Statler Hotel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the building in Detroit, Michigan, see Detroit Statler Hotel.
The Statler Hotel company was one of the United States' early chains of hotels catering to traveling businessmen and tourists. It was founded by Ellsworth Milton (E. M.) Statler in Buffalo, New York.
Contents |
[edit] Early ventures
In 1901, Buffalo was the host city for the Pan-American Exposition. Statler envisioned and built a hotel on the Exposition grounds and called it "Statler's Hotel." It was a temporary wooden structure built only to last the life of the Exposition. With 2084 rooms, it could accommodate 5000 guests. Although the Exposition was deemed an overall failure due to a number of factors (bad weather and the assassination of President William McKinley included), Statler made a small profit—one of the few vendors to actually do so.
His next venture was the Inside Inn, built for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. Another temporary wooden structure, it was the world's largest hotel with 2257 rooms. A grand success, the hotel made Statler a net profit of $361,000 and laid the groundwork for his first permanent hotel. The hotel and its fittings were then sold for scrap and dismantled. The Inside Inn was located near the edge of Forest Park in St. Louis, with traffic from the modern day Highway 64/40 running through the location of the hotel.
[edit] Company history
The first Statler hotel was built in Buffalo, New York and offered 300 rooms and bathrooms (it was later expanded to 450 rooms and baths). The Buffalo hotel was very successful and led to a chain of hotels in other cities. Statler's intent was not to compete with the luxury hotels, but rather to provide, clean, comfortable and moderately priced rooms for the average traveler. Statler was the first major hotel chain to have a bathroom in every room. His innovative Statler Plumbing Shaft is still used in modern construction. From providing paper and ink pens for correspondence (prominently bearing the Statler name) to a light in the closet, Statler brought the average traveler a level of luxury that was otherwise unaffordable.
Rooms were originally available at what seemed a very cheap price, leading many other hoteliers to predict the failure of the Buffalo hotel. The opening night price was as low as $1.50 for a guest room, leading to the slogan "A Room and a Bath for a Dollar and a Half." The hotel had a line of credit available of $500,000, but was so successful from the beginning that Statler never touched the line of credit.
Each of the subsequent Statler Hotels built upon this formula for success. After Statler's death in 1928, the company built hotels in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, California, Hartford, Connecticut. and Dallas, Texas. Each was more innovative than the last, and was a testimony to the founder of the company. Many of these hotels were designed by the architectural firm of George Post & Sons, the successor firm of George B. Post.
The Hotels Statler Company, Inc., was sold to Conrad Hilton's (Hilton Hotels) in 1954 for $111,000,000 in what was then the world's largest real estate transaction.
[edit] List of hotels
| City | Built | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo | 1907 | The first Buffalo Statler was renamed The Hotel Buffalo in 1922 upon completion of the new Hotel Statler. It was sold in the 1930s by the Hotels Statler Company, and it was closed and torn down in 1967. | |
| Cleveland | 1912 | The Statler in Cleveland was initially converted into an office building in 1980 as the Statler Office Building. In 2001 the building was converted into a 295-unit apartment building, known as The Statler Arms. | |
| Detroit | 1915 | Detroit Statler Hotel | Hilton’s terminated its management of the Detroit Statler Hilton in 1974. It briefly became the Detroit Heritage Hotel, before closing soon after. Demolition of the 1000-room Detroit Statler Hotel in Detroit began in August 2005 and was completed before the Detroit-hosted Super Bowl in 2006. |
| Saint Louis | 1917 | The St. Louis Statler was sold by Hilton in 1968 and renamed The Gateway Hotel. It was closed in 1987, and it underwent a mysterious and oft-litigated arson fire the following year. It was expanded, renovated and reopened in 2004 as the St. Louis Renaissance Grand Hotel, operated by the Marriott Corporation. | |
| New York | 1919 | Hotel Pennsylvania |
The Hotel Pennsylvania, across the street from Penn Station, was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1919 and managed by Ellsworth Statler's company. The hotel has had the distinction of having the oldest continuous phone number in New York still in use today. The number, Pennsylvania 6-5000, is the inspiration for the Glenn Miller song of the same name. Many big band names played in the hotel's Cafe Rouge including the Dorsey Brothers, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The hotel was acquired by the Hotels Statler Company in 1948 and renamed the New York Statler Hotel, operated as The Statler Hilton, then as the New York Penta, until it reverted to the Hotel Pennsylvania. As of January 2007, the 1700 room hotel is slated to be demolished for an office tower planned for completion in 2011.[1] |
| Buffalo | 1923 | The second Buffalo Statler was converted to offices in 1984 and renamed Statler Towers, although three of its public rooms are open to the public for catered events and banquets. In June 2006, British businessman Bashar Issa bought the building. His plans called for bringing the once spectacular building back to its once grand state. Unfortunately, as of April 2008, those plans have put on hold for financial reasons. | |
| Boston | 1927 | The Boston Statler is still a hotel, now called the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, owned and operated by Starwood Hotels as an independent property. | |
| Washington | 1943 | The only hotel bought by and still operated by Hilton Hotels is the Washington, D.C. Statler, now called The Capital Hilton. | |
| Los Angeles | 1952 | The Los Angeles Statler operated for many years as the Statler Hilton, then the Omni Los Angeles and is now known as The Wilshire Grand Hotel. | |
| Hartford | 1954 | The Hartford Statler was eventually closed and was imploded in 1990. | |
| Dallas | 1956 | The Dallas Statler Hilton was closed in 2001, having operated in its last years as the Dallas Grand Hotel. It is currently vacant.
In May, 2008 The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the building on their list of America's Most Endangered Places. [1] |
[edit] Related hotels
- There is a Statler Hotel at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York that is operated by the Cornell Hotel School.
- The Hotel William Penn in Pittsburgh, built in 1938, was merely managed by Statler and never owned by the company.
[edit] References
- Miller, Floyd Statler: America's Extraordinary Hotelman
- Jarman, Rufus A Bed for the Night
[edit] Trivia
Statler & Waldorf are two Muppet characters and were named after the New York Statler Hotel (now the Hotel Pennsylvania) and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
