Hotel Fontenelle

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Hotel Fontenelle
Hotelfontenelle.jpg
The Hotel Fontenelle in Downtown Omaha.
General information
Architectural style Late Gothic Revival
Town or city Omaha, Nebraska
Country United States
Construction started 1914
Completed 1915
Demolished 1983
Cost $1,000,000
Client Gurdon W. Wattles
Design and construction
Architect Thomas Rogers Kimball
File:Bombay Room.jpg
The Bombay Room, 1938

Hotel Fontenelle was an upscale hotel located at 1806 Douglas Street in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Designed by noted architect Thomas Rogers Kimball in the Late Gothic Revival style, it was built in 1914 and demolished in 1983. It was named for Logan Fontenelle, an interpreter for the Omaha Tribe when it ceded land to the U.S. government which became the city of Omaha.[1]

Original Building Layout

As constructed, the Fontenelle reflected the Edwardian values of the time. It consisted of the following floors:

  • Basement: Support areas, including separate dining facilities for female and male employees
  • Arcade Level (also known as "The Men's Level"): With an entrance from 18th street, this level featured a Men's Lounge, Grille, Billiards Room, Barbershop, "Broker's Office" and Cafe. It was connected to the lobby level by a grand staircase.
  • Lobby Level: The main entrance to the hotel (on Douglas Street) was on this level, along with a large "Ladies Lounge" (A sitting room with gas fireplace and inlaid marble "compass rose" in the entry), Flower Shop, Cigar Stand, and a two-story Restaurant area consisting of two adjoining rooms (The Palm Room and Main Dining Room) with tall windows that looked out onto 18th Street. Each space had a "Musician's Gallery" (A balcony off the mezzanine level where musicians performed background music).
  • Mezzanine Level: Comprising a Ballroom, Junior Ballroom and three private dining rooms. The Mezzanine was open to the lobby via an atrium, which was capped by a skylight. At some point a meeting room called The Pompadour Room was added.
  • Ten stories of guest rooms, with corner suites on the SE and NE corners (The SE corner suites having gas fireplaces).
  • The top two public floors (shown in the picture as the terra cotta clad floors) were "sample rooms" for traveling salesmen to use to show their wares.
  • The top floor was not accessible to the public and contained housekeeping/laundry, paint, carpentry and upholstery shops, a small dormitory, and machinery.

Alterations to Original Construction

The Fontenelle, as constructed, had a shortage of meeting space. That, and the changing nature of society, necessitated several changes throughout the years.

1933

The repeal of prohibition created an instant demand for lounge space in the hotel, and the Ladies Lounge was converted to a cocktail lounge. Liquor service was also initiated in the Grille Room and the Dining Rooms.

1938-1941

The public floors were reconfigured and redecorated in a streamlined moderne style to create additional meeting room space.

On the Arcade Level, the billiards room and Grille Room were turned into meeting spaces called The Hippodrome, The Assembly Room and The Auditorium .[2]

On the lobby level, the 1933 cocktail lounge was converted to meeting space and the formal restaurant space was converted to a bar/restaurant called the Bombay/Black Mirror Room, which was one of Omaha's most popular nightspots in the 1940's-50's. (The Bombay Room was one of the first locations in the country to feature doors which opened automatically).[3]

1958-1959

Shortly after the purchase of the hotel by Sheraton, the Bombay/Black Mirror Rooms were converted to function spaces (the North and South rooms) and the Atrium was filled in to create two additional meeting rooms on the mezzanine level. A steakhouse called "The Little Nugget" was opened in the original Ladies Lounge space.

With the closure of the original Bombay Room, the Arcade cocktail lounge was redecorated and renamed "The Bombay Bar" as a nod to the original popular cocktail lounge. It retained a little of the original Edwardian character of the hotel in that it did not allow women in the bar until after 4pm.

The guest room floors remained essentially unaltered through the life of the hotel, aside from redecoration and addition of air conditioning). The major change being the sample rooms converted to luxury suites in the 1950's.[4]

History

The Fontenelle was opened in 1915. Costing $1,000,000 to build, it was funded largely by citizen subscribers, which was a common method for financing hotels at the time. The building was designed by Thomas Kimball for the Douglas Hotel Company and its president, Gurdon W. Wattles. The building had 350 guest rooms decorated in an English style, and public areas appointed with marble floors and mahogany paneling.

The Fontenelle was operated by the Douglas Hotel Company until 1920, after which it was acquired by hotel magnate Gene Eppley, becoming the flagship of his Eppley Hotel Company, which in the 1950s was the largest privately held hotel company in the US. Eppley operated 22 units in six states and lived in the Fontenelle after buying it in 1920, and died there in 1958.

File:Hotel Fontenelle Lobby.jpg
Hotel Fontenelle Lobby

The center of Omaha society, the hotel was the site of numerous civic events, weddings and conventions. These included the founding of the Girl Scout movement in Omaha.[5] a national women's bowling tournament,[6] and lectures by Willa Cather and other nationally known authors.[7] It was also the host hotel for the annual Ak-Sar-Ben coronation, and was a popular destination for fraternal organizations, due in part to its close proximity to the Omaha Elk's Club and Masonic Temple Building.

Eppley sold his hotel empire to Sheraton Hotels, for thirty million dollars in 1956. It was the second largest hotel sale in United States history.[8] The hotel became the Sheraton-Fontenelle and continued to be a popular destination for social events. Sheraton sold the hotel in 1968, at which time it became independent, reverting to the Fontenelle name. The hotel was headquarters for Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Democratic Nebraska primary campaign.

However, as the city grew westward, the hotel faded in popularity and was closed in 1970, due also to the structure's deteriorating condition. Many attempts were made to redevelop the Fontenelle as it stood empty over the next thirteen years,[9] but it was eventually demolished in 1983.[10] The site is now the parking lot of the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse.

Notable guests

The Fontenelle hosted many celebrities and politicians through the years, including President Harry S. Truman,[11] who was a personal friend of Gene Eppley. Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline stayed there during his campaign for the 1960 Presidential election.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gerber, K. and Spencer, J.S. (2003) Architecture for the Ages. Landmarks, Inc. p. 35.
  2. ↑ "Eppley Opens Auditorium Room at Fontenelle" Chamber of Commerce Journal, August 1941
  3. ↑ "Improvement Program at the Hotel Fontenelle completed at a cost of Quarter Million Dollars", Tavern Talk Magazine, January 22nd, 1938
  4. ↑ "Omaha Hotel...Remodeling" Omaha World-Herald, February 2, 1959"
  5. ↑ History, Great Plains Girl Scouts Council. Retrieved 2/2/08.
  6. ↑ Congress, Inc. Time magazine. May 13, 1936. Retrieved 2/2/08.
  7. ↑ 1921 Interview, University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Retrieved 2/2/08.
  8. ↑ "Closing the gap," Time magazine June 4, 1956. Retrieved 6/15/08.
  9. ↑ The Hotel Fontenelle. Retrieved 2/2/08.
  10. ↑ Dalstrom, H.A. (1969) Eugene C. Eppley: His Life and Legacy. Johnsen Press.
  11. ↑ Truman Library photographs, Truman Library. Retrieved 2/2/08.
  12. ↑ Dalstrom, H.A. (1969) Eugene C. Eppley: His Life and Legacy. Johnsen Press.

External links

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