24 Dec clinton j. warren’s lexington hotel through images and artifacts

the neoclassical style hotel lexington building was designed by chicago architect clinton j. warren in 1891-92. in a four-year span (from 1889 to 1893), warren designed the congress hotel, the leander mccormick apartments, the metropole hotel, the plaza hotel, and the lexington. with the exception of the congress hotel, the other buildings have been demolished.

opened in 1892 in anticipation of the worlds columbian exposition, one of the lexington’s first tenants was president benjamin harrison – who stayed there while dedicating the chicago worlds fair of 1893. the hotel is perhaps best known for al capone, who moved his headquarters two blocks north from the metropole hotel in 1928, taking up residence on the fourth and fifth floors of the lexington. capone’s personal suite was on the fifth floor of the hotel, with a living room on the southwest corner of the building featuring a prominent bay window that afforded him a view of michigan avenue and 22nd street.

the lexington was renamed the new michigan hotel in 1938. the hotel became increasingly surrounded by blight after world war ii, and descended into a haven for prostitutes and transients. the hotel officially closed in 1980. by 1985 the endangered hotel was placed on the national register of historic places. yet it was an abandoned hulk and a blight on the neighborhood (i.e., covered by soot, boarded up on the ground floor, raided by vandals, and its upper floor windows broken and exposed to the elements. the building was finally demolished in 1996 by national wrecking.

note on images: i’m currently editing several images/negatives (taken by john vinci) of the hotel and surrounding neighborhood from a pile of contact sheets i recently found in the jv archive. the images here haven’t been edited, but are still informative nonetheless.

ornament salvaged from the lexington hotel prior to or during its demolition in 1996: