![]() The board of directors changed the name of the hotel, naming it after Conrad Hilton himself on November 19, 1951. On December 7, 1944, delegates from 54 nations gathered in the Grand Ballroom of the Stevens Hotel to conclude and sign the Convention on International Civil Aviation, also known more popularly as the ‘Chicago Convention’, the defining international agreement which has since permitted the global civil aviation system to develop peacefully and in a manner benefiting all peoples and nations of the world.Īs World War II drew to a close, Conrad Hilton purchased the hotel from Healy in February 1945. In January 1944, the War Department closed a deal to sell the property for $4.91 million to a bricklayer turned private businessman named Stephen Healy. The Stevens housed over 10,000 air cadets during this time, who utilized the Grand Ballroom as their mess hall. Army purchased the Stevens Hotel for $6 million for use as barracks and classrooms for the Army Air Force during World War II. The government took the hotel into receivership, and by the late 1930s, it was valued at only $7 million. Like four out of five American hotels during the Great Depression, the Stevens Hotel went bankrupt. They were convicted of embezzlement, but the conviction was reversed unanimously on appeal. The Great Depression ruined the Stevens family, and the State of Illinois charged the hotel's owners with financial corruption. The first registered guest was Vice President Charles G. The Stevens housed its own bowling alley, barber shop, rooftop miniature golf course (the "High-Ho Club"), movie theater, ice cream shop, and drug store. The Stevens featured 3,000 guest rooms, cost approximately $30 million to construct (more than ten times the cost of Yankee Stadium only a few years earlier), and boasted of a virtual "City Within a City". Stevens, his son Ernest, and their family who ran the Illinois Life Insurance Company and owned the Hotel La Salle James and Ernest Stevens are the grandfather and father, respectively, of former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. At the time, the Stevens was the largest hotel in the world. The hotel, designed in the Beaux-Arts architecture style, opened on May 2, 1927, as the Stevens Hotel, across Balbo Street from the older Blackstone Hotel. ![]() From its opening in 1927 through 2008, every sitting president of the United States had been housed in the hotel before leaving office. It is the third-largest hotel in Chicago by number of guest rooms however, it has the largest total meeting and event space of any Chicago hotel. The hotel is a Chicago landmark that overlooks Grant Park, Lake Michigan, and the Museum Campus. The Hilton Chicago (also known as Chicago Hilton and Towers) is a centrally-located luxury hotel in Chicago, Illinois, United States. en /hotels /illinois /hilton-chicago-CHICHHH /
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |