Hey Blake,
My favorite hotel is the Fairmont, or Roosevelt as I knew it. Who was the original owner, and when did it become the Roosevelt?
Jackie
Dear Jackie,
I have to admit that I still call it the Roosevelt or sometimes even its original name. The hotel was given the new name when it was sold in 1923 to a group of New Orleans business leaders. It was renamed in honor of ex-President Teddy who had died four years earlier. Before that it had been the Hotel Grunewald, whose original owner was Louis Grunewald. However, the New Orleans Fairmont, called "the Pride of the South," has an interesting history and has figured prominently in the lives of the rich and famous and the locals of our city for well over a hundred years.
It was 1893, just before Christmas, when one of the grandest of all hotels in the South opened on Baronne Street. Mardi Gras was just around the corner, and the owner of the new hotel -- Louis Grunewald -- had promised that the six-story, 200-room hotel would be "in full readiness for the Carnival of 1894." He accomplished his goal, and his hotel was an immediate success.
By 1908, the hotel added a taller and more spacious annex. The 14-story, 400-room addition on University Place was ready for business on New Year's Eve. The new building's cost was a whopping $2.5 million dollars!
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the Grunewald Hotel on University Place was The Cave, reputed to be America's first nightclub. It was inspired by Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and located in the basement of the hotel.
You'll have to use your imagination now. In the cavernous underground supper club, the pipes, conduits and beams were disguised by the expert, creative use of 700,000 pounds of cement and plaster and transformed into stalagmites, stalactites and waterfalls. This extraordinary decor also featured naked, life-size stucco nymphs here and there. Added to this spectacle were Dixieland bands, entertaining floor shows and beautifully dressed showgirls. Located below what is now The Blue Room, The Cave remained a popular nightspot from 1910 to about 1930.
Louis Grunewald died in 1915, but his heir Theodore Grunewald kept the hotel until health problems forced him to sell in 1923. But before he did, visitors and locals alike marveled at the gorgeous interior with its marble staircase and the lobby that featured French, Italian and African marble statues. There was a promenade on the second floor, a ladies' tea room and formal private dining rooms. And there was even, on the 12th floor, a New Little Theater that featured the Grunewald Symphony Orchestra in weekly free morning musicals.
When the new owners took over, they partially demolished the original building and reopened the new building on Baronne in 1925. That same year began one of the great American success stories. A young man born in Bunkie -- Seymour Weiss -- became manager of the hotel barber shop. Less than 10 years later, he bought the building. He stayed on as principal owner and managing director to make the Roosevelt even more wonderful.
During the next 32 years, under Mr. Weiss' leadership, the hotel was the host of the WWL radio station, which broadcast from there for about 20 years. Also during this time, the nationally famous Blue Room -- the successor to The Cave -- opened in 1935, and later the Fountain Lounge. But for me, the best part about the Weiss years was the establishment of the Christmas tradition. The decoration of the entire lobby with angel hair, sparkling ornaments, beautifully decorated trees, a gingerbread house and all things Christmas brought hundreds of admiring visitors daily during the holiday season.
In 1965, Mr. Weiss sold his hotel to the Fairmont Corporation that renamed the Roosevelt the Fairmont-Roosevelt. Since 1970, it has been officially the New Orleans Fairmont Hotel. While many things have changed, most locals associate the old hotel with weddings, anniversaries and class reunions, and we look forward each year to walk once again though the block-long magical winter wonderland.
