Inside the Last Men's Hotel in Chicago

[Demovictory9]

Inside the Last Men’s Hotel in Chicago
For those who live there, Chicago’s Ewing Annex Hotel is a refuge, an artifact, and a last chance. The man who’s been holding it together for more than 20 years is about to retire.













Mike has lived in the Ewing Annex Hotel, located in the South Loop, for the last 24 years, working as the manager for 22. It’s the last of Chicago’s men’s-only hotels, leftover from an earlier era in an earlier century when meatpacking and manufacturing were the city’s golden coin of promise, and hotels like this were a common way for men, single and attached alike, to live on the cheap as they saved up for an apartment of their own or sent their wages back to their country families. In this century, it’s the final refuge for many of the 200-plus men who live there now, between themselves and homelessness, where small rooms—sometimes called cubicles and sometimes called cages—rent for $19 a night and where many, like Mike, live for decades of their lives.

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To the right of the stairs are the private rooms, many of them offices until the 1980s, when this wing was purchased and renovated by Wayne and Randy Cohen, two brothers who own the hotel, the pawnshop, and four other businesses on the same block. These rooms range in size from space enough to host a small fridge, a desk, and a guest to just a couple inches wider than the twin bed. In the room of one man I meet, a 66-year-old artist named Louie Albarron, there is no bed–only art he’s made with what he’s found in dumpsters: paintings of the lakefront and La Madonna, jean jackets he’s embroidered with explosive reds and golds, earrings of twisted copper and small spoons that dangle from his ears. A single window shines clear sunlight on his guitar and photos of his ex-wife, her blonde hair piled dreamily on top of her head.

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By day, Louis uses the room as his studio; by night, he blows up an air mattress and sleeps on the floor. Other rooms contain other wonders: pothos vines trailing out of water-filled jam jars; carefully constructed miniature trains lined up on tiny tracks; a family of black and brown belts, still pinned with their security tags, that slink over the backs of chairs like snakes. Some of the rooms on this side have windows; some do not. The price ranges from $400 a month to $450, with the higher end providing air conditioners and, perhaps, a sink. It’s quieter in this wing, where only five men live on each floor and where all the rooms have ceilings.

To the left of the stairwell is the original hotel, the part that began as The Workingman’s Exchange. On this side you find wood floors, not tile, and narrow hallways, not wide. Two men can’t pass each other without at least one turning sideways. Each floor holds 54 of the famous cubicles; each cubicle, for $19 a night, $120 a week, or $360 a month, provides a door that locks, an outlet that works, a twin-sized bed with a sheet, and a ceiling of chicken wire that lets your neighbor’s conversations, odors, and dust drift through—hence the “cage” nickname.

https://newrepublic.com/article/161808/ewing-annex-hotel-housing-crisis-chicago

[3catwoman3]

1. I read the linked article.

Completely depressing.

[Demovictory9]

2. well... not many opportunities to rent monthly for $360 in big city.

[sboatcar]

9. Its depressing but at the same time

So many places that offer services to the poor and the homeless completely screw them over. This place is cheap, its not great, but its a warm and safe place for these guys to stay and to have a sense of community.
Its sad and beautiful at the same time. Some people just can't deal with life in the conventional way, and having a place like this where its easy for them to exist in the way that works for them is pretty amazing. The manager of that place cares for the residents in a way that no one else does. I think its a really beautiful story of human kindness.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Thank you for posting this. K&R.

[Arazi]

4. Made famous in the Blues Brothers movie when Jake gets out of prison

[Hekate]

5. Reading the whole thing at the link brought tears to my eyes at the sheer goodness of some people...

And that includes the author, who sees deeply into her subjects.

[Kali]

6. kick

[fishwax]

7. There's a documentary (available on amazon) about a similar place in NYC (Sunshine Hotel)

[Demovictory9]

8. thanks. I will check it out

[Sympthsical]

10. I used to walk past that every day during my commute

It's a few blocks over from the Metra Station by the Stock Exchange. Always wondered what it was. Men's Only just seemed very strange.

Interesting article.