chicago
I don't know if this is most famous other hotel or not, but is the first one I saw several references to. Chaim M. Rosenberg's America at the Fair: Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
, in 1893, Chicago "already had 16 buildings taller than 13 stories. The tallest was the 20-story Masonic Temple at State and Randolph Streets." But, the Great Northern Hotel was "among the tallest."
When I add "Chicago" to my search, I found a great page about this hotel on the Chicagology website. So just to give a bit from there--the hotel was at 267 S. Dearborn St., had 500 rooms, and lasted from 1891 to 1940. Apparently, it "was originally called the “Chicago Hotel”, but Proprietors / Owners, Hulbert & Eden, changed the name to the “Great Northern”." A landmark feature of the hotel was an Aeolian Pipe Organ. I do note that while this site says the hotel was a 16-story building, another says 14. The 16-story building is the "Great Northern Office and Theatre Company Building" which was built to adjoin the hotel.
[Same organ as destroyed by fire on Dec. 28, 1897, according to Jan. 1, 1898, issue of Fire & Water? Also destroyed in that fire, two large paintings that were conspicuous during the World's Fair.]
, in 1893, Chicago "already had 16 buildings taller than 13 stories. The tallest was the 20-story Masonic Temple at State and Randolph Streets." But, the Great Northern Hotel was "among the tallest."When I add "Chicago" to my search, I found a great page about this hotel on the Chicagology website. So just to give a bit from there--the hotel was at 267 S. Dearborn St., had 500 rooms, and lasted from 1891 to 1940. Apparently, it "was originally called the “Chicago Hotel”, but Proprietors / Owners, Hulbert & Eden, changed the name to the “Great Northern”." A landmark feature of the hotel was an Aeolian Pipe Organ. I do note that while this site says the hotel was a 16-story building, another says 14. The 16-story building is the "Great Northern Office and Theatre Company Building" which was built to adjoin the hotel.
[Same organ as destroyed by fire on Dec. 28, 1897, according to Jan. 1, 1898, issue of Fire & Water? Also destroyed in that fire, two large paintings that were conspicuous during the World's Fair.]
Another feature of the hotel, according to Early Chicago Hotels (IL) (Postcard History Series)
was the Silver Dollar Bar, so named because its proprietor William S. Eden, who had been a barber at the Palmer House when he persuaded it to inlay silver dollars in barbershop floor, did so also on a floor of the Great Northern Hotel, and the bar became "one fo the most exclusive spots" in the hotel.According to a page in Route 66 In Chicago (IL) (Images of America)
, notes that a 1930's remodeling resulted in a reduction to 400 rooms with private baths. Joseph J. Korom's The American Skyscraper 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height
says that the hotel (now 17 stories!) was "one of the greatest Chicago School skyscrapers." In this context, note that Carl W. Condit, in his The Chicago School of Architecture A History of Commercial and Public Building in the Chicago Area, 1875-1925
, has more detail about the architects, and says that if "it were standing today, it would still be one of the few hotels in the United States to reveal a genuine architectural sophistication."And to add to the confusion, according to Frank Alfred Randall, and John D. Randall's The History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago
, the hotel was originally the "Northern Hotel"!Great Northern Hotel demolition announced Sun, Jan 14, 1940 – 36 · Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States of America) · Newspapers.comThe hotel was demolished in 1940. Had to go to Newspapers.com to find the story. According to the Chicago Tribune, "the high cost of new foundations necessary when the Dearborn street subway is built was the reason" for the owners (the estate of Marshall Field) to demolish the building and replace it with a "one story taxpayer." However, I cannot see that the latter was built, and eventually the hotel site later become part of the Dirksen Federal Building, being used for the Dirksen's south half.While not finding as much about guests or events at the hotel as in New York, the Masterson Magic site reports on Harry Houdini was put to the test on the night after Feb. 6, 1922, where "in the Crystal Room of the Great Northern Hotel, Houdini encountered a young unknown Canadian sleight-of-hand artist who put him to the test." After a long night of dinner and magic, "Houdini’s longtime New York pal Sam Margules pulled Houdini over to a small group to witness 27 year old Dai Vernon’s mystifications with a deck of cards. Vernon performed an ingenious and deft card sleight that fooled Houdini not just three but seven times in a row. Finally, Sam advised, 'Admit it Harry, he’s got you.' and Houdini, without admitting defeat, left the hotel. The story spread and Dai Vernon became 'The Man Who Fooled Houdini'."
New York City (second)
This was the personally amusing find for me, since we have stayed a few times at Le Parker Meridien, now The Parker (!), and turns out it was built on the site of the Great Northern Hotel, although it appears the address was flipped from 118 West 57th St. to 119 West 56th St. Interestingly, this hotel must not have had the importance as the Chicago one as it is harder to find anything on the Internet about it. Here is a William Roege photograph from 1910.This date may coincide with the year it was built, as a Metropolis Magazine story on Le Parker Meridien notes that "it replaced the 12-story Great Northern Hotel designed by Schwartz & Gross in 1910."
And it is important to know that, according to the September 1910 issue of Ice and Refrigeration, the hotel was opening equipped with a refrigerating and ice making plant.
According to the Oct. 13, 1914 issue of New York Hotel Record, the hotel had 400 rooms and 400 baths (or 300 baths from another part of the issue), and was one of a chain of hotels controlled by the Manger Brothers.
Maybe, being New York, the hotel seems more important for who stayed there. Thus, I find from one website that the new hotel was built in 1981 "on the site of the Great Northern Hotel, home to Isadora Duncan (1922-23) and William Saroyan (1935)." Another article informs me that it was also Prokofiev's home while he was in New York starting in September 1918. Then, Eugene V. Moran's A People's History of English and American Literature
quotes a New York Times story that William Saroyan famously wrote "The Time of Your Life" in six days at the Great Northern Hotel. In addition, according to Mike Katz and Crispin Kott's Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City
, the Doors stayed there for two weeks in June 1967 during their two-week residency at Steve Paul's The Scene.And later, I find a boxing site, which tells me that "Along with his famous Dempsey’s Restaurant and a string of business ventures, Jack Dempsey also owned The Great Northern Hotel"! Not sure when he bought it but looks like it got sold in 1946 (but he stayed in penthouse). Jack Dempsey selling Great Northern Hotel Tue, Oct 29, 1946 – 35 · Daily News (New York, New York, United States of America) · Newspapers.comIn 1912, the Bahai 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at the hotel, but invited African Americans were not present. The hotel "owner refused to let them enter the building. 'If the people see that one colored person has entered my hotel,' Mahmud [Mahmud-i-Zarqani] heard him say, 'no respectable person will ever set foot in it and my business will go to the winds.'"
An article about Edith Wynner reports how she was at the hotel on March 24, 1939, where "a meeting of the “Great Pro-American Mass Meeting in Behalf of Free Speech and Americanism,” a gathering of several anti-immigrant, anti-Communist, reactionary organizations" had re-congregated after being refused at Carnegie Hall.
The hotel was also noted for its 24-hour hair salon. This was apparently started by Larry Matthews in 1953. Located "near Carnegie Hall, enabling him to cater to show-business people. He reasoned that a hotel was a nice location for all-night beauty parlors because there was someone protective in the lobby."
The Fine Recording Studios were located in the hotel from 1957 to 1971. The hotel "had converted its ballroom and kitchen into recording space." Sear Sound was also located there for 16 years, Walter Sear having trained at the Fine.
In 1955, an episode of What's My Line featured Virginia Hall who stumped the panel: "Miss Hall is the hotel house detective at Manhattan's Great Northern Hotel."
See a billboard outside of Trenton, New Jersey.
New York City (first)
Stumbled upon another Great Northern Hotel in New York! So, according to the Historic Districts Council, 268 Bowery is the location of a "five-story Italianate building is unusual and stands out on the Bowery because of its yellow color. ... The building was used as a dwelling and store until the early 1880s, when it became the Great Northern Hotel and later the Windsor Lodging House, which was notorious for thieves."
Townsville, Queensland
Twin Peaks
Okay, this one is fictional! But, it is a Great Northern Hotel and, apparently (shame on me never having seen the show), "it is where much of the series takes place." You can even order your own notepads from the hotel.
Other Hotels
Helena, Montana
Seattle, Washington located between South Washington Street and Yesler Way. According to Seattle's Historic Hotels also known as the Terry Denny building. Renovated in 2000 with 48 deluxe loft apartments and 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. [Although another site says it was just Northern Hotel.]
Seattle, Washington located between South Washington Street and Yesler Way. According to Seattle's Historic Hotels also known as the Terry Denny building. Renovated in 2000 with 48 deluxe loft apartments and 8,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. [Although another site says it was just Northern Hotel.]
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