New owners hope to turn Lombard's old hotel into 'destination'
There are little bits of history that pop up everywhere you turn in the old hotel building in downtown Lombard.
Some of the oldest details in the three-story structure at 101 W. St. Charles Road include an original door from the mid-1800s, a push-button light switch, roof crests from a widow's walk - where women would wait atop buildings for their husbands to come home from war - and hundreds of artifacts that date to its opening in 1858.
On Saturday, May 9, the building will be open to the public for the first time since the 1970s. The self-guided tours will cost $10 and be available from noon to 3 p.m. All proceeds go to Lombard Town Centre, a community-based group working to preserve and promote the village's downtown.
Tom and Margret Smith, the new owners who purchased the building in December, will be on hand to provide some background on the hotel along with Lombard Town Centre Executive Director Sarah Richardt and other historians. Exhibits containing artifacts found in the building will be set up for visitors, too.
"People just want to see what's up there," Richardt said. "I think they're going to be shocked, not only at the condition of it ... but I think with all the artifacts and telling of the story, they're going to get a lot more than what they thought they were going to."
The Smiths hope to make the building a "destination point," especially for people who take the train every day and walk or drive past it on a regular basis.
"I own other buildings and this building's the one I'm most proud of," said Tom, who grew up in Lombard and graduated from Glenbard East High School. "It's going to be a great, great thing here. It's old, it's nice and it's going to be a place for people to come to."
A restaurant is slated to move into the empty corner retail space on the first floor, while the second floor will be dedicated to business offices.
The second floor spaces are small and empty, leaving room to the imagination about the guests who once stayed there. A three-bedroom apartment on the floor, however, is still occupied by residents who have lived there for about 25 years.
After climbing two flights of stairs and turning down a hall, the third floor opens into a big, open space that was used as a ballroom for hotel guests, and later as a practice space for a dance school. Windows run along the floor and the high ceiling was being painted a light lilac color on a recent morning.
The room, which Tom wants to call the Lilac Ballroom, will include a piano from the early 1900s and restored tables and chairs. There is talk of eventually renting the space out for private parties and events.
"It's going to be like the town hall gathering place," he said.
Dozens of artifacts, mostly from the attic, sit in a small room off the ballroom, waiting to be organized and eventually incorporated into the renovations being done.
They include postcards, photographs, old clothing and quirky items such as a spittoon from the bar that was once located on the first floor and old board games that were likely left behind by past residents.
Other items suggest what kind of businesses were once located in the building, including antique dental equipment and items from Sears Roebuck, which Richardt said had an office in the building around the 1920s.
"We're at the tip of the iceberg," Tom said, adding that he thinks hotel guests might have left their belongings under the floorboards before heading out west, thinking they might return.
The hotel was built in 1858 to accommodate visitors to the Republican National Convention of 1860 because there was not enough lodging in Chicago, Tom said.
It became a rest stop for travelers, settlers who were looking to farm in the area and merchants who wanted to establish a business.
When the building was purchased by George O'Connor in 1915, it was converted into residences and businesses. O'Connor's wife lived in the building until 1976, at which point it was purchased by the Zitt family.
The Zitt family didn't do anything to the second or third floor and when Mrs. Zitt passed away, the building went into a trust, Richardt said. It was put on the market in March.
Earlier this month, the village board approved a resolution naming the building a local historic landmark. The owners still hope to get approved by the National Register of Historic Places.
Richardt said those statuses will help alleviate the cost of the work that the Smiths are doing inside, as they provide opportunities for tax credits and other funding.
"It's much more than just having a plaque on a building," she said.
There are still lots of renovations to be done, but Tom said he is up for the challenge.
"It'd be a shame if I didn't buy this," Tom said. "The developer would have ripped this down."
One more thing you may want to know before visiting the hotel or any of its eventual businesses: Rumor has it the place is haunted.
Richardt said she has worked in many old buildings and never suspected any paranormal activity. But on a bright, sunny morning about two weeks ago, she was working alone, cleaning artifacts on the third floor, when she heard footsteps.
"There was, very clearly, somebody walking across the ballroom floor. Six very slow steps, and I looked out there and I'm like, 'There's nobody there.' So then I opened up every door so I could make sure I could see everything," she said.
"It doesn't feel haunted at all. It's very quiet," she said. "But every once in a while I totally hear something that just makes me smile a little bit, that there's something going on."