{"nrhp_refnum":"89001202","name":"YMCA Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"820--828 S. Wabash Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.86737026800006,"lon":-87.62095588699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-08-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A nineteen-story Italian Renaissance Revival hotel building at 820-828 South Wabash Avenue in Chicago, built 1915-1916 with a major addition completed in 1926 that makes up the southern third of the structure.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the hotel was a unique social experiment, the first in Chicago to combine inexpensive, clean temporary lodging with YMCA social services for young men newly arrived from rural areas. It qualifies under Criterion A for its role in social reform efforts against harsh urban conditions in rapidly growing Chicago. It qualifies under Criterion B for its link to ten prominent industrialists and philanthropists, including Julius Rosenwald, who funded it.","narrative":"Rising nineteen stories on South Wabash Avenue in Chicago, this brick and terra cotta building opened in 1916 as a YMCA hotel and was extended southward in 1926. Its Italian Renaissance Revival design follows the tripartite base, shaft and cap arrangement common to Chicago skyscrapers, with a decorated cornice and arched upper stories. The hotel was meant to give young men arriving from farms and small towns a clean, low-cost place to stay for a few weeks while they found work and permanent housing. Unlike other YMCA dormitories, it was open to all young men and offered counseling, loans, religious services and social events. General Secretary Loring Messer pushed the idea, and Julius Rosenwald and nine other civic leaders provided the funding after a report on squalid lodging houses. The ground floors were refaced in 1956 and the interior was converted to apartments and commercial space in 1986-87, but the upper exterior remains largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1916-1930","architect_builder":"Berlin, Robert C.; Rogers, James G. (Significant person listed: Rosenwald, Julius et. al.)","architectural_style":"Late Nineteenth Century Revival / Italian Renaissance","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Described as in good condition. Rehabilitated in 1986-87 into apartments on floors 3 through 16, with commercial space and parking on floors 1 and 2.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.893932-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/8926/28892657/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/89001202.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001202/94b275a51b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001202/94b275a51b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20080703_YMCA_Hotel.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20080703_YMCA_Hotel.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892657","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMCA_Hotel_(Chicago)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8045951"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/ymca-hotel-89001202/"}