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.

I've never been good at sports, and I've never been fond of exercise, so you might be wondering why I chose the Chicago Athletic Association when booking hotels for my first-ever trip to the city.

I wanted to step back in time. The Gilded Age hotel was a private club where professional athletes and high-profile individuals trained and socialized from 1893 to 2007.

Following its closure and a lengthy transformation project, the Chicago Athletic Association reopened as a hotel in 2015. I spent one night there in February for $250. It felt extremely luxurious for the price point, and some surprising details made me certain I'd book it again.

Parts of my stay felt like a time warp, but the hotel's history also came out in ways I didn't see coming.

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

The Venetian-Gothic-style building was designed by architect and club member Henry Ives Cobb, who took inspiration from the Doge's Palace in Venice, according to the hotel's website.

The hotel stood out to me among modern buildings on Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago. It's just across from Millennium Park and the Bean (formally known as Cloud Gate) and within walking distance of many tourist hot spots like the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Theater, and the Chicago Riverwalk.

The Chicago Athletic Association began as a Gilded Age gentlemen's club joined by influential sports icons. Membership opened to women in 1972.

It was a stomping ground for industry moguls like William Wrigley and Marshall Field. It was a training base for five-time Olympic gold-medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller and the first professional football player, William "Pudge" Heffelfinger.

The building's history is celebrated inside the hotel, with 19th-century relics and refurbished materials, from wood paneling to marble flooring, Elizabeth Story, the hotel's sales and marketing director, told Business Insider.

The lobby, also known as the drawing room, looked as if it had been designed 100 years ago, with restored 19th-century trim, moldings, and replicated historic details.

"Teams of craftsmen restored the 1893 grandeur of the Lobby Lounge by removing, refinishing, and reinstalling every piece of millwork, and recreating original light fixtures from old photographs," Story said.