I have been in Chicago’s famous Palmer House hotel hundreds of times, but I never knew of its fascinating history. During my recent hospital stay, I learned a lot from a PBS special.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Van_Osdel

New York bank clerk Potter Palmer revolutionized the retail store concept in Chicago. Big, eye-catching window displays, bargain sales and several other innovations are credited to Palmer.

Palmer applied many of those creative concepts to The Palmer, a wedding gift to his wife and the first of three Palmer House hotels. It was a 225-room luxury hotel and retail establishment built on the burgeoning State Street business strip that included Marshall Field’s department store. Opened in 1871, it was destroyed just 13 days later in the Great Chicago Fire.

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Before it burned down, Chicago architect John Mills van Osdel dug a hole in the Palmer House basement, buried the plans and covered them with clay and sand. After the Great Chicago Fire, he recovered the plans and Palmer began building a new Palmer House hotel, opened in 1873.

Inspired by the clay mixture saving the plans, this Palmer House, covered in clay tile, was billed as the only fireproof hotel. Even more lavish than the original, this Palmer House is considered the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States.

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In 1925 a new Palmer House was built in its current location. Conrad Hilton bought the hotel in 1945, and it was renamed The Palmer House Hilton. With 25 floors and 1,639 rooms, it is the second-largest hotel in Chicago.

The history of the Palmer House also includes being the first hotel with elevators, phones in guestrooms and electric light bulbs. While other hotels are newer and more modern, the Palmer House Hilton is among the most luxurious, elegant, comfortable and historically significant.

— John Wroblewski, online writer