[Map of Chicago’s Loop]

Prohibition-era map of Chicago’s Loop published by a famous mobster landmark.

This folding promotional map was issued by the Hotel Sherman, situated conveniently across from City Hall in Chicago’s bustling Loop. The newly constructed Merchandise Mart, along with the hotel, are both depicted boldly in red; whereas other nearby attractions are simply labeled in black and white. Text on the verso advertises rooms as low as $2.50 a night, with meals ranging from 45 cents to $1.25.

Hotel Sherman was a local hotspot in the early decades of the 20th century and hosted one of the city’s first jazz clubs catering to a white audience; introducing many to the new style of music for the first time. But the hotel is perhaps best known as the location for a treaty between Al Capone’s South Side gang and the mostly Irish North Side outfit, run by Dion O’Banion. The Hotel Sherman treaty was agreed upon in October of 1926 and established definitive territories between the two criminal enterprises (though it lasted less than a year). An interesting map of Chicago at the height of organized crime in the city.