The Blackstone Hotel has been dubbed "The Hotel of Presidents".
It was once considered one of Chicago's finest luxury hotels, and a dozen 20th-century U.S. presidents have stayed at the hotel.
In addition, the Blackstone has also become part of Chicago's history as the city that has hosted more United States presidential nominating conventions than any other two American cities, a history which goes back to the 1860 Republican National Convention hosted at the Wigwam.
The Blackstone also hosted first Czechoslovak president T.G.Masaryk.
The hotel has a special room designed for use by presidents which was separated from the rest of the hotel by hollowed out walls in which the Secret Service could operate.
In 1911, Republican businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald—then president of Sears, Roebuck & Company—invited African American educator Booker T. Washington and a few dozen of Chicago's leading citizens to discuss raising funds for Washington's Tuskegee Institute.
Washington became the hotel's first African American guest.
As a result of the meeting, Rosenwald became a supporter and trustee of Tuskegee, and the following year initiated a campaign to fund the construction and support of schools throughout the South to provide an education to black children, by the time of his death building nearly 5000 schools educating well over half a million African American children.
In 1920, Warren G. Harding was selected as the Republican candidate for the presidency at the Blackstone.
Although the convention was being held at the Chicago Coliseum, a group of Republican leaders met at the Blackstone on the night of June 11 to come to a consensus.
When Raymond Clapper of United Press reported on the decision-making process, the reporter stated it had been made "in a smoke-filled room".
The phrase entered American political parlance to denote a political process which is not open to scrutiny.
The hotel closed in 2000, after Occupational Safety and Health Administration building inspectors found safety problems during a 1999 inspection.
The building's owner, Heaven on Earth Inns Corp, run by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, looked into several options before selling the property to Rubloff, Inc., which in 2001 announced plans to convert the building into condominiums priced as high as $8.5 million.
Rubloff's plans were unsuccessful due to financing difficulties and a lackluster market for buyers of Blackstone condominiums.
Even two rounds of price cuts were not enough to spur interest in the condo opportunities and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's non-profit organization was unable to obtain financing.
The years of neglect following the closing of the hotel took a toll on the building's appearance with both the interior and exterior facade crumbling.
The newly restored Renaissance Blackstone Hotel reopened to the public on March 2, 2008, and celebrated its grand reopening on April 30, 2008, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The other parties involved in the restoration were local architect Lucien Lagrange and hotel interior design, development, and procurement firm Gettys, for design work.
James McHugh Construction Co. was responsible for construction.
The engineering firm handling the exterior renovation was Illinois-based Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc
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