This is a candlestick topmarked for the Hotel Congress & Annex made by Scammell and is circa 1831-1954. It is in excellent condition, the gold being completely intact, no chips or cracks or stains. It is 4 1/4" in diameter at the base.
The Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago, Illinois was built in 1893, when Chicago featured cobbled streets, gaslights, and horse drawn carriages. The hotel was originally called the Auditorium Annex when it opened to house the throngs of visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition. Built as an annex to Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building, across the street, its facade was designed to harmonize with that of his remarkable hotel, theater, and office complex.
The Auditorium Annex was built by a famous hotel developer, R.H. Southgate. The first section, or north tower, was designed by Clinton Warren, with Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler serving as consultants. A celebrated feature of the new hotel was an underground marble passageway called “Peacock Alley,” that connected the new annex with the Auditorium Hotel. Our south tower, constructed in 1902 and 1907, was designed by the renowned architectural firm of Holabird and Roche.
The South Tower construction included a magnificent banquet hall, now known as the Gold Room, which would become the first hotel ballroom in America to use air-conditioning. Another ballroom, called the Florentine Room, was added to the North Tower in 1909. These two famous public rooms combined with the Elizabethan Room and the Pompeian Room to host Chicago’s elite social events of the day.
Over the years, various owners have updated the hotel in continuous efforts to keep pace with the modern properties. Even the name has been changed. By 1908, with over 1,000 guestrooms, the hotel had an identity of its own. In order to differentiate the hotel from its predecessor, the Auditorium Hotel, the owners renamed it the Congress Hotel (derived from its location on Congress Street, across from the celebrated Congress Plaza section of Grant Park).
