Then and Now: Woodruff Hotel – Joliet

By the early 1920s, road improvements and highly publicized expeditions along the Lincoln Highway generated enough interest that Americans felt more confident about taking up the adventure of cross-country motor travel.

Travelers who could afford to pay for comfort would welcome the excellent accommodations found in many local hotels. Those motorists on a budget or eager for adventure found “motor hoboing” or camping along the route a more appealing alternative.

Like many vintage hotels in small cities, they were not initially designed for the automobile traveler. Instead, the hotel’s advertising emphasized the buildings’ modern conveniences, such as rooms with baths, running hot and cold water, electric lights, and steam heat.

Some hotels offered full-range amenities, such as dining rooms and coffee shops, as these were important considerations for a road traveler. As was the case in many locations, no town or city could prosper without a modern hotel to accommodate visitors, especially automobile travelers.

In Joliet, one such motor-friendly hotel was the Woodruff Inn. Located on the southwest corner of Scott and Jefferson streets, the Woodruff Inn opened for business on November 1, 1915. Designed in an old English architectural style, the 102-room hotel offered guests some of the finest amenities found in the area.

The interior of the hotel included a large, inviting lobby with leather chairs and sofas, oak tables, rocking chairs and a fireplace. Spending time in the lobby with friends or sitting by oneself on the comfortable furniture and reading a book, the lobby was certainly a pleasant place to unwind while at the Woodruff Inn.

Rooms in the hotel were furnished with oak furniture and velvet carpeting and included many modern conveniences of the time. Chandeliers and paneled walls were also common throughout the hotel. Guests even had access to a tailor shop, a barber, private telephones, and a car mechanic.

An inner courtyard was designed to provide guests with an outside tranquil setting. The architecture of the hotel and the beautiful outside landscaping provided a wonderful backdrop for guests who wanted to sit in the rocking chairs and enjoy the warm, outside air.

For more than 50 years, the Woodruff Inn, with its distinctive old English style architecture, was a standout in the downtown cityscape. The old hotel was razed in December 1971 to make room for a new public parking near the new courthouse. The demolition of the Woodruff Inn ended an era as a distinctive downtown landmark.

The Then image shows a view of the Woodruff Hotel looking west from Jefferson Street. The Now image shows a similar view today from Scott Street.