Atlanta Biltmore Hotel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biltmore Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia

The Atlanta Biltmore Hotel (located at 817 West Peachtree Street) opened in Atlanta, Georgia in 1924 at a cost of $6 million. It was organized by Coca-Cola heir William Candler, Holland Ball Judkins, and John McEntee Bowman and was designed by the architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver. It is easily distinguished by the towering radio masts on each end of the building, with vertical illuminated letters that spell out "BILTMORE." The top floor and radio masts broadcasted WSB-AM from 1925 to 1956.

In the 1960s it became the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel and operated under this name until the new Sheraton Atlanta opened downtown. The Biltmore operated under private ownership for a short period finally closing in 1981. The building remained vacant for many years, though the adjoining apartment building served for some time as the Biltmore Suites Hotel.

The empty hotel building was gutted and transformed into office space in the late 1990s. Due to extensive renovations by Sheraton, there were only two remaining historic rooms, the two main floor ballrooms. They were fully restored as public function rooms. The Biltmore Suites Hotel was closed and converted to condominiums about this time.

[edit] External links