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Revision as of 21:10, 24 September 2010
Sauganash Hotel is a former hotel; regarded as the first hotel in Chicago, Illinois. It 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 Steet and North Wacker Drive (formerly Market Street) was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002.[1] The hotel changed proprietors often in its twenty-year existence and briefly served as Chicago's first theater. It was named after Billy Caldwell, an interpreter in the British Indian Department.
History
Mark and Monique Baubien, the owners and builders of the hotel, were French Indian traders. In 1826 they moved to Chicago on the advice of Mark's brother Jean, who lived at Fort Dearborn. The Baubiens settled in a small cabin on Wolf's Point and continued their trade with the Indians.[2] 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.[1][3][4] In 1831, they added a frame to the log structure to create Chicago's first hotel, the Sauganash Hotel.[3] The hotel immediately became a famous business in Chicago.[4] It became known as the largest and finest Hotel in Chicago.[5]
The Greek Revival trim of the new hotel contrasted with the other eleven buildings of Chicago.[6] 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 pretentios white two-story building, with bright blue wood shutters, the admiration of all the little circle at Wolf Point".[2]
The flow of travelers and settlers intensified with the end of the Black Hawk War in 1832.[2] In 1833 the hotel housed election of the first town trustees of the newly formed Town of Chicago.[1] Beaubien kept the Hotel until 1834 and during his ownership he provided regular entertainment with his violin.[5] In 1835, a Mr. Davis assumed control of the hotel, which subsequently had a series of proprietors.[5] The building briefly served as Chicago's first theater,[1] and hosted the first Chicago Theatre company in 1837 in an abandoned dining room.[7] By 1839, it returned to service as a hotel,[5] but was destroyed by fire in 1851,[1] and the Wigwam was built in its place nine years later.
Honoree
Billy Caldwell "Sauganash", who served as an interpreter for the Indian Agents,[8] was the honoree of the hotel.[5] Born in approximately 1780, "Sauganash" was an Indian half-breed, 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 Indian dialects. 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 his death and he became a Captain in the British Indian Department.[9]
Theater
In 1834 (three years before Chicago incorporated as a city), the hotel hosted the first professional public performance in Chicago at a cost of $.50 ($15.26 in current dollar terms) for adults and $.25 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.[10] Following a six week engagement, the company went on tour until the following spring, when it returned to a different local venue.[7]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Site of the Sauganash Hotel/Wigwam". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ a b c Keating, Ann Durkin (2005). Chicagoland: city and suburbs in the railroad age. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226428826. pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b Berger, Molly (2005). "Hotels". Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
- ^ a b Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "Wolf Point and Early Hotels". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. pp. 629–30. ISBN 1143913965. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ a b c d e Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "Wolf Point and Early Hotels". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. p. 633. ISBN 1143913965. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ "At this date, Chicago was a village of only twelve houses" – Frank Alfred Randall, John D. Randall (1999). History of the development of building construction in Chicago. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252024168. p. 8.
- ^ a b Adler, Tony (2004). Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L. (ed.). "Theater". Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 815–6. ISBN 0-226-31015-9. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - ^ Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "United States Indian Agents And Factors At Chicago". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. p. 91. ISBN 1143913965. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ Andreas, Alfred Theodore (1884). "Chicago From 1816 To 1830". History of Chicago. Vol. 1. Nabu Press. p. 108. ISBN 1143913965. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ Zietz, Karyl Lynn (1996). The National Trust Guide to Great Opera Houses in America. Wiley. p. 91. ISBN 0471144215.
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