Tracy C. Drake (1864–1939) and his brother John Drake Jnr. were the developers and proprietors of the
Blackstone Hotel
The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the Natio ...
and
Drake Hotel Drake Hotel may refer to:
;in Canada
*Drake Hotel (Toronto), Ontario
;in the United States (by state)
* Drake Hotel (Chicago, Illinois), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)
* Drake Hotel (Gallup, New Mexico), NRHP-listed in ...
Chicago, IL
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The former is located in the
Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation by the Mayor and the City Council of Chicago for historic sites in Chicago, Illinois. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artist ...
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Chicago Loop, Loop Community areas in Chicago, community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue (Chicago), Michigan Avenue be ...
and the latter along the
Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile (sometimes locally abbreviated to the Mag Mile) is the approximately one-mile-long stretch of Michigan Avenue (Chicago), Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Oak Street (Chicago), Oak Street on the Near North Side ...
Timothy Blackstone
Timothy Beach Blackstone (March 28, 1829 – May 26, 1900) was an American railroad executive, businessman, philanthropist, and politician. He is descended from William Blaxton, an early settler of New England. He worked in the railroad industr ...
.
Biography
In 1898, Drake acquired property on the south shore of Geneva Lake, Wis., from Arthur Kaye and hired
Howard Van Doren Shaw
Howard Van Doren Shaw American Institute of Architects, AIA (May 7, 1869 – May 7, 1926) was an architect in Chicago, Illinois. Shaw was a leader in the American Craftsman movement, best exemplified in his 1900 remodel of Second Presbyteria ...
to design a summer home there for his family. "Aloha Lodge", a Southern colonial architecture-style country estate, was completed in March 1901. The name was inspired by the Drakes' recent travels to Hawaii, where the family befriended the recently deposed Hawaii'an queen Lilliuokalani.
In Chicago, Drake and his brother John acquired the property for the Drake Hotel from the estate of
He is the grandfather of the American film actress and writer
Betsy Drake
Betsy Drake (September 11, 1923 – October 27, 2015) was an American actress, writer, and psychotherapist. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.
Early life and education
Betsy Drake, the eldest child of two American expatriates, was b ...
, who was the third wife of Hollywood actor
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English and American actor. Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he ...