A Hotel for Aurora

June 2025.

The Hotel Aurora is a standard Beaux-Arts hotel, common across the United States during the first two decades of the  20th century. It was Aurora’s first large hotel and represents the city’s effort to grow at the time. 

The Hotel Aurora is located at 2 North Stolp Avenue in downtown Aurora, Illinois. It is bordered by the Fox River to the north and west, Galena Boulevard and Leland Tower to the south, and Stolp Avenue to the east.

History

In 1915, a group of Aurora citizens founded the “Aurora Island Hotel Corporation,” as they believed that downtown Aurora needed a first-class hotel like those common in other large cities. The site chosen was on Stolp Island, which reflected Aurora’s focus on developing that area, and it originally held a mill race. The hotel was designed by architect H. Ziegler Dietz in the Beaux-Arts style and its construction began in 1916. The Hotel Aurora opened in July 1917, though some portions remained unfinished and were completed afterwards.

With 135 rooms, the building had luxurious features for the time and was lauded by Aurora’s citizens. Its exterior is largely brick and Indiana limestone, while inside sumptuous woodwork and a Tennessee pink marble floor decorated the lobby. Rectangular on the principal facade, the building follows the river in plan in the rear and features a light court. It was the tallest building downtown until the construction of the neighboring Leland Tower.

The Hotel Aurora was first operated by C. J. Kriel and the Aurora Hotel Company. It soon changed hands in 1919 to Harry Dunbar and a new corporation. Dunbar sold the hotel to William Gosselin in 1928, when the Leland Hotel was built, and he owned both hotels through at least the 1940s.

Over time, the hotel began to decline, but it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was renovated into apartments for seniors in 1996 and is currently known as the North Island Apartments.

Photos

At eight stories tall, this hotel was surely a local landmark when it was completed:

The simple, symmetrical expression here is a very standard Beaux-Arts move, as is the classical ornamentation seen across the building. The first floor takes the form of a Renaissance piano nobile, clad entirely in stone, while the stories above are brick. 

The principal east facade:

This is pretty standard skyscraper articulation of the period. Numerous piers rise the height of the facade and the bays are recessed, highlighting the building’s verticality. Various string courses divide it horizontally.

Autofocus failed me here, but here’s the main entrance and balconies above:

These balustrades are another common Beaux-Arts feature. The canopy is richly decorated with classical ornamentation.

The south facade is largely identical, minus its width.

I always like the cornices on these types of buildings. They jut out to visually conclude the building as a column capital would:

Apparently, the coffers inset into the cornice originally held colored lights that could illuminate the top of the building, which exist in situ but are inoperative. The elaborate string course with its detailed panels is cool too. 

In the rear, the hotel takes on a more unusual shape and reacts to the Fox River in plan:

Even though light courts reduce usable space inside a building, they provide rooms with more windows. Also note the cantilevering mass on the first and second floors--the NRHP listing explains that this signifies the lobby’s double-height from the exterior.

Sources:

https://web.archive.org/web/20131203044554/http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/pdfs/200942.pdf