What guests are saying
What guests love
- A genuine 1920s tower one block from the Magnificent Mile, with Navy Pier a 15-minute walk east.
- Refreshed, comfortable rooms at a sensible price for the location.
- A vibrant Streeterville setting near the lake, the river, and Michigan Avenue.
What to keep in mind
- A 1920s building — rooms vary in size
- A busy downtown block near the Mag Mile
Best for Value-minded travelers who want a historic address steps from the Magnificent Mile, a 3-minute walk to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Summary of guest reviews. Sources: Construction date, height and architects from Frank A. Randall, History of the Development of Building Construction in Chicago (University of Illinois Press, 1949), p. 289 — which also carries the separate entry for the St. Clair Hotel at 162 E. Ohio Street, a different building. Saint Clair Hotel, Preservation Chicago. Photography courtesy of Hotel Saint Clair - Magnificent Mile, used with permission. Details may change over time.
Why this building matters
Built in 1926 to the designs of Oman & Lilienthal, with Samuel Klein as engineer, this was the Eastgate Hotel — fifteen stories on wood piles, at the corner of Ontario and St. Clair in Streeterville. Two years later the same architects and the same engineer put up a second, taller hotel one block south at 162 E. Ohio, and called that one the St. Clair Hotel. The names have since traded places: the building they named St. Clair is now the Inn of Chicago, and the Eastgate carries the St. Clair name today. They look alike, they stand a block apart on the same street, and they are not the same hotel.
Randall confirms the record exactly as it now stands: the “EASTGATE HOTEL, at 162 E. Ontario street, built in 1926, is 15 stories and one basement high, on wood piles. Oman & Lilienthal were the architects and Samuel Klein the engineer.”
That confirmation is worth stating plainly, because this page once carried a different building’s history. Randall’s guide holds both hotels a block apart and describes them separately — the Eastgate here on Ontario, and the St. Clair on Ohio — and the two share architects and an engineer, which is how they came to be confused in the first place. He also points to photographs and floor plans in The Western Architect for March 1927.