The Mineola Hotel is a historic hotel located at 91 North Cora Street in Fox Lake,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The hotel is located on the western shore of Fox Lake, one of the lakes which forms the

Chain O'Lakes The Chain O'Lakes, or simply "The Chain", is a waterway system in northeast Illinois composed of 15 lakes connected by the Fox River and man-made channels. Encompassing more than of water, of shoreline and of river, the Chain is the busiest ...

History

Thomas Parker purchased a tract of land along Fox Lake on behalf of the

Union League Club of Chicago The Union League Club of Chicago is a prominent civic and social club in Chicago that was founded in 1879. Its second and current clubhouse is located at 65 W Jackson Boulevard on the corner of Federal Street, in the Loop neighborhood of Chi ...

. The club intended to develop the property as a recreational retreat for its members and built a small clubhouse on the site. The Mineola Club of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

constructed the northern half of the hotel in 1888 as a clubhouse; the building became a hotel in 1891. Christen Knowles, Robert McNeil, and Charles O'Boyle were tasked with this section's construction. Edison Howard bought the hotel, opening it to the public, and built its southern half in 1903. The hotel operated as a hunting and fishing resort until it closed in 1963.

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

purportedly visited the hotel occasionally as a weekend retreat. The hotel was recognized by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

with a listing to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on July 29, 1979. A bar and restaurant operated in the building until 2012, when the village closed it due to safety concerns; the village is now considering the building's demolition.

Landmarks Illinois The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois – also known as Landmarks Illinois – is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to prevent the demolition of the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building. A ...

named the hotel one of the ten most endangered historic places in Illinois in 2013.

Architecture

The frame building features a three-story square tower above its front entrance, hipped

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s on each side of the tower, and a two tier

verandah A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

with Stick style ornamentation encircling three of its sides. It is the largest surviving frame building in Illinois.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Hotel buildings completed in 1888 Buildings and structures in Lake County, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Lake County, Illinois