
One of the reasons I love living where I do, is that my building has quite the history in Chicago. It was built in 1915 and opened in 1916 the main YMCA Hotel in Chicago. Chicagoan William Messer conducted a study with University of Chicago students a few years earlier to show that the South Loop did not have many reputable places for young men to stay when they came to Chicago at Dearborn Station in the South Loop. He started by getting donations from some of Chicago’s plutocrats including John Shedd, Cyrus McCormick and William Wrigley. The Y opened with 1,821 rooms and was soon running at full capacity.
In the 1920s so many people were turned away that the board decided to expand the hotel. When the expansion was done, the hotel had 2,700 rooms, making it the second largest hotel in Chicago. After a lull during the Great Depression the Y Hotel bounded back at the end of the 1930s when millions of people poured into Chicago for the Century of Progress Exposition. Servicemen kept the hotel full during World War 2, along with travelers and tourists who wanted to stay close to downtown, but couldn’t afford the swankier hotels.

After its expansion in the 1920 the hotel had a huge lobby and restaurant on the first floor. The second floor boasted a lounge and huge library and the next three floors were full of meeting rooms that were kept busy with clubs in photography, philosophy, literature and religion. There were dances, speakers and other events every night. Residents, both overnight and long-term, were encouraged to get to know each other. There was also a rooftop deck where residents had great views of both Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago. (The current residents still enjoy those great views from the roof.)
In the 1930s the YWCA a block east of the Y was closed due to how easy it was for the building to be robbed. The top four floors became the YWCA, and the building was opened to both men and women. A lady I attend church with stayed in the Y when she first moved to Chicago after college until she married that fall. This is how small the rooms were. My friend who stands at 5 feet, could stretch out her arms and almost touch both walls. The size of the typical room was 4 feet by 6 feet.

In the 1960s and 70s the hotel fell on hard times. Not as many people stayed, and people who wanted to stay close to downtown wanted nicer hotels with more amenities. The hotel was shut down in 1979. Until then it was the third largest hotel in Chicago, and the largest YMCA hotel in the world.
In the mid-1980s the building was gutted and developed into apartments then in the late 1990s it was then into a condominium as people started moving into the South Loop.
As you can see from the pictures ghosts of its lively past still live in our building. My favorite is the painted ceilings from the dining room that still decorate our garage. (I also find it a little weird that our garage used to be the dining room.) I enjoy living in a building that has so much history. I also don’t have to worry about the building going anywhere. When the hotel first opened in 1916 its advertisements assured potential roomers that, not only was the building fireproof, but each room was fireproof. I thought that was odd until I remembered the Chicago Fire, which happened in 1871. This part of the city was burned down. My building was built to withstand another Chicago fire. It’s not going anywhere. And neither am I.
Sources:
The Reader, “Checkout Time for the Hotel,” by Steve Bogira, September 28, 1979.
YMCA Hotel, 826 S. Wabash Ave,. Chicago, IL at Society: The South Loop Historical Society at East-West University.
I live in the Chicago suburbs, so I’ll have to visit again and learn more about Chicago!
Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, Science Fiction/Fantasy Author
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If you want to grab some coffee when you come in, let me know. Which suburb are you in?
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Wow!
This post is so informative 🙂
A Peice Of My Life
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Thank you.
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Recently have visited Delhi and wondered how it must have been for people to live with pieces of history… And here is your post wherein, you are living with the piece of history around you!!!
Thanks for sharing this information.
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Team MocktailMommies
Collage Of Life
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And Chicago has lots of history. A lot of weird stuff happens here, and all of the city’s ghost stories come out of the weird things that happen here. It’s really interesting to learn about. To date nothing weird about my building, but as an urban fantasy writer, I keep hoping.
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Really enjoyed that, so many buildings in Chicago with a lot of history.
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Yes, it’s one of the reason I love living in Chicago: all the history, and most of it is weird and whacky history to boot.
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Interesting history!
Grass quality will impove if we pay attention & put in effort.
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Thank you.
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Such a fascinating history in one building. I love that your garage has painted ceilings as a remnant of it’s time as a hotel. How great to live with that history in the walls around you.
Pamela @ Highlands Days of Fun
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We don’t have a car, and I didn’t know about the painting ceilings until a couple of years ago. It was really cool to see. In some of the garbage shoot rooms they left the hold wallpaper from when it was the Y too. It’s really cool how they left little bits of the former Y here and there to peek through.
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That’s really cool. I love old buildings. They have so much atmosphere and “energy” in them. H is for Healing
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Yes, they do. I’m really happy I live in an older building with a history.
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That’s so cool that your building used to be a hotel and you park in the dining room! How fun! And I love the fun fact that it won’t ever burn down!
With Love,
Mandy
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You have no idea how relieved I am that I don’t have to worry about a fire. But Chicago took fire pretty seriously after the Big One. I couldn’t believe it when I found out our garage used to be the dining room. It almost makes me wish we had a car, so I could see the painted ceilings more often. Almost….
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