History
Second-generation hotel magnates Tracy Drake and John Drake (1872-1964) acquired the property from the estate of Potter Palmer in 1916. The building was financed by a syndicate of family friends including members of the Palmer, Armour, Swift, McCormick families and the hotel's architects, Benjamin Marshall and Charles Fox. At the time of its completion, the Drake was the transition between the fashionable Gold Coast residential area and the new commercial north Michigan Avenue. The building's Walton Place main entrance avoided the commotion of the commercial thoroughfare and increased vehicular access. The Drake brothers upheld the family reputation as a main focus of social, commercial and political life in Chicago with its ownership and management of the city's two (see Blackstone Hotel) most prominent hotels as bookends of Michigan Avenue.
The Drake served as the original studios of radio station WGN when it was renamed from WDAP in 1924.
William Drake and his wife Elizabeth lived at the hotel for several years until the family lost the hotel during the Great Depression.
When Francesco ("Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti") Nitto headed the Chicago Outfit in the 1930s through the early 1940s, he maintained his office here for a time in a suite of rooms.
Tourists visiting Chicago are often invited to take English afternoon tea at the Drake as an essential thing to do in the city. It includes several luxury shops.
All the corridors and guest rooms were renovated in a $45 million five-year project from 1998 to 2003. A further $15 million was spent in 2005 and 2006 to add a fitness center, an executive conference center, and new luxury bedding and desks in all the guest rooms.
The Drake was one of just two United States hotels that were owned by Hilton International (which owns the Hilton brand outside the United States). In 2006, Hilton Hotels Corporation acquired Hilton International, and The Drake became part of the Hilton Hotels Corporation and The Hilton Family of Hotels.
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