Today’s Summit of Uptown was originally a hotel named The Park Ridge Inn. A building permit was issued on December 1, 1955 to Caesar Marconi, the original builder. Marconi’s project foundered after the foundation was dug out, and it was two more years before another builder took over the project. The local newspaper photo is dated December 1, 1955. The scene is the office of the Park Ridge Public Works Department when it was located in the basement of the former Carpenter Mansion at 20 North Northwest Highway. Gloria Boye, pictured, was a long-time Member of the Park Ridge Historical Society and spent her working career with the City in that Department. To her right is Caesar Marconi, the anticipated builder of the new hotel, and to her left is Verne Soderstrom, City Engineer at that time.
