Tremont House (Chicago)

It was a five and one-half floor block masonry brick structure with 260 rooms, and was designed by John M. Van Osdel.

[1][3][7][2][6] The new hotel covered the entirety of the land that the Couch brothers had acquired before the loss of previous building.

[1][5] At the time the third hotel was constructed, its neighborhood was located at the border of the developed business district and undeveloped prairie land.

[3] In 1853, three years after the third incarnation of the hotel opened, the building was leased and the furniture was sold to David Allen Gage and George W.

[6][8] The Couches had attempted to back out of the agreement shortly after the lease was sold, but relented after the Gages threatened a lawsuit.

[3] In 1855, John Drake joined the Gages, acquiring a quarter interest in the hotel's operation.

[3][9] The building was among the largest to be physically raised when Chicago heighted the grade of its streets in the 1850s and 1860s.

During the 1858 United States senatorial race in Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, who regularly stayed at the hotel while in Chicago, delivered a July 9, 1858 speech that included a rebuke to Abraham Lincoln's House Divided Speech.

Lincoln, who was in Chicago to attend an opening session of United States District Court, appeared at the hotel that night to deliver a rebuttal.

Additionally, popular gathering spot for notable figures was the hotel's bar room, which actor John Brougham had given the name "House of David".

[3] At the time it was lost to fire, a notable resident of the third hotel was former Chicago mayor and former U.S. congressman John Wentworth.

[15][6] During the interim period following the fire, the hotel operated as the "New Tremont House" out of a structure that John Drake had bought at Michigan Avenue and Congress.

[1] In 1902, the building was purchased by Northwestern University, and housed its law, dental, and business schools.