James and Beatrice Shanley opened the hotel in the late 19th Century, and welcomed notable guests like Thomas Edison and Eleanor Roosevelt.
But despite the success of the hotel, tragedy struck their family. Beatrice birthed three children, all of whom died before their first birthday.
The hotel barber, who lived in The Shanley, lost his four-year-old daughter Rosie in 1911, when she went for a walk one afternoon and fell to her death into a deep well.
A few years later, Beatrice's sister died of influenza in one of the hotel rooms.