Fairmont Olympic Hotel
| Fairmont Olympic Hotel | |
|---|---|
 Fairmont Olympic Hotel Seattle | |
 | |
| Hotel chain | Fairmont Hotels and Resorts |
| General information | |
| Location | United States |
| Address | 411 University Street Seattle, Washington 98101 |
| Opening | December 6, 1924 |
| Owner | Legacy Hotels Real Estate Investment Trust |
| Management | Fairmont Raffles Hotels International |
| Height | 168 feet (51 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 14 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Bebb and Gould |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 450 |
| Number of restaurants | 3 |
| Website | |
| www.fairmont.com/seattle | |
Olympic Hotel | |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance |
| NRHP reference No. | 79002538 |
| Added to NRHP | June 15, 1979 |
| [1] | |
The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, originally The Olympic Hotel, is a historic hotel in downtown Seattle, Washington near Pike Place Market. It was built on the original site of the University of Washington's first campus.[2] The hotel opened in 1924, and in 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[3]
History
After World War I, Seattle's Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to work toward the goal of bringing a world-class hotel to the city. The committee identified an undeveloped portion of the city's Metropolitan Tract, a downtown area covering four blocks, as an ideal location for a new hotel. The Tract was also known as Denny's Knoll, after Arthur A. Denny, one of Seattle's founders, who had donated the land for the Territorial University, which would later become the University of Washington.[4]
The university had relocated to a campus north of Portage Bay in 1895, but still owned the downtown tract of land. The university's Board of Regents leased the land to the Metropolitan Building Company in 1904, with the agreement that it would be developed in trust for the university for the next 50 years.[4]
The Seattle Times held a contest to name the hotel. From 3,906 entries, the committee chose The Olympic.[4]
In 1922, once the lease had gone into effect, Seattle architects Bebb and Gould—a partnership between Charles Bebb and Carl Gould—were hired to design the hotel. Bebb and Gould created an Italian Renaissance design that was popular at the time, and this design remains one of the building's hallmarks today.[5]
Builders broke ground on April 1, 1923, and construction began. The steel frame was started in January 1924, and by November, the building was completed. The total cost for construction was $5,500,000, with $800,000 going to furnishings alone.[4]
Upon its opening in 1923, the hotel was operated by Niagara Falls businessman Frank A. Dudley[6] and the United Hotels Company.[7]
The Olympic Hotel's grand opening took place on December 6, 1924, with a grand dinner and dance attended by more than 2,000 Seattle residents and their guests. Hundreds more people lined the streets just to catch a glimpse of the new hotel.[2]
In 1953, the University of Washington's Board of Regents extended the hotel's lease. At the same time, they approved a plan to demolish the Metropolitan Theatre, around which The Olympic Hotel had been built. The theatre had been a Seattle institution since it opened on October 2, 1911. The theatre's last night was December 4, 1954, hosting a performance of What Every Woman Knows starring Helen Hayes. The theatre was torn down, and a new entrance to the hotel was built in its place.[4][8]
On August 1, 1955, Western Hotels assumed management of The Olympic Hotel.[2] Western, later renamed Westin, operated the Olympic until September 1, 1980, when it was taken over by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts,[9] Four Seasons undertook a $60 million renovation[10] and the hotel reopened in 1981.[6] In the mid-1990s, the University of Washington sold a 64 percent stake in the hotel to Chicago-based real-estate investment firm JMB Realty.[11] In 2003, UW and JMB sold the Olympic to Legacy Hotels, which turned management of the property over to Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. At that time, the hotel was renamed Fairmont Olympic Hotel.[12]
References
- ^ Fairmont Olympic Hotel at Emporis
- ^ a b c "Fairmont Olympic Hotel". Fairmont Olympic Hotel. Fairmont Raffles Hotels International. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- ^ "National Register of Historic Places Inventory" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- ^ a b c d e "Olympic Hotel: Seattle Landmark Since 1924". HistoryLink.org. Alan J. Stein and Walt Crowley. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- ^ "What is the design style of Fairmont Olympic Hotel?". Forbes Travel Guide. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- ^ a b http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=2028
- ^ "Receivers Name for Hotel Firm". The New York Times. November 18, 1933. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ "No Finer Site". University of Washington Libraries. University of Washington. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- ^ Holt, Gordy (30 August 2005). "By any name, the one-time Olympic Hotel endures". Hearst Seattle Media, LLC. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
- ^ http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2014/07/elvis-slept-at-seattles-olympic-fairmont-hotel-and.html
- ^ http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20030704&slug=olympic04
- ^ Dunphy, Stephen H.; Timmerman, Luke (4 July 2003). "Seattle's 5-star hotel losing Four Seasons connection". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 29 September 2015.