The Aquitania is a luxury, 82-unit cooperative apartment building in the Margate Park neighborhood of the Uptown community of Chicago, Illinois.
The name was likely a nod to the Cunard transatlantic express ocean liner, RMS Aquitania, which entered service in 1914 and was one of the most popular ships on the North Atlantic in the 1920s, sailing until 1949.
The Aquitania, known legally as the 5000 North Marine Drive Corporation, was built by Ralph C. Harris and Byron H. Jillson in the Classical Revival style.
A legend, which purports that Essanay Studio actors Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson once resided at The Aquitania, is likely unfounded.
This probable factual inaccuracy reflects nothing more than film lore since all silent film production left Chicago's Essanay studios for southern California by 1918 at the very latest, and The Aquitania was not built until 1923, although there are historical accounts of both silent-film era stars staying as guests at The Aquitania when it was a hotel in its earliest days.