The Historic Lincoln Hotel, Urbana, Illinois

I don’t know what it is with me, but I’ve been getting awfully caught up with turn-of-the-century design, architecture, fashion, and related literature. I’ve been aggressively reading Hemingway and Fitzgerald with sincere pleasure, imbibing the occasional 9 yr. whiskey, and thinking about the bygone era when a gentleman would remove his hat at the dinner table.

My work lead me away from Boston for a trip to Urbana-Champaign, Illinois on account of some materials testing, and so I sought a hotel that offered more than the typical Hilton or Holiday Inn sort of venue. The search was successful and I shall relay my findings to you, dear reader.

The picture above is an early image of the Historic Lincoln Hotel of Urbana, Illinois. It was built in 1924 in the Bavarian style, which had been making a resurgence in the area. Entering the hotel, one finds “carved baroque antique cabinets, hutches, grandfather clocks, a magnificent painted square grand piano, dated from around 1830, bronze porcelain statuary, fine antique paintings, sofas, and chairs in tapestries, cut velvets, [and] crewel embroideries[…]” (from the hotel’s website).

As you can tell from the photos above, some things have changed during those 1900’s, but the charming period characteristics of the hotel have been generally unscathed. I would rather not give my opinion here regarding the hotel’s current quality, so I will leave you with these photographs in my Flickr set.