Seelbach Hotel
| Seelbach Hotel | |
|---|---|
 The Seelbach Hilton Hotel on 4th Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Address | 500 South 4th Street, Louisville, Kentucky, United States, 40202 |
| Opening | May 1, 1905 |
| Owner | Hilton Hotels & Resorts |
| Website | |
| www.seelbachhilton.com | |
The Seelbach Hotel is a hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, founded by Bavarian-born immigrant brothers Louis and Otto Seelbach. It has since been renamed the Seelbach Hilton. The hotel was envisioned by the Seelbach Brothers to embody the old-world grandeur of European hotels in cities such as Vienna and Paris. To do so in turn of the century Louisville, they employed a French Renaissance design in constructing the hotel.[1] Louis was already a restaurant owner in Louisville when his brother Otto joined him from Germany around 1890, forming the Seelbach Hotel Co.[2] The Company began construction on the hotel in 1903.
The hotel was quickly regarded among the finest hotels in the United States and throughout its long history has been frequented by many notable Americans — for instance F. Scott Fitzgerald, who took inspiration from the Seelbach for a hotel in The Great Gatsby. The hotel is now owned by Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
History
Louis Seelbach and his brother Otto came from a family in a small, rural town in Bavaria. Emigrating from Germany in 1869 at age 17, Louis Seelbach arrived in Louisville shortly after reaching the United States.[3] He worked for the original Galt House for a time upon his arrival, but after turning 22 in 1874, he realized that his ambitions lay beyond that job. He proceeded to open the Seelbach Bar & Grill that same year, and it quickly became a great success. When coupled with the quickly expanding Louisville population and economy, the success of the restaurant allowed Louis Seelbach to bring his brother Otto over from Frankenthal, Germany to help him open the first Seelbach Hotel. They opened it in 1891 above the Seelbach Bar & Grill on 6th and Main.[3]
The brothers were intent on building Louisville's first grand hotel: a hotel worthy of the opulence present in hotels in Europe. The Seelbachs purchased a piece of property on the corner of 4th and Walnut (now Muhammad Ali Blvd) Streets, broke ground in December, 1903, and opened the doors on May 1, 1905, just in time for the Kentucky Derby.[4]
On the opening day, over 25,000 people visited the hotel.[5] The Seelbach hosted a gala that evening, throwing dinner parties in every one of the 150 rooms.[5] The structure incorporated marble from Italy, Germany and France, along with wood from the West Indies and Europe.[6]
The hotel attracted a great number of people in its first two years, and, luckily, the Seelbach Realty Company – formed in 1902 before the property purchase – had been planning from opening day to expand the hotel. On January 1, 1907, the second phase was completed, raising the number of rooms to 500.[7] The lower two floors of the ten-story structure were constructed with stone, while the upper floors were brick. The rooftop garden was also enclosed at this time to make it functional as a winter garden as well.[7] This new and improved Seelbach regularly hosted guests of the Kentucky Derby.
In 1925, Louis Seelbach died while president of the Seelbach Hotel Co., creating a need for new management.[8] On April 1, 1926, Chicago-based businessman Abraham M. Liebling bought the hotel for approximately $2,500,000.[9]
Between 1929 and 1956, the Seelbach changed hands several times. In 1929, the hotel was sold to the Eppley Hotel Company for $2,000,000.[10] Mr. Eppley, of Omaha, Nebraska, owned many hotels throughout the Midwest, but eventually sold The Seelbach Hotel and all his other properties in 1966 to the Sheraton Hotel Corporation (now Sheraton Hotels and Resorts) as part of a $30,000,000 deal. This made the Seelbach part of the second largest hotel sale in all of US history.[11]
Following a severe economic slump in the nation in 1975, the hotel was forced to close its doors after its owners went bankrupt.[12] For a few years, it lay dormant. Then, in 1978, Louisville native and Hollywood television actor, Roger Davis, decided to intervene and restore the Seelbach. The work began in early 1979 and continued until the grand re-opening on April 12, 1982.[13] The Hotel regained much of its former reputation over the next two decades.
In 2009, the hotel finished its most recent $12 million renovation.[14] The hotel was bought and sold by a number of corporations' hands after its re-awakening. The Seelbach is currently managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts, under the Hilton Hotels and Resorts flag. Hilton is a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group — it is the parent company of Hilton Worldwide — which bought out MeriStar Hospitality Corp in 2005, one of the former owners of the Seelbach.[15]
Impact on Louisville
The hotel was built at a time where there was nothing in the area around 4th and Walnut Streets. In fact, the Seelbach brothers were discouraged of building on property so far from the 'center' of Louisville at the time. When the project was proposed, the Mayor of Louisville said, "No one will come to a hotel so far away."[16] However, over the years, Louisville has expanded and the Seelbach Hotel has sat astride one of its booming shopping and business districts. In the timespan between the 1930s and 1960s, the Seelbach Hotel even anchored an area with Louisville's "best shops".[17] Although it fell into disrepair thereafter, today the area is again a bustling cultural and commercial center.
Notable guests
- Presidents
Many US Presidents have chosen to spend time at the hotel while in Louisville, including William Howard Taft (1911), Woodrow Wilson (1916), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1938), Harry Truman (1948), John F. Kennedy (1962), Lyndon B. Johnson (1964), Jimmy Carter (1970s), Bill Clinton (1998), and George W. Bush (2002).[18]
- Gangsters
Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, and Al Capone — who was a frequent guest of the Seelbach — stayed at the hotel, often for secret poker games. One story from the 1920s involves Al Capone sneaking out of the hotel through a series of secret stairways and tunnels when Louisville Police broke up one of these games.[19]
- Others
Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Robin Williams, Russel Crowe, Julia Child, and Wolfgang Puck are among those celebrities who have stayed at the Seelbach.[20]
F. Scott Fitzgerald frequented the hotel in April 1918, while training for his deployment in World War I. One night after expensive bourbon and cigars however, he had to be restrained and kicked out of the hotel.[21] This experience seemingly did not tarnish his memories however, as he later included a fictional hotel akin to the Seelbach as the setting for the wedding of Tom and Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.[22]
Hotel
The Seelbach is a AAA 4 Diamond award-winning hotel.[23] The hotel appears on the National Register of Historic Places and is considered "Louisville's Historic Hotel".[24]
Amenities
The Seelbach offers its guests in Louisville access to its restaurants, fitness center, Z Salon and Spa, and valet parking, among other standard features of a luxury hotel.[25]
Restaurants
Restaurants in the Seelbach include the Oakroom, the Rathskeller, and Starbucks. The Oakroom is Kentucky's only AAA Five Diamond Restaurant Award winner,[26] while the Rathskellar, decorated with Rookwood Pottery, is a rare and distinctively Seelbach southern-German influenced restaurant.[24]
In Film
The Seelbach Hotel was featured in the 1999 Russell Crowe/Al Pacino film "The Insider".
Notes
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 18.
- ^ Johnson,The Seelbach, 14–16.
- ^ a b Johnson, The Seelbach, 14.
- ^ Johnson,The Seelbach, 16–18
- ^ a b Johnson, The Seelbach, 17.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 20.
- ^ a b Johnson, The Seelbach, 34.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 39–40.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 40.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 50.
- ^ "Closing the gap", Time magazine, June 4, 1956.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 56.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 59–68.
- ^ "Seelbach finishes $12 million restoration; Historic lady is elegant again". Courier-Journal: News B.1. 13.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "MeriStar Hospitality Corp". The Washington Post.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 17.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 81.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 85, 88, 94.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 82–83.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 92.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 36.
- ^ Johnson, The Seelbach, 37.
- ^ "4 Diamond Award Winning Lodging", AAA
- ^ a b "Louisville's Historic Hotel". Hilton Hotels and Resorts.
- ^ "Services and Amenities". Hilton Hotels and Resorts.
- ^ "5 Diamond Award Winning Restaurants", AAA
References
- Johnson, Larry. The Seelbach: A Centennial Salute to Louisville's Grand Hotel. Louisville: Butler Books, 2005. ISBN 1-884532-65-9.
- "AAA Newsroom–Diamond Award Winning Lodgings & Restaurants". AAA.