Tracy C. Drake (1864–1939) and his brother
John Drake Jnr. were the developers and proprietors of the
Blackstone Hotel and
Drake Hotel Drake Hotel may refer to:
;in Canada
* Drake Hotel (Toronto), Ontario
;in the United States (by state)
*Drake Hotel (Chicago, Illinois), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)
*Drake Hotel (Gallup, New Mexico), NRHP-listed in M ...
, which are both located along
Michigan Avenue in
Chicago, IL
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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. The former is located in the
Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, archite ...
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th (1100 south in the street numbering system) or Roosevelt ...
and the latter along the
Magnificent Mile. Their father
John Drake (1826-1895) John Drake may refer to:
*John Drake (mayor) (died c. 1433), medieval mayor of Dublin
* John Drake (died 1628) (1556–1628), English politician
*John Drake (privateer) (c. 1560–1600s), English pirate
*Sir John Drake, 1st Baronet (1625–1669), E ...
, was also a hotelier and the business partner of
Timothy Blackstone
Timothy Beach Blackstone (March 28, 1829 – May 26, 1900) was an American railroad executive, businessman, philanthropist, and politician. He is descended from William Blaxton, an early settler of New England. He worked in the railroad industr ...
.
Biography
In 1898, Drake acquired property on the south shore of
Geneva Lake, Wis., from Arthur Kaye and hired
Howard Van Doren Shaw to design a summer home there for his family. "Aloha Lodge", a
Southern colonial architecture-style country estate, was completed in March 1901. The name was inspired by the Drakes' recent travels to Hawaii, where the family befriended the recently deposed Hawaii'an queen
Lilliuokalani.
In Chicago, Drake and his brother John acquired the property for the Drake Hotel from the estate of
Potter Palmer in 1916 after it gave up on the idea of building a hotel itself.
[Stamper, John W., "Chicago's North Michigan Avenue," pp. 118-122, The University of Chicago Press, 1991, .] The Drake Hotel opened on New Year's Eve in 1920.
History
Drake Hotel, Retrieved 10 September 2016
Personal life
He is the grandfather of the American film actress and writer Betsy Drake, who was the third wife of Hollywood actor Cary Grant,
Notes
1864 births
1939 deaths
American hoteliers
Businesspeople from Chicago
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