The Roosevelt Hotel New Orleans

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The Roosevelt Hotel is a building in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1834, the site was known as University Place and in this year the Medical University of Louisiana was founded. In 1847, Medical University of Louisiana was renamed to University of Louisiana. Later, in 1884, the school was renamed to its current name Tulane University. The hotel was built by Louis Grunewald, a German immigrant, and opened in 1893 as "The Grunewald". In 1908, a major 400 room expansion was added which is shown as the main portion in the postcard. This expansion was designed by the Milwaukee architectural firm, H. C. Koch & Sons. After various expansions it was purchased by a group of New Orleans investors and renamed "The Roosevelt Hotel" (in honor of late former president Theodore Roosevelt) in 1923.

The long-time manager in that era was Seymour Weiss, a confidant of U.S Senator and Louisiana Governor Huey Long who had a 12th-floor suite. During the 1930s, when he was a U.S. senator, Long used a suite at the Roosevelt as his Louisiana headquarters and effective residence when he was physically in Louisiana.^[1]

The Roosevelt was acquired by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in 1965. Although officially renamed The Fairmont (at first the "Fairmont Roosevelt", later the "Fairmont New Orleans"), for decades the hotel continued to be called "The Roosevelt" by many locals.

When it was the Grunewald Hotel it hosted "The Cave", considered by some the first nightclub in the United States. It featured waterfalls, stalactites, and chorus girls dancing to Dixieland jazz. As the Roosevelt, a new night club, "The Blue Room", was opened and was long a well known venue of nationally touring musical acts.

The Fairmont was known for the Sazerac Bar and the Sazerac Room for the finest dining (see also Peychaud's Bitters). Another restaurant in the Fairmont—"Bailey's"—was for decades known as one of the few places open all odd hours of the night and early morning serving food significantly better than cheap diners or bar food. The main lobby area was elaborately decorated each Christmas season, and many locals made visiting the Christmas display at "the Roosevelt" part of their yearly holiday tradition.

The Fairmont New Orleans was damaged in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and closed indefinitely. While some repair work was done, work was suspended in an incomplete state in March 2007 after preliminary estimates of the damage were revealed to have been greatly underestimated. ^[2]

On August 24, 2007, Dimension Development Company of Natchitoches, Louisiana, announced the purchase of the Fairmont Hotel for $17 million from the owners, Roosevelt Ventures, LLC. Also announced was the plan to spend $100 million to convert the hotel to one of Hilton's premium hotels in their Waldorf Astoria Collection chain.

The hotel was sold to Hilton Hotels. Hilton remodeled the 504-room 135-suite luxury hotel as part of corporation's Waldorf-Astoria line. On reopening of the hotel in 2009, Hilton reverted the name of the hotel to the "Roosevelt" title it had held from 1923 to 1965.^[3]

The return to the hotel's historic name and a planned re-opening date of Spring 2009 were announced on June 5, 2008.^[4] The Roosevelt reopened to the public at 3 PM on July 1, 2009.

[edit] References

• Milwaukee Journal, March 18, 1906

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Roosevelt Hotel, New Orleans

• Roosevelt New Orleans website
• Waldorf Astoria Collection website
• Hotel history on BestOfNewOrleans.com

Preceded by St. Charles Hotel

Tallest building in Louisiana 1907–1920

Succeeded by Hibernia Bank Building