The Hilton Chicago Hotel, a luxuriant and historic signature hotel in the Hilton line, is the official conference hotel for Terminus. Our event will occupy many of the Hotel’s unique spaces, and we hope that you will consider staying at the Hilton while you are in Chicago. The hotel is very centrally located, and as it is situated across the street from Grant Park, its east-facing rooms have spectacular views of both the park and Lake Michigan. The rooftop golf course may be gone, but the Hilton Chicago continues to set the standard for the grandest and friendliest hotels in the world.

All reservations using the Terminus discount described below must have been made no later than July 9, 2008. On July 9, the Hilton Chicago Hotel released any remaining rooms to the general public. You may still make a reservation at the hotel, but the Terminus rate is no longer available.

The discounted room rate for Terminus is $169 per night, plus tax, which is good for up to four people in a standard king or two-bed room. We also have additional guest room options available, such as doubles with two bathrooms, executive floor rooms, and suites; if you'd prefer to stay in one of those, please telephone the hotel or see our custom online reservation system for more information and rates. These rates will apply to rooms booked for the night of August 3, 2008 through the night of August 13, 2008. If you'd like to extend your stay, this is a wonderful opportunity to tour Chicago during the summer. . Please note that all reservations receiving the Terminus discount must have been made by July 9, 2008.

If at any time you have difficulties with your reservation, please do not hesitate to contact either the Hilton Chicago Hotel at 312-922-4400 or the Terminus staff at help@terminus2008.org.

If you have a moment, please review the amenities and history of the Hilton Chicago Hotel below. Your stay here, even without Terminus, will be truly unique.

Amenities

The Hilton Chicago Hotel's best amenity is, of course, its location. The hotel is right across historic Michigan Avenue from Grant Park, and is a short walk from Chicago’s famed Museum Campus and the world-class Art Institute of Chicago. The Hilton Chicago is also a few quick blocks from Macy’s (which was, until recently, Marshall Fields’ flagship store), the historic Chicago Public Library and the famed Chicago theatre district. The complimentary Hilton Chicago shuttle will take you to shopping and dining on the Magnificent Mile, and the fun of Navy Pier is a short cab ride away as well.

Location, however, is far from the only amenity the Hilton Chicago Hotel has to offer. Since her days as The Stevens, the Hilton Chicago has set an international standard for friendliness and elegance, not to mention numerous amenities. Her views span the city – her east views look out over Grant Park and Lake Michigan – and her guest rooms are quite comfortable. (In fact, 600 of her rooms are double-doubles that feature two adjacent bathrooms.) When you walk into the hotel, the first thing you'll notice is its grand entrance, graced by two sweeping staircases and overlooked by the Normandie Lounge, which is furnished with items auctioned from the famed French ocean liner.

The Hotel houses not only typical hotel amenities, such as a pool, a newsstand and a gift shop, but more unusual ones as well: a beauty salon, a barber shop, a shoe shine stand, an indoor track and old-fashioned mail slots that will deliver your mail straight down from your floor to the mail stop. Dining options abound, from Kitty O’Shea’s (a reconstructed Irish pub) to Pavilion (a casual dining option) to Lakeside Green Lounge, a popular atrium hangout that includes a Starbucks. The hotel offers room service as well, not to mention internet service available for a fee in the guest rooms.

The hotel offers all the amenities of a modern hotel, but the true draw of the Hilton Chicago Hotel is her elegance and historic grandeur, and most of all, her friendly service.

History

In the 1920s, James W. Stevens and his son Ernest built “the world’s greatest hotel.” Costing $30 million and featuring over 3,000 “home-like” rooms, The Stevens was the largest hotel in the world. From its 75 telephone operators to its 328,000 pieces of daily linen, The Stevens was a city within a city – and took up an entire city block. It had a roof-top golf course, a theater, a barbershop, numerous stores and a concert music library. At the time, and for 50 years following, the Stevens boasted the world’s most extensive conference facilities and was a hotel for the affluent and the everyday citizen alike. It truly was a destination.

On the occasion of its opening on May 2, 1927, Ernest Stevens greeted visitors with the words:

Tonight, to the great city of Chicago we dedicate the realization of an ideal – the largest hotel on earth. We pledge to you that The Stevens will always provide rest, refreshment and entertainment in such manner and in such measure that the stranger within our gates will feel that Chicago is not only great in material things but it is also host-friendly, hospitable and kind.

Two days later, The Stevens hosted the first of countless gala events: The Motion Picture Association of America Ball, attended by over 3,000 movie stars and friends, including Cecil B. de Mille.

The Stevens roared with the 20s but felt the hit of the Depression. During World War II, the United States Army purchased the Stevens to use as classrooms and barracks; known as Unit 1, the hotel was home to 10,000 air cadets. (Also during the war, the Normandie, the pride of the French luxury line of ships, caught fire; The Stevens created the Normandie Lounge, on the second floor overlooking the grand entrance, from pieces of the famous liner.)

Following the war, Stephen Healy purchased The Stevens from the army for a mere $5,250,000, and began the challenging task of renovation – not the least of which was locating 125,000 pounds of steel under U.S. rationing rules to create box springs. Piece-by-piece he and his crew reconstructed The Stevens, and in 1944, The Stevens opened its doors again. During this time, when the hotel was short-staffed, as was all of America, the term “Evelyn” grew out of Stevens lore: Tim Clearly, a Healy tunnel man chipping in by making beds, insisted that his boss not call him Tim. “Just call me Evelyn,” he said. “That’s me name on this job.” Thereafter, Healy’s construction men insisted on calling themselves the “Evelyns.”

Shortly after The Stevens’ return to private ownership and reopening, Conrad Hilton arrived in Chicago to purchase it. Healy, however, put Hilton through the most “nerve-wracking, frustrating, ulcer-making” negotiation of his career. The men had shaken on the deal three separate times, and “three times the two-fisted dynamic contractor turned pixie and vanished into thin air, each time raising the ante.” In sheer frustration and determined to buy at least one hotel in Chicago, Hilton instead turned to the Palmer House, an equally luxuriant, though smaller, hotel several blocks to the north. By the time the negotiations were finished and the dust cleared, Hilton had acquired both The Stevens and the Palmer House, two new jewels in his signature line of world-class hotels.

During the years that followed, Conrad Hilton said he “worked hard to buy The Stevens... worked even harder to give her a personality, a position in the life of her city, to change her from simply the largest hotel to the largest and friendliest.” On November 19, 1951, as a “tribute to the inspiration, vision, and leadership of Conrad Hilton”, the Board of Directors voted to change the name of The Stevens to The Conrad Hilton.

The Conrad Hilton flourished. Legendary skating shows were held in the Boulevard Room, international celebrities from presidents to screen stars to musicians frequented gala events in its Grand Ballroom, and the Conrad Hilton became the hub of Chicago’s social life. Queen Elizabeth II was a visitor in 1959. Ever the center of the city’s happenings, the hotel even became a triage unit during the Chicago riots of 1968; as the “Battle of Michigan Avenue” raged outside and protestors confronted police in Grant Park, the hotel locked its doors for the first time since 1927, battened down the hatches, and began treating the wounded. To complicate matters, Senator McCarthy copied the hotel’s keys and gave them out to the protestors in the park. Ever the gracious host, the Hilton’s employees brought chairs and offered the protestors complimentary sandwiches.

In 1984, The Conrad Hilton underwent “the most comprehensive renewal project in hotel history.” The renovation cost $185 million and shut the hotel down for over a year as the crews rebuilt the hotel from the inside out. The 2,700 guest rooms became 1,543 larger and more elegant rooms, and 600 of them became double-double rooms with two adjoining bathrooms. Craftsmen painstakingly restored the hotel’s appointments and the original oil paintings, and the hotel added five new restaurants, including Kitty O’Shea’s, a reconstructed Irish pub. On October 1, 1985, the newly-renamed Chicago Hilton and Towers reopened.

In the years that have followed, the Hilton Chicago Hotel has remained a star, not only in the Hilton’s line, but in the hearts of Chicago’s people and on the screen as well. (When shooting The Fugitive, none other than Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones became after-hours regulars as Kitty O’Shea’s.) It still boasts extensive conference space, but the primary focus of the hotel is excellent service and a friendly staff. Many of the hotel’s original appointments remain, and we hope that you find your stay in the Hilton Chicago to be unlike any other.