Bowman-Biltmore Hotels

Bowman-Biltmore Hotels was a hotel chain created by hotel magnate John McEntee Bowman.

The name evokes the Vanderbilt family's Biltmore Estate, whose buildings and gardens within are privately owned historical landmarks and tourist attractions in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The name has since been adopted by other unrelated hotels. For a time, the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corporation was a publicly traded company.

Historic locations
CountryStateNameLocationOpeningNotes
United StatesArizonaArizona BiltmorePhoenix23 February 1929Opened by Warren McArthur Jr. and his brother Charles McArthur along with John McEntee Bowman. Co-designed by their brother the Chicago architect Albert Chase McArthur, who asked Frank Lloyd Wright to collaborate.[1]
CaliforniaFlintridge BiltmoreLa Cañada Flintridge, atop the San Rafael Hills1926The site of the present day Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy campus. Designed by architect Myron Hunt in 1926, in the Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival architecture styles, and commissioned by owner Senator Frank Putnam Flint. The business failed as the Great Depression continued, and the hotel was closed and sold in 1931 to the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose to found the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy there.[2]
Los Angeles BiltmorePershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles1923Largest hotel west of Chicago in the United States when it opened. Designed by the architectural firm of Schultze & Weaver. "Nerve center" of the 1960 Democratic National Convention, headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and of the candidates including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Adlai Stevenson. Room 8315 was used for the John Kennedy campaign.[3]
Santa Barbara BiltmoreSanta Barbara, California1927Masterly synthesis of the Spanish Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Moorish Revival styles of architecture and landscape architecture. Four Seasons Hotels bought the hotel in 1987. Ty Warner acquired ownership of the hotel through his Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts in 2000, with a historically sensitive major restoration and services updating following.
ConnecticutThe GriswoldNew London, Connecticut1906[4]Seasonal resort hotel operated by Bowman Biltmore.[5] Demolished 1968.
DelawareHotel du PontWilmington, Delaware1913Managed by the Bowman-Biltmore Hotel company[6] and named the Du Pont Biltmore from 1927 to 1933.[7]
Florida Belleview BiltmoreBelleair, Florida1897Acquired by the Biltmore chain in 1920.[8]
Miami BiltmoreCoral Gables, Florida1926Opened by Bowman and George Merrick. National Historic Landmark. Sold to Henry L. Doherty in 1931. Served as a hospital during World War II and as a VA Hospital and campus of the University of Miami medical school until 1968. Became a hotel again in 1987, managed by Seaway Hotels Corporation.[9] President Obama stayed at the Biltmore prior to delivering a speech at the University of Miami.
GeorgiaAtlanta BiltmoreAtlanta1924Designed by Schultze & Weaver at a cost of $6 million. Organized by Coca-Cola heir William Candler, Holland Ball Judkins, and Bowman. Today an office building.[10]
New YorkThe Ansonia1904Apartment building. For a time an apartment hotel run by Bowman Biltmore.
Hotel Belmont42nd Street from Grand Central Terminal1908Tallest hotel in the world when built. Demolished in 1939.[11]
The CommodoreDesigned by Warren & Wetmore. On the opposite side of Grand Central from the Hotel Belmont. Bought by Donald Trump in the 1970s and converted to the Grand Hyatt New York. The lower levels were gutted to their steel skeleton, retaining the original floorplan, while the exterior was covered in a modern reflective glass facade.
Murray Hill HotelPark Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets1884Demolished in 1947.[12]
The BiltmoreJanuary 28, 1919Designed by Warren & Wetmore as a part of Terminal City, a massive complex of hotels and office buildings connected to Grand Central Terminal. Home to the Grand Central Art Galleries for 23 years, founded in 1922 by John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark, and others.[13] 1942: Biltmore Conference, the meeting that produced the Biltmore Program. Closed in August 1981 by Paul Milstein, gutted to its steel skeleton, and converted to an office building.[14] retaining only the Biltmore's famous Palm Court clock.
The Roosevelt HotelSeptember 22, 1924Connected to Grand Central Terminal. Opened as a United Hotel and merged with the Bowman-Biltmore Group in 1929. Purchased by Conrad Hilton in 1948. Operated by Realty Hotel (owned by New York Central Railroad) until 1980. Then operated by the Novotel group through a lease with Pakistan Airlines.[15] Today operated by Interstate Hotels & Resorts and owned by Pakistan Airlines.
Westchester Biltmore Country ClubWestchester County, New York1922Founded by Bowman, who hired Walter Travis to design two golf courses.
OhioDayton Biltmore1929Converted into a retirement home in 1981. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Rhode IslandProvidence Biltmore1922Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
CubaSevilla BiltmoreHavana1908Bought by Bowman and Charles Francis Flynn in 1919. Featured in Graham Greene's novel Our Man in Havana (1958), where Jim Wormold joined the British secret service.[16]
Havana Biltmore Yacht & Country Club1928Managed by the Bowman Biltmore company.[17]

Planned hotels

A Detroit Biltmore was planned for the site of the Hotel Tuller on Detroit's Grand Circus Park. The Tuller was to have been demolished in 1929 and replaced by a towering 35-story, 1500 room hotel with an attached 14-story garage and 18-story office building. The plans were abandoned when the stock market crashed that year.[18]

Unassociated hotels

Florida

The Palm Beach Biltmore was not connected to the Bowman Biltmore group. It was built in 1926 as the Alba, renamed The Ambassador in 1929, and sold to Henry L. Doherty in 1933. Doherty, who had bought the Miami Biltmore two years earlier, renamed the hotel the Palm Beach Biltmore. It was later owned by Hilton Hotels, closed in the 1970s, and was converted to condos from 1979 to 1981.

Nevada

The Tahoe Biltmore Lodge & Casino, a hotel-casino in Crystal Bay, Nevada, very near the California border among the communities known as North Shore Tahoe. Opened In 1947.[19]

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Biltmore in Oklahoma City was an unassociated hotel that once stood downtown, at 228 West Grand Avenue. It was built in 1932 during the Great Depression by the city's prominent civic leaders at the time, headed by Charles F. Colcord. Designed by architects Hawk & Parr, the Biltmore had 619 rooms and was 24 stories high, making it the state's second tallest building only to the Ramsey Tower built in 1931, when it was completed. In 1936 alone, the Biltmore was headquarters for 104 conventions and saw 114,171 guests. After a $3 million renovation in the mid-1960s the Biltmore was renamed the Sheraton-Oklahoma Hotel. By 1973, the hotel had left Sheraton, and the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority agreed with the owners that the Biltmore had outlived its useful life. In contrast, architect I. M. Pei had envisioned keeping the hotel, and his sketches and models all showed the tower overlooking the surrounding "Tivoli Gardens". The hotel was one of the largest demolitions in the country at the time it was blown up on October 16, 1977 by a team of demolition specialists to make way for the "Myriad Gardens". Hundreds of low-yield explosives were planted throughout the building so that it would collapse and fall inward into an acceptable area only slightly larger than the hotel's foundation.[20][21]

References
  1. Beth Weitzman, Apr 04 - Get Healthy Getaway, Active.com. Accessed 11 July 2008.
  2. Ungermann-Marshall, Yana (2008-01-01). Flintridge. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738555850.
  3. White, Theodore H., The Making of the President 1960, Atheneum House, 1961.
  4. "Remembering The Illustrious Griswold Hotel". Groton, CT Patch. February 18, 2011.
  5. "MORE HOTELS FOR BOWMAN.; Buys Griswold, New London, and Belleview, Bellealr, Fla". The New York Times. 1919-04-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  6. tombarnes, DuPont...More Than Just Antron...Hotel DuPont, Wilmington Archived November 2, 2003, at the Wayback Machine, epinions.com, January 28, 2002. Accessed 11 July 2008.
  7. Mordock, Jeff. "Era ends as DuPont sells its hotel". The News Journal.
  8. "A brief history of Belleair". Town of Belleair. Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
  9. "History: A Storied Name In Miami Luxury Hotels, Boasting a Rich History and Tradition". Biltmore Hotel. Coral Gables, Florida. Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
  10. Atlanta Biltmore Hotel and Biltmore Apartments, Atlanta: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary. Accessed 11 July 2008.
  11. Turkel, Stanley (2009-01-01). Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry. AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781449007522.
  12. "Remembering NYC's Grandest Forgotten Hotels in Photos". ny.curbed.com. June 26, 2013.
  13. "Painters and Sculptors' Gallery Association to Begin Work". The New York Times. December 19, 1922.
  14. "article about the New York Biltmore Hotel". The New York Times. August 16, 1981.
  15. Carter B. Horsley (18 October 1981). "Novotel plans Broadway hotel on offices". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  16. Moran, John (January 14, 2005). "Tracking Down the Celts in Cuba and the Irish in Havana". Havana Journal. Archived from the original on December 22, 2005. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
  17. "Commercial Art / Art and Industry en | February 1, 1929 | page 43". magazines.iaddb.org.
  18. HistoricDetroit.org, DAN AUSTIN of. "Tuller Hotel | Historic Detroit". www.historicdetroit.org.
  19. "Tahoe Biltmore - Home". www.tahoebiltmore.com. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  20. "The Biltmore Hotel". The Oklahoma Historical Society.
  21. Edwards, Jim; Ottaway, Hal (1982). The Vanished Splendor: Postcard Views of Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City, Okla.: Abalache Book Shop Publishing Co. ISBN 9780910453004. OCLC 83586396.
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