The Hilliard Towers Apartments occupy what used to be a well-trafficked block of South Dearborn Avenue. At 2131-2133 South Dearborn, not far from the present-day Hilliard gatehouse on West Cullerton, stood the famed Everleigh Club, a high-end bordello opened by sisters Minna and Ada Everleigh in 1900. The sisters adopted the last name of Everleigh from their grandmother’s habit of closing her letters with “Everly Yours.”  

Minna and Ada charged outrageous prices, even for a club catering to the elite, and outfitted the mansion with expensive furnishings and décor. By the standards of the time, the sisters treated their employees—called the “Everleigh Butterflies” by some—extremely well. The “girls” had to be at least eighteen years of age and undergo a physical examination once a month to ensure they remained healthy and free of sexually transmitted diseases.

The sisters stayed open by paying off corrupt Chicago aldermen. This strategy worked until the club caught the attention of the city’s new vice commission, which shut down the Everleigh Club in 1911.

The buildings that once stood here, including the Everleigh Club, were later razed and in 1966 the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) opened the Raymond Hilliard Homes, an affordable housing project, on the site. It is known today as the Hilliard Towers Apartments. The Hilliard Homes joined the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1999.   

Credits and Sources:

Chicago Bar Project. “Everleigh Club.” http://www.chibarproject.com/Memoriam/Everleigh/Everleigh.htm. Accessed August 2016.

Chicago Housing Authority. “Property Details, Hilliard Homes.” http://www.thecha.org/residents/public-housing/hilliard-homes-/. Accessed August 2016.

Kiernan, Louise. “The Everleigh Club.” Chicago Tribune. Accessed August 2016. www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-everleighclub-story-story.html

Historic image from The Everleigh Club, Illustrated (1911) by Minna Everleigh

Text and present-day photographs by Hope Shannon, Loyola University Chicago