Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 237: Hotel History: Hotel Allegro, Chicago, Illinois

Stanley Turkel | September 22, 2020

By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Hotel Allegro, Chicago, IL, (483 rooms) The Hotel Allegro was created on the site of old Bismarck Hotel in 1998. The original Bismarck Hotel was built in 1894 by Emil and Karl Eitel, brothers from Stuttgart, Germany. The Eitels were pioneers who installed ice-boxes in the hotel's kitchen and air conditioning in the hotel's restaurants. During World War I, the Bismarck was renamed the Randolph Hotel because of anti-German sentiment. After the war, the Bismarck name was restored. When the Eitel brothers built a new 19-floor Bismarck Hotel, the 22-story Metropolitan Office Building and the 2500-seat P...