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Historic Hotels
The National Trust Historic Hotels of America (HHA) is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It has identified over 213 quality hotels that have faithfully maintained their historic architecture and ambience. Some examples:
The Palace Hotel
San Francisco, CA
Opened 1875
William Ralston had a dream to build a hotel that would make Europe's finest hotels pale in comparison.
However, the $5 million price tag exhausted his banking empire and a few weeks before the Palace's grand opening, Ralston's body was found floating in the San Francisco Bay. His partner, Senator William Sharon continued the dream and on October 2, 1875, the Palace Hotel opened its doors. In 1906 when a massive earthquake shook all of San Francisco the hotel survived the quake. Fires started in the wake of the earthquake and the restored hotel reopened it doors in 1909 and has been a San Francisco landmark ever since.
The Palmer House Hilton
Chicago, Illinois
1871
This hotel was originally opened in 1871, just 13 days before the Great Chicago Fire reduced it to ashes. Real estate baron Potter Palmer immediately built a new hotel on the site. It was the first Chicago hotel to have fireproofing, elevators, electricity and telephones. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde made it their home-away-from-home.
Astor house
New York, New York
1836
New York's first luxury hotel, Astor House, opened on Broadway in Manhattan. John Jacob Astor, the richest man in America during the mid-1800s, financed the construction. Every room had running water, a luxury at that time. President-elect Abraham Lincoln gave a speech there on February 19, 1861. Astor House closed in 1913
The Willard Hotel
Washington, DC
1816
The Willard Hotel...It was the site where in 1861 delegates from 21 states met in a last attempt to avoid civil war. It became the official presidential residence for nearly a month in 1923 when Calvin Coolidge took up residence while the newly widowed Mrs. Warren Harding packed her belongings and vacated the White House. On 28 August 1963, Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Willard. Dr King then delivered this speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Its famous guests have included Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Grant, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge and Harding. Other guests have included Charles Dickens, Buffalo Bill, and P.T. Barnum.
The Brown Palace Hotel
Denver, CO.
1892
Henry Cordes Brown opened his namesake hotel August 12, 1892. It was a tall, triangular building sitting at the intersections of Broadway, Tremont and 17th Streets. Electric lighting was in its infancy, but the Brown Palace generating its own electrical power. President Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, The Beatles, and the Spice Girls have all stayed at this luxury hotel. Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to stay at the Brown Palace Hotel when he came to Colorado to hunt bear in the spring of 1905. During Prohibition, Federal agents raided a Spanish-American War veterans’ reunion at the Brown Palace, confiscated their liquor and for a year padlocked the suite they had been using. Its historical collection contain items traced back to 1670; among them a pair of dueling pistols owned by Emperor Napoleon I and an ornate silver centerpiece commissioned by the British Royal Family.
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