(You can try the original recipe - which includes walnuts and an apricot glaze - at any of the hotel’s restaurants.)īertha was also an avid collector of French Impressionist paintings. Yes, we have Bertha to thank for this little bit of deliciousness. An early feminist, she hired one of America’s first licensed female architect, Sophia Hayden, to design the women’s building.įun fact: During the 1893 World’s Fair, Bertha requested the Palmer House chefs to create a dessert that was filling but small enough to fit into a boxed lunch.
In 1893, Bertha was appointed head of the Board of Lady Managers for the World’s Columbian Exposition. One of the few women at the time to receive a university education, she became one of Chicago’s most influential women. Photos by Becky Cheang.īertha Honoré Palmer was no wallflower. Advertised as the world’s first fireproof hotel, the building also had the city’s first elevators - paving way for the many skyscrapers that now make up Chicago’s iconic skyline. Opened in 1873, the new Palmer House was a pioneer for its many architectural and engineering feats. With Bertha’s encouragement - and a $1.7 million loan - Palmer constructed a second hotel across the street from the original. It was also the world’s shortest-lived wedding present: The building burned down thirteen days after their wedding in the Great Chicago Fire. In 1871, Palmer gave his new wife, Bertha Honoré, the world’s best wedding gift: the Palmer House hotel. Armed with a fourth-grade education and his father’s life savings, Palmer moved west to a swampy town ("Chicago" is translation of “shikaakwa,” the Miami-Illinois word for “smelly onion”) in the middle of America to make a name for himself.
This is where Price introduced us to Potter Palmer, the son of a humble cloth tradesman from Albany, New York. Every available surface was covered with hotel memorabilia: black-and-white photos, newspaper clippings, old menus, painted portraits, and the priceless artifacts that Price has amassed in 32 years studying the hotel’s 140-plus-year history.
The History is Hott tour, led by resident historian Ken Price, started in the hotel’s museum, a tiny room tucked away on the mezzanine level. A recent tour of Palmer House Hilton, the oldest hotel in Chicago, delivered on all three. We have a soft spot for history tours, especially when they start and end at gilded 19th-century hotels.ĬHICAGO – I travel for stories that local people, buildings, and food have to share.
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