page_title: Hotel Baker
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hotel Baker / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Ektachrome by John Freeman Post Card 20007 published by Freeman Studios, Berrien Springs, Mich. Back of card reads: Hotel Baker St. Charles, ILL. The Beauty Spot of the Fox River Valley Restful surroundings. Delightful Cocktail Lounge. Air-conditioned Rainbow Room and Coffee Shop serving the very finest food procurable at popular prices. A million dollar hotel known as one of America's finest. Just thirty miles west of Chicago.
context_page_description: Hotel Baker is a historic landmark in St. Charles, Illinois, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been in and out of the hotel business since 1928.
context_section_description: It was 1926 when the groundbreaking began at a site of a garbage dump at the Main Street bridge. Col. Edward J. Baker envisioned a luxury hotel, a resort and escape for the community of St. Charles, and an icon to the world for what big things were happening there.
  The Hotel Baker was Col. Baker's home. Col. Baker was a farmer. He and his niece Dellora Norris inherited the fortune of the founder of Texaco Oil, Col. Baker's brother-in-law John Gates. Col. Baker and his niece Dellora invested the money in the town. With every gift they gave, they gave with quiet graciousness. Col. Baker gave in abundance and ran the Hotel Baker at a yearly deficit. He was friends with people from all walks of life and wanted people to enjoy beauty and luxury no matter where they came from. When he decided to build the Hotel Baker, he told the architects to build their masterpiece. He lost his son and then his wife, and instead of living alone in the house, he moved into the Hotel, where he was always there to welcome people.
  The Hotel Baker was built on the site of the old Haines Mill, which had been destroyed by fire in 1918 and was then used as a dumping grounds for seven years. Col. Baker believed that a garbage dump should not be the focal point of his hometown, so he bought the land and construction commenced on what was to be "the World's finest small hotel." The Hotel cost a rounded sum of $1,250,000 to build. The Hotel Baker was built with its own operating hydroelectric facility, the first-ever lighted dance floor of its kind, and there was a radio station established from the Hotel's tower (which now exists as the "Penthouse Suite"). The Hotel Baker Gardens originally extended further than they do today, featuring a fishing pond and nine-hole miniature golf course.
  The Hotel had its own parking garage. Designed to be as elaborate as the Hotel, the Hotel Baker Garage opened in 1930 with a Hudson dealership, complete service garage, wash bay, Texaco gas station, and parking on the second floor for all of the Hotel's guests. The parking garage was demolished in 1983 to make way for the assisted living facility Carroll Tower.
  The Hotel opened to the public on June 2, 1928, hosting a dinner for 301. Rooms cost $2.50 a night. Each room was decorated in its own unique style, so that no two rooms were alike.
  Col. Baker considered himself "first and foremost a farmer" and owned nine farms in the Fox Valley area, from which food was provided to the Hotel Baker for guaranteed freshness in its kitchens.
  The Rainbow Room, the most famous feature of the Hotel, was originally the Hotel's restaurant and ballroom. Such performers as Louis Armstrong, Lawrence Welk, Tommy Dorsey, Guy Lombardo, and Eddie Duchin performed at the Hotel Baker atop its 63,000 wattage dance floor of patterned red, green, blue, and amber lights numbering 2,620. The floor originally could display patterns such as stars, an American flag, Christmas tree, or Valentine's Day heart. At night, the dam outside was also lighted in the flashing colors of the rainbow. A pipe organ with two consoles (one in the Rainbow Room and one in the Trophy Room) was played by the Hotel's organist Mrs. Mary Bayliss for people to enjoy.
  The radio studio in the top tower of the Hotel broadcast music played in the Rainbow Room, and — through a special connection (a wire running along the Main Street Bridge) — the Municipal Building was a "singing tower" and played the music from the Rainbow Room across the valley from loudspeakers installed in the top of the tower.
  As Col. Baker came to find hobbies to occupy his interest and newfound wealth, he began to harbor a great interest in horse racing, building up Hotel Baker Stables with the leading record of wins of a harness horse stable. He purchased his prized trotter Greyhound as a yearling in 1933. Greyhound went on to win 25 international records during his racing career. Col. Baker received his title as a Kentucky Colonel in 1935, honored as part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky by Governor Ruby Laffoon—in recognition of his contributions to his h
caption: The Hotel Baker during its heyday
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