Built in 1917 and located in the Washington Avenue Loft District of downtown St. Louis, the Hotel Statler, now known as the Renaissance Grand Hotel, is St. Louis’s landmark to the early 20th century. Designed by George C. Post, the hotel was once part of the famed Statler Hotels company chain before the company was sold to Conrad Hilton’s company for $111,000,000. When the Hotel Statler was opened, it had the claim of being the first air-conditioned hotel in the United States. Due to this fact and its age, the hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Although it is still a functioning hotel, it is still worth it to walk past and see this building up close. For those not staying in this hotel itself, the Residence Inn St. Louis-Downtown is close by.
When the Hotel Statler was built, it was the fourth of the famous Statler Hotel chain and was modeled after the company’s hotels in Cleveland and Detroit. Statler Hotels ran the place until 1958 when the company was sold to the Hilton chain. The Hilton’s continued to run the hotel, renaming the Gateway Hotel in 1966. However, the hotel’s prominence started to decline and by 1987 it was closed for renovations, but never reopened. The hotel would remain untouched until November of 1999 when the St. Louis city government, aided by the state’s historic tax credit, voted to proceed with renovation work on the old hotel. By 2000, all the legal work was completed and the renovation work on the hotel started in earnest.
According to the hotel’s page on buildstlouis.net, “The renovation plan is one put forward by Historic Restoration of New Orleans. As originally envisioned, the plan included a new, 38-story tower to be attached to the rear of the Gateway, and the renovation of the vacant Lennox apartment building (across Washington Avenue from the Gateway), forming a complex with over a thousand rooms in four buildings, a cobblestone plaza, a garage west from the Statler, and pedestrian links to the adjacent American Theater and the nearby Doubletree Mayfair Hotel.” (Built St. Louis > > Recalled to Life || Downtown > > Statler Hotel, builtstlouis.net, 2012) During the renovation work, the hotel was renamed the Renaissance Grand Hotel and is now a part of the Marriott hotel chain. By 2002, the renovation work was completed and the hotel was reopened to the public. Apart from the hotel itself, there are four different restaurants located on the grounds, one of which is a Starbucks Coffee House. The main restaurant is simply named “An American Place” and has been described as "One of the most beautiful restaurants in America, serving cuisine in touch with America's Heartland." (stlouis.com/renaissance-grand-hotel, 2012) In the end, the Hotel Statler is an important landmark to the early 20th Century history of the city St. Louis and, as said on stlouis.com, “offers a nostalgic trip to the past” (stlouis.com/renaissance-grand-hotel, 2012)
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