page_title: Drake Hotel (Chicago)
section_title: Urban legends
hierarchical_section_title: Drake Hotel (Chicago) / Urban legends
caption_attribution_description: English: East Lake Shore Drive Historic District from Oak Street Beach
context_page_description: The Drake, a Hilton Hotel, 140 East Walton Place, Chicago, Illinois, is a luxury, full-service hotel, located downtown on the lake side of Michigan Avenue two blocks north of the John Hancock Center and a block south of Oak Street Beach at the top of the Magnificent Mile. Overlooking Lake Michigan, it was founded in 1920, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by the firm of Marshall and Fox, and soon became one of Chicago's landmark hotels, a longtime rival of the Palmer House. It has 535 bedrooms, a six-room Presidential Suite, several restaurants, two large ballrooms, the "Palm Court", and Club International. It is known for the contribution that its silhouette and sign on the lake façade make to the Gold Coast skyline.
context_section_description: According to local legend, John Drake (1826-1895) (the father of this hotel's founders) was standing with a hotel owner watching the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The owner, seeing his hotel threatened by the flames, offered to sell it for any price. Drake noticed that the wind direction was changing and made an offer and so founded the Drake Hotel. If this were true it would have occurred 49 years before the hotel's founding. The story is possibly confused with the interim New Tremont House purchase by John Drake, at the time of the Great Fire.
  There are several ghost stories associated with the hotel, as well.
caption: Drake Hotel (lower right) and the East Lake Shore Drive District from Oak Street Beach
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