Grand Hotels

"From the utilitarian inns that punctuated ancient trade routes to the worldwide network of Hilton and Hyatt, the hotel has transitioned from a marginal building type to a cultural phenomenon within the global economy. Terms like 'boutique' and 'lifestyle' have become ubiquitous buzzwords in the vocabulary of the hotel, and they engender a new vision of an affective and responsive spatial environment. Architecture and interior design have always played a crucial role in the development of hotels, but their purpose has become more and more decisive, transforming the building type into the advanced form of integrated design that it is today. The scope of the publication is global, an acknowledgment of the pervasive presence of a commercial network that is architecturally formed, geographically distributed, and socially defined."--Publisher's website.

From its beginnings as the humble inn, the hotel has undergone enormous changes over the centuries. Elaine Denby charts the development of the Grand Hotel and how it has kept pace with technological innovations.

Architecturally imposing, historically rich, and socially important, Chicago's magnificent grand hotels have fascinated generations of Chicagoans and have pleased generations of guests. The Palmer House Hilton, The Drake, and The Hilton Chicago have come to represent a collective formal living room for Chicago, where the city's most important visitors are accommodated, entertained, and made aware of the grandeur and sophistication of their host's hometown. They were built to inspire awe--and still do for anyone fortunate enough to find themselves in the lobby of The Palmer House Hilton, The Palm Court of The Drake, or the Grand Ballroom of The Hilton Chicago. Many of the most famous locales in these classic structures have been transformed or have disappeared altogether due to changing times. Gone, for example, is The Hilton Chicago's famous rooftop miniature golf course and Boulevard Room supper club, complete with its ice shows. Gone, too, is The Drake's legendary supper club, the Camellia House. While the Empire Room of The Palmer House Hilton continues to exist as an function room, it no longer reverberates with the sound of Liberace's piano or Jimmy Durante's vocals, as it did when it was the city's premier entertainment facility. Chicago's Grand Hotels chronicles over 100 years of Chicago hotel history through vivid photographs and memorabilia from the archives of The Palmer House Hilton, The Drake, and The Hilton Chicago. It tells the compelling story of the visionary architects and hoteliers who brought these hotels to life and made them structural testaments to the warmth of midwestern hospitality.

An ebook from "Hermit's confessions (film "No-Shows" postscriptums)", n° 19 "Singuliers" magazine – ISSN 0992-2881.

During Cleveland's heyday, the world's most influential businessmen, politicians and entertainers flocked to America's sixth-largest city, enjoying the full hospitality of splendid hotels befitting a first-rate metropolis. Marked by architectural splendor, sumptuous design, technical innovation and world-class service, these grand palaces rose and fell with Cleveland's fortunes. From Teddy Roosevelt dining under the ornate chandeliers of the Hotel Hollenden's famed Crystal Ballroom to Bob Hope and Jack Benny cracking wise at the Alcazar's bar, Michael DeAloia adds atmosphere to seven of the most elegant and inviting Cleveland hotels to emerge in the early twentieth century. Only one of these legendary establishments hosts guests today. This revealing chronicle recaptures the golden age of Cleveland's power and prestige.

The Roaring Twenties was a period of lavish living in St. Louis. In 1917, when Ellsworth Statler decided to build a hotel in St. Louis, he ignited a hotel-building boom that was only quenched by the Great Depression of 1929. Architectural masterpieces arose, and local citizens and out-of-towners marveled at their grandeur. These hotels were hubs of activity and gathering places for high society. They survived the Great Depression and two world wars, but urban demise forced elegant hotels to crumble in disrepair. This book tells the intriguing stories of the Statler, the Chase, the Mayfair, the Lennox and the Coronado Hotels. Today, these hotels are restored and renewed--as glamorous now as they were in their earliest days. They welcome visitors to admire their beauty and savor the history they hold.

In the late 1800s, men like Jacob Brock and Henry Addison DeLand introduced civilized comforts to the wild interior of West Volusia, which resulted in a tourism boom that is still ongoing. Brock built the Brock House hotel and used his steamboats to bring such notables as DeLand and American presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes there to vacation. Continued tourism growth brought about the need for more hotels. The Ponce de Leon Hotel was built around the fabled Fountain of Youth, while the bustling town of DeLand offered several more hotels, like the Putnam, Carrollton, College Arms, and DeLand. John Batterson Stetson vacationed in DeLand and then built a home, bought a hotel he renamed College Arms, and extended the railroad to his hotel's doorstep for the convenience of his guests. These and other hotels helped shape the growth and history of West Volusia County.

Florida in the late 1800s was a paradise waiting to be discovered. During this period, two visionary tycoons of the Gilded Age set out on separate ventures that would transform the Sunshine State from America’s last frontier into a destination for the rich and famous. The grand hotels that Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant opened at their planned resort sites offered a fantasy stay surrounded by all the accoutrements expected by sophisticated, Gilded Age patrons. Florida’s Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age provides a look at these magnificent structures during their glory years, along with the fashionable entertainment and social and recreational pastimes that engaged their gilded guests.