A hotel that has averaged five hundred and fifty daily arrivals for a
dozen years. This naturally awakens interest; where is it? Who built it?
How does it look? In answer, we speak of the Palmer House, of Chicago,
the 'Palace Hotel of America,' built by Potter Palmer. The building is
as nearly fire-proof as any building can be made, and is swarming with
servants.
You are accommodated with a room which satisfies your desires
financially; and upon entering the dining-room you can choose between
the American and European plans. This hotel is, indeed, first-class in
every respect. It certainly enjoys the widest reputation as such of any
on the continent, and is undoubtedly the finest hotel in America, save
possibly the Palace Hotel, in San-Francisco, which is a rival in
magnificence.
Mr. Palmer was born near Albany, New York, where he worked summers among
the farmers as a day-laborer, and attended the district school winters.
This kind of life was maintained until he was nearly nineteen years of
age when he entered a store at Durham, New York, as a clerk. Here he
allowed nothing to escape his attention and, by industry, coupled with
frugality, he was enabled to enter a business on his own account when
twenty-one. Mr. Palmer, like all other young men who have risen from
poverty to affluence, was constantly alive to the problems of the day;
especially did the subject of this narrative watch the indications of
progress in his native country.
Being filled with the idea that Chicago was to be the city of America,
he in 1852 moved 'West' to that city. Here he opened a dry-goods
business which grew to mammoth proportions for those days. After
fourteen years of successful trade he retired, investing heavily in real
estate. When the great fire came much of his vast gains were swept away,
but with that indomitable will and courage which has always
characterized his efforts, he succeeded in forming a company which
successfully brought to completion the magnificent hotel before
mentioned. Probably no man has been more closely identified with the
project of improving the streets of Chicago.
When Palmer first entered the city he found it situated in a slough. It
was generally supposed that the ground upon which the city was built was
a natural swamp, and when Palmer, among others, advocated the idea of
raising the streets they were ridiculed. But subsequent tests proved
that beneath the surface there was a solid rock bottom, therefore it was
impossible for the water to leach through. When this was an established
fact, and therefore the grumblers were deprived of this excuse, the cry
was raised that the city could not afford it. Against all obstacles the
measure was carried, however, and State Street was widened, making it
one of the grandest and most 'stately' streets among any that can be
found in any city on the entire globe. Indeed, it is difficult to
estimate the possible benefit Chicago may have derived, directly or
indirectly, through the influence of Potter Palmer.