ABSENCE AND PRESENCE
Exploring the Abandoned Cliff Hotel

An Unseen Exhibit

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Located in downtown Springfield, Illinois, the Cliff House Hotel was operated as a boarding house between 1895 and 1964.  It was run by several owners over the years. Florence and George Atkinson were the longest-serving proprietors, operating the hotel between 1915 and 1949. Rooms could be rented by the night or by the week. Some residents probably stayed there for extended periods. The hotel was closed in 1964 and remained shuttered and largely untouched for 50 years.  

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In the fall of 2024, the hotel was opened to artist Robert Mazrim, who designed and curated a series of multimedia exhibits across the 16 rooms of the second and third floors of the abandoned building. A temporary exhibit was intended to highlight the remarkable details and patinas left preserved in the building, as well as the ghostly traces of so many former inhabitants.  Art installations throughout the spaces consisted of minimalist installations, small tableaus, multimedia projections, and soundscapes intended to highlight the sense of both absence and presence in this rich historical space. Fossil Aerosol created a soundtrack for the space, which was remixed and released as album in late 2024.

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A special two-night exhibit at the hotel was scheduled for early December 2024. Two days before the opening, the mayor and city council preempted the event, deeming the building unsafe, and citing a lack of proper permits. The show was seen be only a handful of visitors.

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Mazrim had recently curated and produced artwork for a number of events at the abandoned Pillsbury Flour Mill in Springfield, as well as the “Pillsburied” exhibit, located directly in a another long-disused commercial space across the street for the hotel. That exhibit was destroyed by a building fire in June of 2024. (See the Pillsburied section of this site from more information).