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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsInside the Last Men's Hotel in Chicago
Inside the Last Mens Hotel in ChicagoFor those who live there, Chicagos Ewing Annex Hotel is a refuge, an artifact, and a last chance. The man whos 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. Its the last of Chicagos mens-only hotels, leftover from an earlier era in an earlier century when meatpacking and manufacturing were the citys 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, its the final refuge for many of the 200-plus men who live there now, between themselves and homelessness, where small roomssometimes called cubicles and sometimes called cagesrent 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 bedonly art hes made with what hes found in dumpsters: paintings of the lakefront and La Madonna, jean jackets hes 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. Its 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 Workingmans Exchange. On this side you find wood floors, not tile, and narrow hallways, not wide. Two men cant 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 neighbors conversations, odors, and dust drift throughhence the cage nickname.
https://newrepublic.com/article/161808/ewing-annex-hotel-housing-crisis-chicago
3catwoman3
(23,983 posts)Completely depressing.
Demovictory9
(32,456 posts)sboatcar
(415 posts)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
(22,338 posts)Arazi
(6,829 posts)Hekate
(90,681 posts)And that includes the author, who sees deeply into her subjects.
Kali
(55,008 posts)fishwax
(29,149 posts)Demovictory9
(32,456 posts)Sympthsical
(9,073 posts)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.