The Shoreland - a classical revival hotel on South Shore Drive

The Shoreland is a historic hotel building in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Opened in 1926 by Harry Fawcett, who reportedly spent $2 million on furnishings alone, it served hotel guests in luxury accommodations. The building features a terra-cotta exterior with gargoyles and elaborate stonework, and an immaculate lobby with 30-foot-high ceilings.

The hotel maintained 1,000 guest rooms over 13 floors, including a crystal ballroom and a large banquet hall with a top-notch restaurant. It hosted wedding receptions and parties for Chicago's elite, including a massive banquet for Amelia Earhart's return in 1928. Later, Al Capone was known to conduct business in certain rooms, and in the 1950s, Jimmy Hoffa kept a room in the hotel and held union meetings there. Other notable residents included Milton Friedman and Elvis Presley.

In the 1970s, the property was sold to the University of Chicago and became a dormitory known as Shoreland Hall, housing approximately 650 undergraduate students. After being decommissioned as a dormitory in 2009, the building was sold to a developer and was subsequently converted into an apartment building with 330 units, reopening in 2013.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons