
“We have faced the most challenging year for the travel industry and Chicago community, but in the face of adversity, Palmer House has continued to rise like a Mythological Phoenix.” Historic Origins “We are incredibly proud to reopen the iconic Palmer House doors, and welcome guests back to the epicenter of Chicago’s rich history for our 150th anniversary,” Lane continued.

In preparation for the reopening, staff at the Palmer House, a Hilton Hotel, “vacuumed more than four miles of carpet, changed 10,000 light bulbs, and for the first time, filled 14,600 gallons of water into our new swimming pool,” Dean Lane, area general manager of the Palmer House, said in a statement. Couples who spent their honeymoon there could get the same rate on their 50th anniversary - if they kept the original receipt - and would stay there for $13.75 a night, or whatever the 1940s or 1950s rate happened to be, generating press.After closing for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the iconic Palmer House hotel in downtown Chicago has reopened - in time to celebrate its 150th anniversary.ĭuring its closure, the hotel underwent a $2.2 million renovation, which included the addition of an indoor swimming pool. He oversaw an endless chain of heartstring-tugging - and publicity generating - promotions for the hotel. Price threw the Empire Room open to a dog tea party that saw society canines sniffing each other to live music and eating off the Empire Room’s gold-rimmed china on a low table. And that’s important We need to have these kinds of environments so young people can say, ‘I can aspire to this.’ ” They’re a little more conscious of their demeanor. “But what’s amazing for young people is, when young people get exposed to this kind of environment - the grand palace architecture and magnificent frescoes above - they stand up a little straighter. “This isn’t how any of us live,” he once told WTTW-TV. He liked to bring students to the hotel and let them see its elegance, for instance, hosting a camp-like event for kids facing serious illness He felt just being in the hotel could improve a young person’s life. Price’s ”History is Hott” tour brought thousands of visitors through the hotel and was named Illinois Meetings & Event’s Editor’s Pick for the Best City Tour in 2013. Price created the small, cluttered archive and museum on the Palmer House mezzanine and in 2011 started giving historic tours of what by then was the third version of the hotel given by Potter Palmer to his wife Bertha in 1871, making it the longest continually operated hotel in North America.
