Congress Plaza Hotel
hotel in Chicago
The Congress Plaza Hotel is a hotel on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, across from Grant Park. Opened by R.H. Southgate just before the 1893 World’s Fair, the hotel has hosted numerous US Presidents and a wide range of political and cultural events. The hotel is frequently claimed to be one of the most haunted buildings in Chicago.
The hotel is not currently affiliated with any national chain. Since 2012 it has been owned by a joint venture of New York investment firms.
History
When its north tower opened in 1893, the hotel was named the Auditorium Annex per its intended usage as an annex to the Auditorium Building across the street. Designed by architect Clinton J. Warren, the north tower was linked to the Auditorium building by a marble-lined underground passage called Peacock Alley.
After the World's Columbian Exposition, the hotel underwent two major expansions and renovations, first in 1902 and then again in 1907, which brought the total complex up to 1 million square feet (93,000 m2). The design and construction of these two additions, including the south tower, were overseen by the firm of Holabird & Roche. The hotel now features 871 guest rooms and suites.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5160816. Authority coordinates are 41.875, -87.624. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 2012, 1902 and 1907.
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This entry incorporates text from “Congress Plaza Hotel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.