Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments | |
Location | 817 West Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 33°46′36″N84°23′11″W / 33.77667°N 84.38639°W |
Built | 1924 |
Built by | Starrett Bros. |
Architect | Leonard Schultze |
Architectural style | Neo-Georgian, Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 80001071 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | January 20, 1980 |
Designated ALB | October 23, 1989 |
The Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments is a historic building located in Atlanta, Georgia. The complex, originally consisting of a hotel and apartments, was developed by William Candler, son of Coca-Cola executive Asa Candler, with Holland Ball Judkins and John McEntee Bowman. The original hotel building was converted to an office building in 1999. The building is currently owned by the Georgia Institute of Technology and is adjacent to Technology Square.
Opened on April 19, 1924, [2] the 11-story hotel and 10-story apartment building were constructed somewhat away from downtown Atlanta, in an area that became known as Midtown. Designed by the New York firm of Schultze and Weaver, the hotel was operated by Bowman-Biltmore Hotels. [3] [4]
The Atlanta Biltmore is easily distinguished by the towering radio masts on each end of the building, with vertical illuminated letters that spell out "BILTMORE". The studios on the top floor broadcast WSB-AM from 1925 until 1956. The large radio masts supported the transmitting antenna of WSB-AM from 1925 to 1929, when output power was increased to 5,000 watts, and a suburban transmitter site was built in East Lake. [5]
In 1967, the Atlanta Biltmore was sold to Sheraton Hotels and became the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel. Sheraton spent $5 million on renovations and operated the hotel until 1979, when they sold it to Biltmore Hospitality Partners, [2] which renamed the hotel the Atlanta Biltmore. Both buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 20, 1980. [6] The hotel closed in 1982 and was sold in 1984 to Renaissance Investment Corporation, [2] which planned to convert both the smaller apartment tower and the enormous hotel tower to condominiums. They completed work on the apartment tower, but then went bankrupt in 1986 and had to sell the entire property. The newly renovated apartment tower was opened as the Biltmore Suites Hotel while the main building remained vacant for many years.
The complex was sold to Novare Group in January 1998, [7] who gutted and transformed the main hotel building into office space, reopening it in 1999. Due to extensive renovations over the years, there were only two remaining historic public rooms, the ballroom and dining room on the main floor. They were fully restored and are used as public function rooms, known as The Biltmore Ballrooms. The adjoining Biltmore Suites Hotel was closed in 1998 and converted to condominiums known as Biltmore House, which opened in 1999. [8]
On June 13, 2016, [7] The Biltmore was purchased from Novare by the Georgia Institute of Technology. [9]
Bowman-Biltmore Hotels was a hotel chain created by the hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.
Asa Griggs Candler Sr. was an American business tycoon and politician who in 1888 purchased the Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 from chemist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Candler founded The Coca-Cola Company in 1892 and developed it as a major company.
The Margaret Mitchell House is a historic house museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. The structure was the home of author Margaret Mitchell in the early 20th century. It is located in Midtown, at 979 Crescent Avenue. Constructed by Cornelius J. Sheehan as a single-family residence in a then-fashionable section of residential Peachtree Street, the building's original address was 806 Peachtree Street. The house was known as the Crescent Apartments when Mitchell and her husband lived in Apt. 1 on the ground floor from 1925 to 1932. While living there, Mitchell wrote the bulk of her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1936 novel, Gone with the Wind.
Technology Square, commonly called Tech Square, is a multi-block neighborhood located in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Tech Square is bounded by 8th Street on the north, 3rd Street on the south, West Peachtree Street to the east, and Williams Street to the west. Tech Square includes several academic buildings affiliated with Georgia Tech and provides access to the campus via the Fifth Street Pedestrian Plaza Bridge, reconstructed in 2007. It also contains restaurants, retail shops, condominiums, office buildings, and a hotel.
The Graduate by Hilton Providence is an upscale hotel that opened in 1922 as the Providence Biltmore Hotel, part of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels chain. It is located on the southern corner of Kennedy Plaza at 11 Dorrance Street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Schultze & Weaver was an architecture firm established in New York City in 1921. The partners were Leonard Schultze and S. Fullerton Weaver.
The Candler Building is a 17-story high-rise at 127 Peachtree Street, NE, in Atlanta, Georgia. When completed in 1906 by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, it was the tallest building in the city. This location where Houston joins Peachtree Street was the location of one of the earliest churches in the city which was built on land donated by Judge Reuben Cone in the 1840s. It forms the northern border of Woodruff Park.
William Lee Stoddart (1868–1940) was an architect who designed urban hotels in the Eastern United States. Although he was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, most of his commissions were in the South. He maintained offices in Atlanta and New York City.
The Dayton Biltmore Hotel is a historic former hotel built in 1929 and located at the junction of First and Main Streets in downtown Dayton, Ohio, United States. It was converted to senior citizen housing in 1981 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. In 2020, it was acquired by Related Companies, which purchased the property from Aimco.
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The Martin Hotel, erected as a Chicago style building in 1912, is located in Sioux City, Iowa. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, it is significant for its architecture, operating for many years as the Sheraton-Martin Hotel and now known as the Martin Tower Apartments.
The Georgian Terrace Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, part of the Fox Theatre Historic District, was designed by architect William Lee Stoddart in a Beaux-Arts style that was intended to evoke the architecture of Paris. Construction commenced on July 21, 1910, and ended on September 8, 1911, and the hotel opened on October 2, 1911. The George C. Fuller Construction Company was contractor, and the developer was Joseph F. Gatins, Jr.
The Briarcliff Hotel, now the Briarcliff Summit, is located at 1050 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE in the Virginia Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia.
Walter T. Downing (1865-1918) was an American architect in Atlanta, Georgia. Several of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Walter T. Downing was father of John F. Downing, who was also an architect and who continued his father's firm.
The Reid House at 1325-1327 Peachtree St., NE, in Atlanta, Georgia, known also as Garrison Apartments and as 1325 Apartments, was built as a luxury apartment building in 1924. It was the third luxury apartment building built in Atlanta. It received a $2 million renovation during 1974 and was converted to a luxury condominium building in 1975. The ten-story building was designed by architect Philip T. Shutze of architectural firm Hentz, Reid and Adler in Classical Revival architecture. The 1974 renovation was by architect Eugene I. Lowry.
The Jefferson Arms is a historic building in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It opened as the Hotel Jefferson in 1904 to serve visitors to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.
The main campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology occupies part of Midtown Atlanta, primarily bordered by 10th Street to the north, North Avenue to the south, and, with the exception of Tech Square, the Downtown Connector to the East, placing it well in sight of the Atlanta skyline. In 1996, the campus was the site of the athletes' village and a venue for a number of athletic events for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The construction of the Olympic Village, along with subsequent gentrification of the surrounding areas, significantly changed the campus.
Hotel Indigo Atlanta Midtown is a historic building in midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Designed by Atlanta-based architectural firm Pringle and Smith in 1925, the brick building is located on Peachtree Street, across from the Fox Theatre. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2006, and, in 2022, is a member of Historic Hotels of America.
Ponce de Leon Apartments is a historic apartment building in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. A part of the Fox Theatre Historic District, the building is located at the intersection of Peachtree Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue in midtown Atlanta. It was built by the George A. Fuller Company in 1913, with William Lee Stoddart as the building's architect. The building was designated a Landmark Building by the government of Atlanta in 1993.