Chicago's Hotels of Presidents: The Palmer House and the Blackstone

Chicago has always been a political city, and two of its grand hotels have been its stage: one with a guest book that reads like a history of the presidency, the other with a suite that gave American politics one of its most famous phrases.

Palmer House, a Hilton Hotel

Potter Palmer built the first Palmer House as a wedding gift for his bride, Bertha Honoré. It opened in September 1871 and was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire less than two weeks later. Palmer rebuilt, and the hotel has stood at the heart of the Loop ever since, today in its third incarnation.

Almost every sitting president since Ulysses S. Grant has spent a night at the Palmer House. Grant's connection was personal: in 1879 the hotel hosted a celebrated banquet marking the former president's return from his journey around the world. The current building, on the same site, was completed in the 1920s. Over the decades, presidents and candidates have campaigned in its ballrooms, and the Empire Room became one of Chicago's great showplaces.

The lobby, with its soaring painted ceiling, remains one of the most breathtaking hotel interiors in America. Take afternoon tea or a cocktail beneath it, and don't leave without trying the brownie, invented in the Palmer House kitchen for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

The Blackstone, Autograph Collection

Opened in 1910 on Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park, the Blackstone has long called itself the "Hotel of Presidents." Its most famous room is the one that gave politics a phrase. During the 1920 Republican convention, party leaders met behind closed doors in a ninth-floor suite and settled on Warren G. Harding as their compromise nominee; a reporter's description of the "smoke-filled room" entered the language. The suite has been preserved and is decorated with art honoring the presidents who have stayed at the hotel.

The hotel's Suite of Presidents has its own history. Harry Truman agonized there in 1944 over whether to accept the vice-presidential nomination; Dwight D. Eisenhower watched his own presidential nomination from the suite in 1952; and in October 1962, President John F. Kennedy stayed in the suite, reportedly enjoying the hotel's Boston clam chowder, just before rushing back to Washington as the Cuban missile crisis unfolded.

Restored and reopened in 2008, the Blackstone is now part of the Autograph Collection, with works by more than 1,600 local artists displayed throughout the hotel.

Plan your stay: Explore more hotels in Chicago

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About this guide: Presidential connections are drawn from public sources, including official White House schedules, presidential and historical archives, and reputable news outlets, as well as the hotels' own published histories. Hotel names, ownership, and amenities may have changed since publication. This information is provided for general interest, is not guaranteed, and should be independently verified. Hotelaholic is not affiliated with or endorsed by any U.S. president or government agency.