InterContinental Chicago

505 N. Michigan Ave

Architect: Walter Ahlschlager

In the midst of the roaring twenties, Chicago’s Shriners decided they needed their own athletic club. Sure, they could have gone to the Chicago Athletic Association, but that was filled with fuddy-duddies and the Shriners were anything but. An offshoot of the Freemasons, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, as the group was officially known, was all about having fun. 

As in, that’s why the order was created in the first place. In the 1870s actor Billy Florence and Walter Fleming, M.D., felt that the Freemasons, while worthwhile, were a bit too stoic for their tastes. After Billy was inspired by a party he attended in France, the two created their own fraternity based on fun, fellowship, and philanthropy. 

They weren’t complete rebels, though—you had to be a third-degree mason before you were eligible to become a Shriner.

By the early 1900s, the group had spread across the country and into Canada, Mexico, and Panama. In 1925, the Chicago Shriners announced their big project: the Medinah Athletic Club. 

This would be no standard gymnasium. In addition to offering all of the expected amenities of a men’s athletic club, it would also have hotel rooms. The tower, all forty-plus stories of it, was a vertical version of 1920s opulent movie palaces and would only be open to members and their guests. From its onion dome to the three Sumerian guards on the twelfth floor to the friezes a few stories below them, the Medinah Athletic Club would bring the Middle East to Michigan Avenue.

Once a Shriner entered, he stepped into a world of whimsical time travel. There was the Hall of Lions, set in ancient Assyria, and King Arthur’s Court, a smoking lounge decorated with murals that depicted the Medieval king’s timeline. That room also had the bonus of hidden panels where booze could be stored - it was Prohibition, after all. The Spanish Tea Court brought him forward to the time of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Any women who chose to enter this male sanctuary had to use a separate entrance, and they had to be chaperoned anywhere the ceiling wasn't painted blue, which was most places. The time travel continued even for the ladies, though; their Renaissance Room reflected the elegant era of Louis XVI, and included a loggia overlooking Michigan Avenue.

The athletic facilities for these fun-loving party animals were a playground of “ooh ooh ooh! You know what else we need? We need miniature golf!” and so they had it. They also had a bowling alley, and an archery range, and a shooting range, and a two-story boxing arena. They added a swimming pool, but instead of doing something easy like installing it in the first couple of floors, architect Walter Ahlschlager put it on the fourteenth—above the Grand Ballroom and its 12,000-pound crystal chandelier. It wasn't just any old place to swim laps. It was a glorious bathing stadium, with seats for spectators and a fountain of Neptune. 

A few months after this man cave to end all man caves opened, the economy closed. The stock market crashed October 24, 1929, but the Shriners were able to hold onto their private, members-only club for an incredible five years, even with low occupancy. 

After a decade as apartments, the building was converted into a hotel in 1944. Several companies owned the former athletic club before InterContinental opened in 1990. The chain invested millions in renovations before the opening and has continued to invest in the decades since.

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