| |
|
|
Hotel Guyon
4000 W. Washington, Chicago
(Cook County)
Completed in 1928 as a residential hotel, the Hotel
Guyon is a prominent West Garfield Park neighborhood
landmark, which has been vacant for almost a decade.
Since a 1980s renovation, the building has had numerous
owners and is currently in the city’s demolition court due
to numerous code violations. Despite a need for
affordable and senior housing in the neighborhood, the
state of the current lending market makes a renovation
of this nine-story building challenging for many
developers.
The Hotel Guyon was built by J. Louis Guyon, a developer
who helped establish the Pulaski Road corridor as an
entertainment center for the entire West Side after
building his Paradise Ballroom in 1916. The
residential hotel was designed by noted architect Jens
J. Jensen (not related to the landscape architect Jens
Jensen) and is distinguished by red and cream brick and
decorative terra cotta. Jensen is noted for having
designed many elegant residential hotels and apartment
buildings in the city, as well as the
300 W. Adams
Office Building, which is a Chicago Landmark.
The building provided apartments for a growing West Side
middle class and had two high-end penthouse apartments,
one occupied by Mr. Guyon. There are two large ballrooms on the second floor, which were equipped for radio
broadcasting from the 1920s until the mid-1950s. For
those years, large antennae were located atop the Guyon,
servicing various stations, most notably WGES from the
1920s to 1942. For several years, Mr. Guyon owned WGES
and used it to promote the bands and dances performing
at his nearby Paradise Ballroom.
In the late 1980s, the building was purchased and
renovated by the non-profit housing developer Bethel New
Life to provide affordable rental apartments. Without
any subsidy assistance to maintain low rents, Bethel was
unable to continue operating the building and it was
taken over by the Chicago Equity Fund. Later the
building was sold to a developer who was unable to make
needed improvements and it became vacant. Since 2005 it has changed
ownership four times. City attorneys and building
department officials continue to monitor the building.
It is not protected with local landmark designation but
is listed in the National Register of Historic Places,
which would allow a future developer to utilize federal
rehabilitation tax credits as part of a redevelopment
project.
What You Can Do
|
• |
Contact the
Historic Preservation Division of the City of Chicago if
you have inquiries regarding the building.
(312) 744-3200 |
|
• |
To express your concern and support for rehabilitation
of the building, contact 28th Ward Alderman, Jason C.
Ervin
(773) 533-0900 |
Additional Links
|
|
