stan turkel
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 238: Hotel History: The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco
Stanley Turkel | October 13, 2020
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, CA (592 rooms) The luxurious Grande Dame atop Nob Hill in San Francisco was named after U.S. Senator James Graham Fair (1834-1894) by his daughters, Theresa Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt. When the silver king James Fair purchased the site back in the late 1800s, his interest was to build the largest mansion in the neighborhood. However, when he died in 1894, the lot was still undeveloped until 1907 when his daughters commissioned the architectural and engineering firm of Reid & Reid to design a large hotel in Italian Renaissance style. The Reid br...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 237: Hotel History: Hotel Allegro, Chicago, Illinois
Stanley Turkel | September 22, 2020
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Hotel Allegro, Chicago, IL, (483 rooms) The Hotel Allegro was created on the site of old Bismarck Hotel in 1998. The original Bismarck Hotel was built in 1894 by Emil and Karl Eitel, brothers from Stuttgart, Germany. The Eitels were pioneers who installed ice-boxes in the hotel's kitchen and air conditioning in the hotel's restaurants. During World War I, the Bismarck was renamed the Randolph Hotel because of anti-German sentiment. After the war, the Bismarck name was restored. When the Eitel brothers built a new 19-floor Bismarck Hotel, the 22-story Metropolitan Office Building and the 2500-seat P...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 236: Hotel History: The Hermitage Hotel
Stanley Turkel | September 2, 2020
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Hermitage Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee (122 rooms) Historic Hotels of America is proud to announce that the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee has been selected as the 2020 Historic Hotel of the Year. “Congratulations to the ownership, leadership, and many associates at The Hermitage Hotel,” said Lawrence Horwitz, Executive Vice President, Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide. “We are delighted to recognize this magnificent historic hotel and its historic hoteliers for their dedication, enthusiasm, stewardship, and leadership in preserving this iconic treasure and i...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 235: Hotel History: Cavallo Point, The Lodge at the Golden Gate (1901)
Stanley Turkel | August 12, 2020
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Cavallo Point Lodge, Sausalito, California (142 rooms) The history of the spectacular site of the Lodge at the Golden Gate commences with the coastal Miwok Indian tribes who occupied Horseshoe Cove long before there was a Golden Gate Bridge. In 1866, the U.S. Army acquired the site for a military base to fortify the north side of the harbor entrance. The twenty-four buildings around the ten-acre parade ground at Fort Baker were developed between 1901 and 1915. Designed in the Colonial Revival architectural style as permanent housing for the Coast Artillary Corps (active from 1907-1950), Fort Bak...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 234: Curt R. Strand, President, Hilton International
Stanley Turkel | July 21, 2020
by Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Curt R. Strand (1920-2020) On July 12, 2020, I received the following email: “Dear Friends of Curt, With a broken heart, I am telling you that Curt passed away last night in his home. He was, as you would expect gallant till the end. Love, Barbara Lynn”. In 1948, Conrad Hilton formed Hilton Hotels International. One of the first employees was Curt R. Strand who wrote in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly June 1996*: “Hilton International started small in 1947, but I was endowed with a great asset. It is a wise parent who does not bestow money on his children, just in...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 233: Hotel History: The Adolphus Hotel
Stanley Turkel | June 30, 2020
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: The Adolphus Hotel (407 rooms) The Adolphus Hotel was built by and named for Adolphus Busch, the founder of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. Legend has it that Adolphus Busch donated the hotel to Dallas as a thank you for its enthusiastic acceptance of his famous Midwestern brew. It was designed in a Beaux-Arts style by architects Barnett, Haynes & Barnett of St. Louis who also designed the Hamilton Hotel, St. Louis; the Hotel Claridge, Memphis; the Connor Hotel, Joplin; the Marquette Hotel, St. Louis; the Southern Hotel, Chicago and the Mark Twain Hotel, Hannibal. The hotel, a full city ...
Nobody Asked Me But… No. 231: Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colorado
Stanley Turkel | May 19, 2020
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Brown Palace Hotel, (479 rooms) The Brown Palace Hotel opened in 1892 with an eight-story atrium designed by architect Frank E. Edbrooke (1840-1921). More than 400 wrought iron grillwork panels ring the lobby from the third through the seventh floors. Two of them are upside down, one to serve the tradition that man is imperfect; the other sneaked in by a disgruntled workman. The Brown Palace was built on a cow pasture by Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter who had driven an oxcart across the country and arrived at Cherry Creek in Kansas territory in 1860. By the late 1880s, Brown owned much of the f...
Nobody Asked Me, But… No. 230: Hotel History: Four Seasons Hotel
Stanley Turkel | April 28, 2020
By Stanley Turkel, CMHS Hotel History: Four Seasons Hotel, (367 rooms) Is it possible to conceive that the Four Seasons Hotel in New York has been converted to house medical professionals battling the coronavirus? In late March, the five-star Four Seasons Hotel located on East 57th Street began to accept hospital employees who work in mid-Manhattan. This I.M. Pei-designed hotel was surely the most talked-about new hotel in New York when it opened in 1993 at a cost $1 million per room. This 52-story, 367 room building with its limestone-clad lobby, 33-foot-high onyx ceiling, glowing wall sconces and original paintings provided grandeu...
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