Experts Pick Their Favourite Historic Hotels

By Gary Stoller

Frequent business traveler Barry Maher says, "There's nothing like watching the sun go down over the ocean" at the historic Hotel del Coronado.

He watches the sunset at the San Diego-area hotel – which celebrates its 125th birthday this year – while sipping wine on a private balcony and "communing with the spirits" of former guests Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

Maher, a professional speaker from Corona, Calif., says he loves historic hotels, because they provide "a taste of an area's heritage."

Chain hotels "have bigger closets and more shelf space for stashing your stuff in the bathroom, but in a chain hotel, you might be in Rochester, you might be in Rangoon," he says. "But the older hotels have stories that can help put you in touch with what made the area unique."

Business travelers may not pick a historic hotel, instead selecting a site near work, with amenities and frequent-stay points. For those who want to experience history, USA TODAY researched historic hotels and sought recommendations from historians, a publisher of books on historic hotels, and frequent travelers.

Most recommended hotels are independently owned, though some are affiliated with chains and issue frequent-stay points.

Marketing director P.J. Norlander of Arcadia Publishing, which publishes books about historic hotels, says her favorite is Chicago's Palmer House, which has welcomed guests for more than 140 years. "One step into the ornate lobby" of the 1,641-room Hilton "turns a standard hotel stay into a memorable experience."

Norlander also loves the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y., which she calls "a mountaintop haven surrounded by 6,000-plus acres of wilderness." She also praises Casa Monica in St. Augustine, Fla., for its "exquisite Spanish-style architecture," and the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., the inspiration for the hotel in Stephen King's The Shining.

"There's something almost therapeutic about staying at a historic hotel," she says. "There's a relaxing aspect to staying in a room with real artwork, inspiring architecture and the possibility of finding history around the corner."

Larry Horwitz, executive director of Historic Hotels of America, estimates there are 1,400 hotels in the country at least 50 years old with "historic significance." HHA, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has 240 hotel members in 44 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

To become a member, a hotel must be at least 50 years old and either recognized as having historic significance or listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Members must maintain their sense of historical architectural integrity.

"Guests at Historic Hotels of America are frequently green go-getters, architecture lovers, history buffs, community-conscious parents or young activists," Horwitz says.

Richard Longstreth, a professor of American studies at George Washington University, has favorites, and each "has its own special characteristics." The Mission Inn in Riverside, Calif., is "a great, rambling complex built in several stages from the 1900s well into the 1920s," he says. "There are lots of open courts and passageways on various levels."

The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Fla., is "a skyscraper amid a golf course with interior spaces fit for an opera and a swimming pool that looks as if it was conceived by Cecil B. DeMille." Longstreth says.

The Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, which opened in 1929 and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Albert Chase McArthur, has 39 acres of gardens, eight pools and a 22,000-square-foot spa and fitness center. La Posada in Winslow, Ariz., is a "very low-key" beautiful hotel on a railroad line filled with Mexican art compatible with its early 20th century character, he says. It's "an oasis in an economically depressed area."

Molly Berger, an associate dean and history instructor at Case Western Reserve University, says her favorite is The Peabody in Memphis.

"It was built in the 1920s and features an atrium-style lobby with a central fountain and tiers of balconies fairly typical of grand hotels built during that time," she says.

Besides its "historic grandeur, what distinguishes the Peabody is the twice-daily ritual" when "the Peabody's Duckmaster, in full livery, leads the hotel's ducks between their penthouse suite and the lobby's fountain, accompanied by John Phillips Sousa's King Cotton March and the appreciative squeals of a full house of onlookers," Berger says. "Watching the marching ducks is an experience one never forgets."

Berger's other favorite include San Francisco's Palace Hotel, New York's Waldorf Astoria, the St. James Hotel in Red Wing, Minn., and Hotel Bothwell in Sedalia, Mo.

The Palace Hotel, "the successor to its 1875 namesake, which was destroyed in the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake, recreated the original building's footprint, as well as approximating its world-renowned atrium and stained-glass ceiling," Berger says. "The current Garden Court is an extraordinary space."

The Waldorf Astoria "is a hotel without peer, partly because of its incredible history" and "because it absolutely represents New York in every conceivable way," Berger says. "Its Art Deco architecture and signature portico draw visitors into a stage set for visiting dignitaries and regular folk alike. … There's nothing that compares with a cozy tete-a-tete in the lobby bar, smoothed along by a classic gin martini."

HISTORIC HOTELS

There are an estimated 1,400 U.S. hotels of historic significance. The following are some favorites of historians and frequent travelers.

1. Birmingham, Ala. The Tutwiler

2. Boston The Liberty

3. Buffalo Hotel @ The Lafayette

4. Chicago Palmer House, The Drake

5. Colorado Springs, Colo. The Broadmoor

6. Coral Gables, Fla. The Biltmore

7. Coronado, Calif. Hotel del Coronado

8. Estes Park, Colo. Stanley Hotel

9. French Lick, Ind. French Lick Springs Hotel

10. Grand Canyon, Ariz. El Tovar Hotel

11. Honolulu The Royal Hawaiian

12. Mackinac Island, Mich. Grand Hotel

13. Memphis The Peabody

14. Nashville Union Station Hotel

15. New Paltz, N.Y. Mohonk Mountain House

16. New York Waldorf Astoria

17. Phoenix Ariz. Biltmore

18. Pinehurst, N.C. Pinehurst

19. Red Wing, Minn. St. James Hotel

20. Riverside, Calif. The Mission Inn

21. Roanoke, Va. Hotel Roanoke

22. San Antonio Menger Hotel

23. San Francisco Palace Hotel

24. Seattle Mayflower Park Hotel

25. Sedalia, Mo. Hotel Bothwell

26. St. Augustine, Fla. Casa Monica Hotel

27. Winslow, Ariz. La Posada

Source: USA Today