pop! the corn!

Check out this short video of my awesome co-teacher spreading a little Joy-Factor in our class.

two. more. days.

Carli Davidson.

Somerset Hotel

A 1905 ad in the "Historical Sketch of the Confectionery Trade of Chicago" touted the hotel as "One Block West of Illinois Central Depot, The best accommodations for the price in the city. Hot and cold water in every room. Rates: 50 cents, 75 cents, and $1.00 per day. All modern conveniences. Ten minutes walk from the heart of the City."


As the fortunes of the South Loop faded, so did the hotel. Its name changed to "Hotel Meyer" in the the early part of the 20th Century. Again renamed "Hotel Roosevelt" after 12th Street became Roosevelt Road, the 19th Century Romanesque hotel became home to a transient population for the last third of the 20th Century, deteriorating from defered maintenance as the decades passed.


The redevelopment of the South Loop in the late 1990s gave the seedy transient hotel new life. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as it underwent a radical renovation that opened new retail space on its ground floor facing Roosevelt Road. In 2003, the upper floors of the building were opened to moderate-income rental tenants, providing some much-needed moderate income housing in the South Loop.