Hotel baron places risky bet on Glen Ellyn
Seth Baker, a wealthy land developer from Bellevue, Iowa, who owned hotels, gold mines and Mississippi River paddleboats, moved to Glen Ellyn in 1890 and lived here for only about three years. But during his brief stay he left his mark and his money on the village, building both a first-class hotel and a Victorian mansion.
Reputed to be a wheeler-dealer with a penchant for gambling and taking big risks, Baker may have been lured here initially by an 1889 article in the Wheaton Illinoian, which described the landscape in the vicinity of Glen Ellyn (then called Prospect Park) as "one of the most picturesque and charming localities in the whole west." With a thousand acres of forest, five mineral springs and a beautiful lake newly created by the Prospect Park Improvement Association, the area certainly was tempting bait for a hotel developer with money to wager.
Putting money in the kitty in partnership with Baker were Glen Ellyn businessmen Seth Riford and A.E.G. Goodridge. In 1890, they formed the Glen Ellyn Hotel and Springs Company and acquired title to about 116 acres of land, including the area surrounding Lake Ellyn and the five mineral springs located near where Riford Road and Chidester Road intersect today. That same year, they broke ground for Hotel Glen Ellyn, investing $125,000 to build it (a gamble worth nearly $3 million in today's dollars).
In June of 1892, Hotel Glen Ellyn opened for business, with Baker and Riford in charge of operations. After the first season, however, the hotel failed to prosper, putting the Hotel and Springs Company in serious financial trouble. With few chips left to play, Baker and his partners put the building and grounds up for sale in 1894. As it turns out, this bailout was a good move because the property never was a success as a hotel and had several owners over the following 12 years. The building stood empty when lightning struck it in 1906 and it burned to the ground.
Baker returned to Bellevue, Iowa, in 1894 and built a towering mansion on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, naming it Mont Rest. To pursue his gambling habit, he built a secret room in a turret at the top of the house exclusively for high-stakes poker games. During one of these games Baker's luck failed again when he put the deed to Mont Rest on the table to cover a bet, and lost the hand. Today, the estate is a luxury inn.
Anne Balogh is a member of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society. Glen Ellyn Remembered is based on information from the society's archives. Visit www.gehs.org.
