Sauganash Hotel
{{short description|First hotel in Chicago}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{infobox building
|image = Sauganash2b.jpg
|caption = Sauganash Hotel, c. 1830–33 (the smaller building on the left was Chicago's first drug store)
|completion_date = {{start date and age|1831}}
|closing_date = {{end date and age|1851}}
|floor_count = 2
}}
Sauganash Hotel (originally Eagle Exchange Tavern) was a hotel regarded as the first hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1831, the hotel was located at Wolf Point in the present-day Loop community area at the intersection of the north, south and main branches of the Chicago River. The location at West Lake Street and North Wacker Drive (formerly Market Street) was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002. The hotel has changed proprietors often in its twenty-year existence and briefly served as Chicago's first theater. It was named after Sauganash, an interpreter in the British Indian Department.
History
File:Thompson plat of Chicago 1830.png of Chicago showing the intersection of the branches of the Chicago River]]
Mark and Monique Beaubien, the owners and builders of the hotel, were French Indian traders. In 1826 they moved to Chicago on the advice of Mark's elder brother Jean, an established trader who lived next to Fort Dearborn. The Beaubiens settled in a small cabin on Wolf's Point and also traded with the Native Americans and other travelers to the growing settlement. They built a tavern on the east bank of the south branch of the Chicago River at the point where the north and south branches meet.{{Cite web |title=Site of the Sauganash Hotel/Wigwam |url=https://webapps.cityofchicago.org/landmarksweb/web/landmarkdetails.htm?lanId=1417 |access-date=November 7, 2018 |publisher=City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division}}{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=Hotels |encyclopedia=Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/603.html |access-date=July 18, 2010 |author=Berger, Molly}}{{Cite book |last=Andreas, Alfred Theodore |author-link=Alfred T. Andreas |title=History of Chicago |publisher=Nabu Press |year=1884 |isbn=1-143-91396-5 |volume=1 |pages=629–30 |chapter=Wolf Point and Early Hotels |access-date=July 15, 2010 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wP0TAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Elijah+Wentworth%22+wolf+point&pg=PA629}}
The tavern initially was named the Eagle Exchange Tavern.{{Cite book |last=Randall, Frank A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYLlF61yeYEC&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA8 |title=History of the development of building construction in Chicago |last2=John Randall |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-252-02416-8 |access-date=September 25, 2010 |name-list-style=amp}} In 1831, they added a frame to the log structure to create Chicago's first hotel, the Sauganash Hotel. When completed, it was one of only two residential structures on the south side of the main branch of the Chicago River, the other being that of his brother, Col. Jean B. Beaubien.{{Cite book |last=Wentworth, John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4MdAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA68 |title=Early Chicago. Fort Dearborn: An Address ... |publisher=The British Library |year=2010 |page=68 |access-date=September 24, 2010}} The settlement had only twelve houses at the time. The hostelry immediately became famous,"At this date, Chicago was a village of only twelve houses" – Frank Alfred Randall, John D. Randall (1999). [https://books.google.com/books?id=gYLlF61yeYEC History of the development of building construction in Chicago]. University of Illinois Press. {{ISBN|0-252-02416-8}}. p. 8. and when reconstructed later became the city's largest and finest hotel.{{Cite book |last=Andreas, Alfred Theodore |title=History of Chicago |publisher=Nabu Press |year=1884 |isbn=1-143-91396-5 |volume=1 |page=633 |chapter=Wolf Point and Early Hotels |access-date=July 15, 2010 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wP0TAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Elijah+Wentworth%22+wolf+point&pg=PA629}} Immediately adjacent to the hotel's public bar was Chicago's first drug store.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIdNAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA100 |title=Bulletin of pharmacy |publisher=Nabu Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-144-46348-7 |volume=16 |page=100 |access-date=September 24, 2010}}
The Greek Revival trim of the new hotel contrasted with the other eleven buildings of Chicago. The symmetry of its facade was typical to contemporary Greek Revival practiced on the East Coast. Juliette Kinzie, who came to Chicago from Connecticut in 1831, described it as "a pretentious white two-story building, with bright blue wood shutters, the admiration of all the little circle at Wolf Point". The hostelry's clientele transcended race, with natives and settlers enjoying each other's company.{{Cite book |last=Vowell, Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UC9YM2p_KykC&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA100 |title=Take the cannoli: stories from the New World |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2001 |isbn=0-7432-0540-5 |page=100}}
The flow of travelers and settlers intensified with the end of the Black Hawk War in 1832.Keating, Ann Durkin (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=4L9ELpUAW1cC Chicagoland: city and suburbs in the railroad age]. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0-226-42882-6}}. pp. 39–40. In 1833 the hotel housed the election of the first town trustees of the newly formed Town of Chicago. Beaubien kept the hotel until 1834 and during his ownership he regularly entertained guests with his violin. On August 18, 1835, two years after the Potawatomi natives signed the treaty agreeing to be moved to a reservation beyond the Mississippi River in northwestern Missouri, they selected 800 braves to perform their last war dance parade on a path that passed in front of the hotel.{{Cite book |last=William W. Williams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8HUAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA647 |title=National magazine: a monthly journal of American history |last2=James Harrison Kennedy |year=1890 |volume=12 |page=647 |access-date=September 25, 2010}}{{Cite book |last=Kirkland, Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpMUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA8 |title=Chicago yesterdays: a sheaf of reminiscences |publisher=Nabu Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-149-32245-1 |page=7 |access-date=September 25, 2010}}{{Cite book |last=Caton, John Dean |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bfErAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA142 |title=Miscellanies |year=1879 |page=142 |access-date=September 25, 2010}}
In 1835, a Mr. Davis assumed control of the hotel, which subsequently had a series of proprietors. The building briefly served as Chicago's first theater, and hosted the first Chicago Theatre Company in November 1837 in an abandoned dining room.{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Adler, Tony |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1244.html |title=Theater |encyclopedia=Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-226-31015-9 |editor-last=Grossman, James R. |pages=815–6 |access-date=July 18, 2010 |editor-last2=Keating, Ann Durkin |editor-last3=Reiff, Janice L.}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UcwGAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA163 |title=Harper's book of facts: a classified history of the world; embracing science |year=1895 |editor-last=Lewis, Charlton Thomas |access-date=September 25, 2010 |editor-last2=Joseph H. Willsey}} By 1839, it returned to service as a hotel, but was destroyed by fire in 1851, and subsequently torn down.{{Cite book |last=Sandburg, Carl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nL5xCYLFs0C&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA117 |title=Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years |last2=Edward C. Goodman |publisher=Sterling |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4027-4288-0 |page=117 |access-date=September 25, 2010 |name-list-style=amp}} The Wigwam was built in its place nine years later.{{Cite book |last=Pacyga, Dominic A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_4TAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Sauganash+Hotel%22&pg=PA101 |title=Chicago: its history and its builders, a century of marvelous growth |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-226-64431-8 |page=101 |access-date=September 24, 2010}}
Honoree
Billy Caldwell "Sauganash", who served as an interpreter for the Indian Agents,{{Cite book |last=Andreas, Alfred Theodore |title=History of Chicago |publisher=Nabu Press |year=1884 |isbn=1-143-91396-5 |volume=1 |page=91 |chapter=United States Indian Agents And Factors At Chicago |access-date=July 15, 2010 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wP0TAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Elijah+Wentworth%22+wolf+point&pg=PA629}} was the honoree of the hotel. Born in approximately 1780, "Sauganash" was half native-American whose father was Colonel Caldwell, an Irish officer in the British Army stationed at Detroit; his mother was a Pottawatomi. He was schooled at a Jesuit school in Detroit, where he learned English and French. Caldwell learned several Native American languages. Billy Caldwell's Indian Name was "Straight Tree", but he was known by "Sauganash", meaning Englishman in the Potawatomi language. As a warrior, Sauganash was under the influence of Tecumseh until he died in 1813, and he rose to the level of a captain in the British Indian Department during the War of 1812.{{Cite book |last=Andreas, Alfred Theodore |title=History of Chicago |publisher=Nabu Press |year=1884 |isbn=1-143-91396-5 |volume=1 |page=108 |chapter=Chicago From 1816 To 1830 |access-date=July 15, 2010 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wP0TAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Elijah+Wentworth%22+wolf+point&pg=PA629}}
Theater
In 1834 (three years before Chicago was incorporated as a city), the hotel hosted the first professional public performance in Chicago for $.50 ({{Inflation|US|0.5|1834|fmt=eq|r=2}}) for adults and $.25 ({{Inflation|US|0.25|1834|fmt=eq|r=2}}) for children. The show promised a wide variety of talents including ventriloquism. In the following two years, several traveling showmen performed at the hotel. In 1837, the Chicago Theater, which was the first local theater company, set up shop in the hotel's abandoned dining room. Co-managers Harry Isherwood and Alexander McKinzie procured an amusement license for the company from the city council, and it began performing a different billed show every night starting in late October or early November for approximately six weeks. The plays included titles The Idiot Witness, The Stranger, and The Carpenter of Rouen. Production of The Stranger took place in the dining room of the hotel.{{Cite book |last=Zietz |first=Karyl Lynn |url=https://archive.org/details/nationaltrustgui0000lynn/page/91 |title=The National Trust Guide to Great Opera Houses in America |last2=Karyl Charna Lynn |publisher=Wiley |year=1996 |isbn=0-471-14421-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/nationaltrustgui0000lynn/page/91 91] |url-access=registration}} Following a six-week engagement, the company went on tour until the following spring, when it returned to a different local venue.
See also
- {{portal-inline|Chicago}}
- {{portal-inline|Hotels}}
References
{{Reflist|33em}}
{{coord|41|53|7.3|N|87|38|11.2|W|region:US-IL_type:landmark|display=title}}
{{Good article}}
Category:Hotel buildings completed in 1831
Category:Former buildings and structures in Chicago
Category:Defunct hotels in Chicago
Category:Burned buildings and structures in the United States