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Timeline |
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The Seelbach Hilton, the dream of Bavarian-born brothers Louis and Otto Seelbach, brings turn-of-the-century glamour to life through its elaborate Beaux-Arts Baroque architecture and original artwork. Its extensive history and list of distinguished visitors, going back a century, add to a mystique imbued with fascinating tales.
Enjoy the timeline below, which attempts to retell The Seelbach's evolution to present day.
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Louis Seelbach travels to Louisville from Bavaria to learn the hotel business, working at Louisville's most prominent hotels.
After five years of hard work, Louis opens Seelbach's Restaurant and Café at 10th and Main Street. The exclusive gentlemen's club becomes an instant success with Louisville's businessmen.
The first Kentucky Derby is held.
Louis' restaurant is reputed to have the best dining in Louisville, and is such a success, he decides to move it to larger quarters at Sixth and Main Street. Louis' success draws his younger brother Otto, only 22 at the time, over from Bavaria, and together they form The Seelbach Hotel Company.
J.M. Hillerich crafts the first Louisville Slugger baseball bat.
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The Seelbach brothers open a new 30-room hotel above the restaurant. Still run as a gentlemen's club, the hotel expects its guest to behave like gentlemen.
The hotel's success brings increased demand, and the brothers add 10 rooms to their hotel.
The Seelbach is closed for major renovation into a European-style hotel. The hotel remains closed for eight years while adding such innovations as building-wide cooling. This feat is accomplished by setting pipes into the walls that were then filled with 55-degree water from a nearby ice plant.
The completely remodeled Seelbach reopens and the brothers enjoy another immediate success. Women are admitted for the first time, although the hotel continues to maintain a gentlemen-only Union Club on the top floor of the hotel, complete with dark wood décor, leather chairs and a private dining room. The European Seelbach was sold and became known as The Louisville Inn.
The Seelbach Realty Company is formed to build the brothers' dream hotel from the ground up. Local investors join the brothers to build their hotel at the corner of Fourth and Walnut (now Muhammad Ali Boulevard).
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| Construction of the Seelbach brothers' dream hotel began in 1903. |
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Construction of the new hotel begins in December. The brothers spare no expense -- expensive imports include marble from all over the world, bronzes from France, hardwoods from the West Indies and Europe, linens from Ireland, and valuable Turkish and Persian rugs. Huge murals of pioneer scenes, painted by Arthur Thomas of New York, grace the grand lobby walls. And, the Mezzanine now features such innovations as long-distance telephone booths and public stenographers.
In addition to a Gentlemen's Private Dining Area -- complete with Italian-leather wall coverings, settees and Flemish-oak furniture -- the hotel opens a Ladies Private Dining Room and a Ladies Parlor with Louis XVI silk damask. In the end, the cost of the new hotel totals $950,000, an unheard-of sum in Louisville at that time. |
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| One of the large murals painted by Arthur Thomas that still decorates the Lobby today. |
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On May 1, in time for the Kentucky Derby, the new Seelbach Hotel opens by throwing the biggest party Louisville has ever seen. A five-hour "public inspection" draws more than 25,000 visitors to tour the hotel, billed as "the only fireproof hotel in the city, modern in all respects." The crowd was so thick that women fainted in the crush and it took 15 policemen to help clear the hotel for the official grand-opening preparations.
For the formal grand opening that evening, the hotel entertained 1,500 prominent dinner guests, including Kentucky Governor Beckham. The business, social and political elite dined, danced and toured the night away.
The new Seelbach was so successful that Louis and Otto began building a 154-room addition that fall, spending another $300,000.
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The new expansion is completed and includes a covered ballroom added to the Roof Garden and the famous Bavarian-style Rathskeller, decorated with rare Rookwood Pottery. The Rathskeller, a work of art, is currently the only surviving ensemble of its kind, and was one of the first truly air-conditioned rooms built. The Billiards Hall, decorated in Venetian Renaissance style and hand-carved oak, is also constructed around this time. The Billiards Hall offers gentlemen a place to gather for card playing, and Al Capone frequents a private alcove there to play blackjack.
F. Scott Fitzgerald stays at The Seelbach and enjoys sipping Kentucky bourbon and smoking expensive cigars. His experiences in The Seelbach's elegant rooms inspire him to use the hotel as a model during the writing of "The Great Gatsby." As the premier Louisville hotel, debutantes of upper-class society often "came out" on the top floor ballroom, throwing grand galas, similar to the parties in Fitzgerald's classic 1920s novel.
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| The Rathskeller's tiled walls depict cities from the Rhenish region of Germany, a tribute to the Seelbach brothers' homeland. |
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Louisville author Cordia Greer Petrie publishes "Angeline at The Seelbach," a comedy about the misadventures of a woman from the Kentucky hills, when she and her husband visit The Seelbach. The book runs to 30 editions and is made into a nationally aired radio show.
Louis Seelbach dies. Otto and Louis' son, William, continue to manage the hotel. F. Scott Fitzgerald pays tribute to The Seelbach in his American masterpiece, "The Great Gatsby." In this novel, the hotel is used as the backdrop for Tom and Daisy Buchanan's wedding.
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| The Seelbach becomes a gathering place for Louisville's elite. |
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The hotel is sold to Abraham M. Liebling, a Chicago investor, for $2.5 million.
Otto Seelbach retires in February. The hotel is sold to Eppley Hotels, an Omaha firm, in May.
The Rathskeller reopens in April, after Prohibition is repealed.
The Great Flood strikes Louisville in January. Thanks to the hotel's emergency generators and private wells, it survives the flood better than the rest of the city.
The hotel opens The Plantation Room nightclub in November, in a space formerly rented from the hotel by a drugstore. The nightclub features a 25-foot wide diorama.
The hotel's basement, including the Rathskeller, is leased to the American Legion as a members-only club. The hotel begins major renovations. |
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Democratic candidate for governor Earle Clements uses room 743 to plan his successful election strategies. His election causes others to use the room through 1971, believing it to be lucky. Also, the hotel's innovative steam-powered, air-conditioning system is installed.
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Exterior remodeling adds a new granite face to the First Floor, eliminates one of two Fourth Street entrances and adds a Walnut Street entrance.
The hotel opens a coffee shop with a balcony dining room in May, replacing the Corner Club Bar.
Zack Jacoby, who has lived in The Seelbach since it opened, moves out and into a nursing home.
The Sheraton Hotel chain purchases The Seelbach and begins its own renovations, spending $1.1 million. The name of the hotel is officially changed to the Sheraton.
The refurbished Rathskeller reopens as a popular first-run dinner theatre.
The Royal Bank and Trust takes over the old coffee shop in a "rental steal" that gains them a prime location.
The Sheraton Corporation spends $500,000 redecorating, renovating and painting in order to compete with suburban hotels.
Gotham Hotels buys the hotel. The name is changed back to The Seelbach.
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| The coffee shop with staircase to a balcony, built in 1949. |
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The Seelbach is closed as a result of the flight to the suburbs of hotel guests.
Morton T. Sarubin, a Baltimore real estate investor, buys The Seelbach and another hotel for a total of just $245,000. He is unable to raise the estimated $10 million needed for renovation.
Actor Roger Davis and H.G. Whittenberg, Jr., president of a construction company, buy The Seelbach and a second hotel for a total of $1 million.
Renovations begin on The Seelbach.
Metropolitan Life Insurance obtains 50 percent of The Seelbach in exchange for a $15.5 million loan. |
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Restored to its former grandeur, The Seelbach formally reopens in April. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony, held on April 13, features speakers such as Louisville Major Harvey I. Sloane and Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown.
The hotel is managed by National Hotels Corporation, a subsidiary of Radisson Hotels, as well as Doubletree Hotels.
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The Seelbach becomes one of only 40 hotels worldwide to be selected by the prestigious Preferred Hotels Association.
In April, The Seelbach is sold to Medallion Hotels, Inc. of New York.
The addition of the 8,678-square-foot Medallion Ballroom makes The Seelbach a top conference hotel in Louisville. The hotel's $5.6 million conference center now offers meeting planners 18,500 square feet of unique venues. |
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