The story
Samuel Newhouse began his downtown building program in 1907 to pull the commercial center south from Temple Square toward Exchange Place. The 12-story Hotel Newhouse, finished in 1912 at the southwest corner of 400 South and Main, was meant as a grand rival to the Hotel Utah. Henry Ives Cobb drew the original design, but Newhouse's money ran out. The hotel was completed more modestly, without the planned 13th floor, wings, towers and minarets.
Later owners, the Freed family, who also ran Lagoon and the Terrace Ballroom across the street, put up touring bands there. Jefferson Airplane stayed in February 1968, and a writer recalls Jimi Hendrix as a guest that year. Federal Judge Willis Ritter lived there until his death in 1978. Little America Hotel Corp. later owned it and judged renovation too costly. It was imploded on June 26, 1983, and souvenir hunters hauled off bricks.
What's There Now
The site became part of a roughly 10-acre parking lot owned by City Creek Reserve.
Everything that was here
- 1912–1983
Hotel NewhouseHotel
A mining magnate's 12-story hotel went broke before it was finished, hosted Jefferson Airplane, and was imploded in front of a crowd in 1983.
See the map in 1913 →
Did you know?
Connected places
Dwight Railroad Depot
Tao Chicago (Former Chicago Historical Society Building)
The Psychedelic Shop
The Fillmore Auditorium
Jefferson Airplane Mansion
Fillmore West
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Nearby history
Quarters Arcade Bar
Newhouse Building
Auerbach's Department Store
Dee's Hamburgers (first Dee's)
Covey-Ballard Motor Company
Centre Theatre
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