The antique car was hoisted on Wednesday morning from the lobby floor of Chicago Motor Club Building to a mezzanine level, where it will be on display when the building re-opens on May 14 as the Hampton Inn Chicago Michigan Avenue. (Right) Closer view of the car.

It took about four minutes for the 1,500-pound car – its wheels, axles, and fenders removed to make the trip easier – to be lifted by electric winch and nudged into place. The car will be reassembled next week.

The Ford was found through an antique car dealer. What makes the Model A special is its year, the same year in which the Chicago Motor Club Building opened. The art deco building has a 33-foot high lobby with a 19 x 29-foot mural by Chicago artist John Warner Norton. The mural depicts 19 major automobile routes across the country in the 1930s. A part of the mural was recently discovered stuffed under a desk and will be reattached. (Left) The mural above elevators on the west wall of the lobby.

Renovation meets approval of Chicago Art Deco Society

“It’s going to be one of the most exciting hotel properties in the city,” says the director of Chicago Art Deco Society’s project to document the art deco design culture in Chicago.

Keith Bringe has been involved with the long-vacant Chicago Motor Club Building for about ten years, advocating for its official landmark status that was granted in 2012.

“That landmark nomination actually was a piece of a jigsaw puzzle to provide really important tax benefits to the current owners to get this done.” He says the society supported the plan by MB Real Estate Services to “bring this building back to life.” Says Bringe, “They have really exceeded any reasonable standard for restoration of a building that was in this condition from this period.” (Right) East side of lobby.

An inventory of the building turned up chandeliers by Victor S. Pearlman & Company that will be reinstalled in the lobby. Higher-quality terrazzo had been covered by what Bringe calls a “really terrible sort of Carpet Warehouse marble,” but that has been removed.

“They’re reinstalling dozens and dozens of fragments of historic material and the lighting and signage [that] over a period of 20-30 years was stored by the maintenance guy in a secret room up by the elevators.”

The building opened in January 1928 and was the headquarters of Chicago Motor Club until the organization moved to Aurora in 1985. It re-opened in 1987 as office space. In 1996, a developer, Sam Roti, purchased the building and wanted to convert it to a condominium but could not sell enough units. (Left) The lobby in 1929 in this image from the Ryerson-Burnham Libraries.

Repossessed by the mortgage lender in 2011, Chicago Motor Club Building was sold later that year to Aries Capital, which paid $9.7 million at a bankruptcy auction. The real estate banking firm also bought the parcel next door, which it sold in 2012 for $5 million. Magna Hospitality Group is currently building a Hampton Garden Inn there.

The next year, a group led by the president of MB Real Estate Services acquired Chicago Motor Club Building for $9.5 million.

(Above) Walsh Construction workers wrangle an electric winch on the mezzanine level overlooking the lobby.