Save Chicago’s historic Palmer House Hotel! A member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Palmer House was the city's first hotel with elevators and the first hotel with electric light bulbs and telephones in the guest rooms. The hotel had been dubbed the longest continuously operating hotel in North America, but has been closed since March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with no reported reopening date. In 1970, the hotel was the site of the murder of Evelyn Okubo, a young Japanese-American racial justice activist attending a Japanese American Citizens League convention held there. Entertainers who have appeared at the Palmer House's Empire Room have included Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, Maurice Chevalier, Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr., Peggy Lee, Carol Channing, Bobby Darin, Jimmy Durante, Sonny & Cher, Liza Minnelli, Dionne Warwick, Sophie Tucker, Tommy Dorsey, Phyllis Diller, Lou Rawls, Frankie Laine (1963), Josh White (1966), Tony Bennett (1968), Florence Henderson (1968), Donald O'Connor (1971), Jerry Lewis (1971), Jane Powell (1972), The Supremes (1972), Lorna Luft (1972), Trini Lopez (1973), The Lettermen (1973) and many others. In August 2020 Wells Fargo filed suit against the hotel's owner, Thor Equities, for defaulting on a $333 million commercial mortgage. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hotel has been closed since March 2020. #palmerhouse #historichotelsofamerica #historichotel #chicagolandmark #hiltonhotels (at Palmer House Hilton) https://www.instagram.com/p/CL5jztOhseF/?igshid=smfmtn4tx036
