The Hidden Secrets of New Eden and the Palmer House Hotel in Borrowed Lives

Elise visits two Chicago Hotels in “Borrowed Lives, The New Eden and The Palmer House. The New Eden Hotel is where Elise goes to find her brother Henrick in Episode 1, and where she was staying before waking up in someone else’s body. Later, we learn the hotel is run by the Borrowers, and Room 406 has been soundproofed to help them acquire “new envelopes.”

Elise visits the much more upscale Palmer House in Episode 3 with Jesse, which is where she first meets Charles Michael. While the New Eden is fictional, the Palmer House was a real hotel in Chicago that opened in September 1870. It was located on the North West Corner of State and Quincy Streets, with 225 rooms and lavish furnishings that cost about $100,000.

The owner, Potter Palmer, built the hotel as an extravagant wedding gift for his bride, Bertha Honoré Palmer, who was only 22. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because the Borrower, Honoré, once used that envelope and kept the name even after she moved into a different body. This decision is considered ridiculous by Charles Michael, who thinks it endangers all the Borrowers.

The original Palmer House was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871. A second Palmer House was already under construction, and that one was burned down as well. After the fire, Palmer was able to get a $1.7 million loan to rebuild. He chose to put the new hotel where the second hotel had stood on Monroe Street. It opened in November 1873 and was advertised as being “fireproof, “ with iron and brick construction and terra-cotta (a clay-based ceramic with a porous texture). This third hotel still stands today in the same location. 

Let us know if you have a favorite Chicago hotel.

Sources:

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/947.html

https://chicagology.com/rebuilding/rebuilding001/

https://www.palmerhousehiltonhotel.com/government/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/chicago-palmers/

https://www.chicagohistory.org/palmerhouse/

https://www.chicagohistory.org/ashes-terra-cotta/#:~:text=Terra%2Dcotta%2C%20or%20%E2%80%9Cbaked%20earth%E2%80%9D%20in%20Latin%2C%20is,in%20the%20United%20States%20until%20the%201870s