History from My Past

My personal history with the Inman Hotel.
My parent met here probably in the late 1930's. My mom operated the elevator. My dad was a bellboy. A little later my dad became the head desk clerk where he remained for another 35 years. About a year or so after meeting my parents married. When I graduated from high school I had my graduation party in the hotel. When I married I had my wedding reception in the hotel. As you can see this building holds a lot of memories for me.


The 1914 Inman Hotel is a former hotel building in Champaign, Illinois, USA. It is located at the southeast corner of University Avenue and Walnut Street, a major intersection in the downtown area of Champaign. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Inman Hotel was listed on the Register in 1989.The building is six stories tall and of Classical Revival style architecture in glazed yellow brick with beige terra cotta trim. Initially constructed with only five stories, a sixth floor was added only a few years later.
Due to the shape of the lot on which it is situated, the east wall of the building is thirty-two feet longer than the west wall, resulting in the northeast and northwest corners not meeting at right angles. The building is eighty feet wide, and the shorter west wall is one hundred feet long. The hotel had a formal dining room and a bar. Anyone who was anyone who came into the Champaign-Urbana area stayed there.

The building at 17 E. University Ave., C, was built in 1914 and operated as the Inman Hotel from 1915 to 1974. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, it served as the home of the National Academy of the Arts, and in 1991, it returned to service as Inman Plaza, a senior living center. Currently it is now the Inman Place Apartment-Senior Living. From the moment the doors first opened almost a century ago, the Inman has been a place of gathering. From its beginning as the majestic Inman Hotel that boasted elegance and convenience not to be rivaled by any other in the region. On to its days when you could find ballerinas twirling through its rooms when the National Academy of Arts* made the Inman its home. Inman Place is abounding in the glories of the past but still has many pages yet to be written. Inman Place offers the finest senior living in the region.