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This hotel is next to the hotel where we are staying, and is decorated for Christmas including a little diorama with two bears in a little cottage (inset). It was a very cold day, and I thought we might eat dinner there - it was too cold to walk very far. But it was far too elegant for us (and also too expensive). The photo shows the ceiling of the entrance, with Bob just at the bottom of the left side.
It is not in the French Quarter, but the AAA rates it as a Large-Scale Hotel and gives it four red diamonds. It has two entrances - one on Baronne and one on University.
The tradition of hospitality at this hotel (according to their website):
.. began in 1893, when the Grunewald Hotel, a 200-room, six-story hotel named for owner Louis Grunewald, opened on Baronne Street near the fabled French Quarter. Grunewald added a 400-room, 14-story annex in 1908, now the hotel's main entrance. He also opened what is believed to be America's first nightclub. Called The Cave, this subterranean supper club featured waterfalls, stalactites and chorus girls dancing to Dixieland jazz. The hotel was later sold to a syndicate of New Orleans business leaders who renamed the hotel The Roosevelt in honor of Theodore Roosevelt. During this period, the hotel acquired the rights to the Ramos Gin Fizz, as well as the Sazerac Cocktail, a creation of The Fairmont New Orleans' Sazerac Restaurant and Bar.
During its reign as The Roosevelt, the hotel flourished under the leadership of owner and general manager, Seymour Weiss. Weiss was an elegant Cajun who became friends with famed politician Huey P. Long. Long established his campaign headquarters in the hotel and moved in shortly after winning the election. Governor Long spent so much time at the hotel, Louisiana lore has it that he even built a 90-mile highway directly from the state capital in Baton Rouge to The Roosevelt. Even today, a right turn upon leaving the hotel will put you on Highway 61 straight to Baton Rouge.
The Roosevelt became known as The Fairmont New Orleans in 1965.
