I stayed at a Chicago hotel that was once a Gilded Age men's club. The history drew me in, but playful details won me over.

• When I checked in at the Chicago Athletic Association, I felt transported to the Gilded Age.
• But that was just the beginning of my stay at the 19th-century private club turned hotel.
• Parts of the hotel appeared frozen in time, while others breathed new life into its history.

Welcome to the Chicago Athletic Association, the 19th-century private club that’s now a hotel.

Inside, the past lives on.

There was also a boxing-style robe in the bathroom, which almost made me feel like an athlete myself.

At the Chicago Athletic Association, I got my trip back in time, with some surprises.

While parts of the hotel felt 100 years old, fresh designs inspired by its private-club past gave other spaces a modern twist.

“The goal was never a museum-quality freeze in time, but something more alive,” Story said. “A touch of disorder in the new space was introduced to draw in a younger generation, balanced bravely with references to the building’s past.”

From the palace-like common spaces to the creative nods to the past, the Chicago Athletic Association was more luxurious and distinctive than I expected for $250 a night. I would definitely stay there again, and maybe next time, I’ll bring a jock with me.