History By Design: The brief sparkle of Miralago Ballroom

History By Design is The Record’s new monthly column focusing on the North Shore’s special and influential architectural history. Local historians and authors Susan S. Benjamin and Robert A. Sideman write and research the column, and the Wilmette Historical Museum contributed photographs for this edition.

“A Rendezvous in the Modern Motif”

That’s what the invitation to the opening of Miralago Ballroom in summer of 1929 stated, continuing, “Quite in keeping with the unique character of the Del Lago area, which is distinctly Spanish in design, Miralago advances even a step further in emphasizing L’art Moderne.” Art Moderne was a term of the period that is now called art deco.

Built at a cost of $80,000 (about $1.5 million today), Miralago Ballroom was located in No Man’s Land, on the west side of Sheridan Road just north of the entrance to Plaza del Lago. A fire destroyed it on a blisteringly cold night March 8, 1932.

The architecture of Miralago, which means “view of the lake,” was a combination of international style and art deco. The international style developed in Europe in the 1920s and spread throughout the Western world. It turned its back on historical architecture, and buildings were designed with no applied ornament, flat walls and typically sheathed in white stucco. Art deco is characterized by sleek surfaces, geometric patterns, sumptuous materials and bold colors.

The steel frame ballroom building was an exercise in geometry. It stood two stories with 10 shops on the first floor. Store openings read as a continuous glass wall, made possible because the second floor was cantilevered over the first. Upstairs was the ballroom that accommodated 1,200. Access was by two staircases: one adjacent to the women’s cloakroom and bathroom, one next to the men’s.

On the second floor, there was a dance floor surrounded by a promenade. The ballroom ceiling was covered with silver leaf; there were jade green draperies and columns paneled with black Vitrolite (sleek, glossy structural glass); the light fixtures, door hardware, and other fittings were chrome. Notable features included murals depicting views of Chicago and a neon water fountain.

Miralago Ballroom was acknowledged nationally as being significant. An article in the journal Western Architect described the building as “shiplike, a sea-breeze building, nothing like it on the North Shore.”

The architect was George Fred Keck, who designed the House of Tomorrow at the 1933 Century of Progress. In the mid-’30s, Keck gained acclaim for being in the forefront of designing homes that featured innovations in passive solar energy.

Keck was chosen for the ballroom by the owners of Bills Realty, which officed nearby on Sheridan Road. Members of the Bills family had selected Keck for their 1920s homes in Indian Hill Estates, the section of Wilmette that Bills Realty promoted. 

Despite its distinctive architecture with a glamorous and inviting interior, the ballroom drew critical reaction from disapproving neighbors, who viewed it as a den of illegal drinking (it was Prohibition) and gambling. This happened even though management admitted no unescorted women and charged a one-time admission not a per-dance fee. 

Miralago was a tragic loss. The building lasted only three years, when it burned down because of a series of unfortunate missteps. Neither of the adjoining suburbs (Wilmette nor Kenilworth) claimed No Man’s Land and chose not to extinguish the fire.

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