130 Roosevelt Way, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
The Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a 504-room hotel managed by Waldorf Astoria Hotels.
The hotel was originally built by Louis Grunewald, a German immigrant, and opened in 1893 as the "Grunewald Hotel."
The original hotel building was six stories tall and faced Baronne Street, spanning addresses from 123 to 135. It was constructed after the Grunewald Music Hall was destroyed by fire in 1862. The building housed 200 rooms and opened in December 1893 to be ready for the 1894 Mardi Gras season in New Orleans. The decision to build the hotel proved very wise, as another major hotel in the city, the St. Charles Hotel, was destroyed by fire shortly after the Grunewald opened.
As early as 1900, Grunewald began planning and ultimately constructing a tower addition on the University Place side. The cost of the new tower was reportedly $2.5 million and was considered one of the finest in the country. The new tower was 14 stories tall and contained 400 rooms. Its grand opening took place at midnight on January 1, 1908. Louis Grunewald’s son, Theodore, became the hotel's director and manager. The addition’s lobby featured a large Italian marble staircase leading to a mezzanine overlooking the hotel.
In 1923, Theodore Grunewald sold the hotel to a business group led by Joseph, Felix, and Luca Vacarro. Immediately after the purchase, the new owners proposed plans to demolish the original hotel building, construct a new tower of the same height as the addition, and remodel the addition’s interior. The Vacarro group spent $500,000 solely on redesign, mainly cosmetic repairs and design updates. The hotel was officially renamed the "Roosevelt Hotel" on October 31, 1923, in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, whose efforts in building the Panama Canal had enormous financial significance for the city of New Orleans.
On October 1, 1925, a new tower opened on Baronne Street. It was 16 stories tall and added more space to the hotel. On August 1, 1938, the Main Bar (now called the Sazerac Bar) opened. The mahogany bar, walnut-paneled walls, and Paul Ninas frescoes remain signature features of the hotel. On September 1, 1938, the Fountain Lounge opened.
Weiss was a trustee of Louisiana Governor and later U.S. Senator Huey P. Long. In the 1930s, when Long was a U.S. Senator, he used a suite on the 12th floor of the hotel as his Louisiana headquarters and effective residence in New Orleans. In 1954, the Shell building on Common Street was completed, and Weiss arranged to lease seven floors. This additional space allowed the hotel’s room count to increase to 900 and enabled the construction of the International Ballroom, which could accommodate up to 2,200 guests for a single event. The International Ballroom connected on the second floor to other conference rooms on the mezzanine level. With the expansion of conference space in 1955 on the same level, a brand-new banquet kitchen was built. The kitchen still serves all meetings and events at the hotel today.
In 1959, the decision was made to close the Sazerac Bar on Baronne Street and transfer the name to the Main Bar. It is still called the Sazerac Bar today.
In 1964, Arthur Hailey lived in the hotel for two months. He later used it as the basis for his bestselling novel "Hotel" (1965). It tells the story of an independent New Orleans hotel, the "Saint Gregory," and its management’s struggle to restore profitability and avoid assimilation into the O’Keefe hotel chain. The "Saint Gregory" is based on the Roosevelt Hotel, although the old St. Charles Hotel is also mentioned as a basis for the novel.
The novel was adapted into a film in 1967, and in 1983 Aaron Spelling turned it into a TV series that aired on ABC for five years. In the TV series, the Saint Gregory Hotel was relocated from New Orleans to San Francisco.
As Weiss grew older, he began looking for a buyer for the hotel. The Swig family, owners of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, became the new owners in 1965.
The Roosevelt was purchased by Benjamin and Richard Swig on November 19, 1965. To ease the transition, the Swigs first renamed it the "Fairmont-Roosevelt," and then eventually the "Fairmont New Orleans." Over the years, the Swigs began modernizing the hotel.
The Fairmont New Orleans was damaged during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and closed indefinitely. Although some repairs were made, they were halted in March 2007 in an unfinished state after it was discovered that preliminary damage estimates had been significantly underestimated.
On August 24, 2007, Sam Friedman, son of the late Louisiana State Senator Sylvan Friedman from Natchitoches Parish, announced the purchase of the Fairmont Hotel by First Class Hotels for $17 million from the owners.
The entire hotel was fully renovated using modern systems. The hotel’s design was made in memory of the hotel’s glorious days in the 1930s and 1940s. The lobby was restored to its appearance from that period. The carpet in the lobby was removed, and the original floor was repaired. The Sazerac Bar was returned to its 1940s look.
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