The Kimball Towers Condominiums (originally called The Hotel Kimball and later The Sheraton-Kimball Hotel) are located in Springfield, Massachusetts, at 140 Chestnut Street, in Metro Center's Apremont Triangle Historic District. Located between Bridge and Hillman Streets on a prominent bluff, the Kimball's main entrance sits across from the Apremont Triangle Park, named for the Springfield-based 104th Infantry Regiment - the first-ever United States military regiment decorated by a foreign power for heroism, (having received the croix de guerre from France.) [1] The Kimball is famous as the site of the United States' first-ever commercial radio station, Westinghouse's WBZA, and also for hosting numerous, important guests throughout its years as a hotel, including several U.S. Presidents.[2][3] During the 1980s, the Kimball Hotel was re-modeled and became The Kimball Towers Condominiums. SInce 1983, the Kimball has been protected by the Apremont Triangle Historic District, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It celebrated its 100th anniversary on St. Patrick's Day, 2011.[4]
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Built in 1910 by wealthy businessman William Kimball, and formally opened on St. Patrick's Day, 1911, as The Hotel Kimball, the neo-classical, red-brick building was for decades "the leading hotel in Western Massachusetts." [5] On its opening in 1911, it was reviewed by the New York Times as "ranking with the finest [hotels] in the country. A magnificent hotel, modern and metropolitan in every appointment." [6] During the 1940s, it was the first grand hotel purchased by Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, then based in Springfield. It was renamed the Sheraton-Kimball Hotel and remained a 4-star property until the early 1980s, when it began a long conversion into The Kimball Towers Condominiums.[7] [8]
Originally upon its opening in 1911, the Hotel Kimball featured "solid mahogany floors and chairs with upholstery of hand tooled-leather, bearing the Kimball coat-of-arms." Built in what was the affluent residential neighborhood of Chestnut and Bridge Streets, the Kimball offered 309 rooms, a dining-room capacity for 450, a 22-foot (6.7 m)-high grand ballroom for 350 guests, and, in 1912, room rates from "$1.50 to $3.50 per day". Proms, wedding receptions, conventions, banquets, and weekly Rotary and Kiwanis meetings kept Kimball facilities fully booked for decades.[9]
The Kimball is famous as the site of the United States' first-ever commercial radio station, Westinghouse's WBZA.[10][11] From 1921 until the station later moved to Boston, Massachusetts, WBZ's standard broadcast identification was, "WBZA AM & FM, Hotel Kimball, Springfield." [12] The radio station's headquarters in The Hotel Kimball lured the day's most popular entertainers to Springfield - a mid-sized, albeit very wealthy city - who were drawn by the hotel's reputation as much as the radio station's.
The Kimball is also famous for hosting U.S. Presidents like Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, among many movie actors, actresses, kings, and wealthy industrialists.[13] [14]
During the late 1960s, the construction of Interstate 91 and the resulting white flight of wealthy and upper-middle class Springfielders to Western Massachusetts' suburbs had a detrimental effect on the city's Metro Center and the Sheraton-Kimball Hotel, as it did on most U.S. cities and their urban hotels. During the 1970s and early 1980s, many gilded age hotels like the Kimball were torn down in the United States. In 1983, the Kimball was spared the wrecking ball by the National Register of Historic Places, and soon after two developers who envisioned "The Kimball Towers" as Springfield's premier, luxury condominium address. In the late 1980s, mid-way through the renovation of the 309-room Hotel Kimball into the 132-room Kimball Towers, the developers filed for bankruptcy. Later they were sent to jail for a different development. [15] For nearly a decade thereafter, the Kimball Towers were managed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Many of its units were left unfinished or bare by the developers, who had finished only the top three floors of the ten-story building, (floors 6, 7, and 8.) During the 1990s, many Kimball Towers units were sold to absentee landlords for well-below their market value because the building's financial future seemed uncertain.
During the new millennium, as Springfield's Metro Center revitalized, the Kimball Towers became an increasingly attractive residence for artists, bohemians, and empty-nesters—people who were attracted to urban living without the typical high expense. During this time, the building achieved financial and managerial stability, which had eluded it since its days as the Sheraton-Kimball Hotel. As of 2011, the Kimball Towers is a primarily owner-occupied building.
The building celebrated its 100th anniversary on St. Patrick's Day, 2011, with a celebration and proclamation by Springfield's mayor.[16]
The Kimball Towers building has a unique floor-plan due to its varied history, first as a luxury hotel; then as home to the United States' first commercial radio station; and later, as the site of a condominium development. As of 2011, the Kimball's Grand Lobby looks much as it did when the building opened in 1911 - featuring marble columns and leather furniture.[17] Behind it, however, the Grand Ballroom has fallen into disrepair - although it still features its original maple parquet floor and a dramatic balcony. [18] The "Millennium Room" - originally part of the Kimball's famous Pickwick Lounge restaurant and bar -- has been renovated and now features regular art shows and entertainment by the building's many artists and musicians.[19][20]
The Kimball is perched atop a bluff, and thus features a section below the building's entrance gradient. That area features a little-known "secret garden" - a green oasis amidst the urban fabric of Springfield. To reach it, one must locate an obscure hallway in the back of first floor, which itself is decorated by examples of abstract-expressionist art, and then follow several flights of stairs down to the secret garden. [21]
The Kimball's floor #2 (the building's third story) through #8 (the building's ninth story) feature similar condominium layouts. For example, Unit #204 is, essentially, similar to Unit #804. The Units #210-#810 are the only units in the building to feature Frankfurt kitchens. Only the top three floors -- #6, #7, and #8 were finished by the original condominium developer, who outfitted the units with luxury cabinets and left many of the original hotel's luxury features, e.g. doors and doorknobs.