AD-2009: Roosevelt Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Today (thanks to an ad in the Times-Picayune newspaper) I got to the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Roosevelt Hotel. All pictures are expandable (just click).
Все фотографии кликабельны.
The Roosevelt Hotel opened in 1893 as The Grunewald (Louis Grunewald was the owner). In 1908 the part facing University Place was opened (picture to the left). In 1923 the hotel was renamed The Roosevelt Hotel in the honour of the former US President Theodore Roosevelt. The Roosevelt was acquired by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in 1965. Although officially renamed The Fairmont (at first the "Fairmont Roosevelt", later the "Fairmont New Orleans"), for decades the hotel continued to be called "The Roosevelt" by many locals. After Hurricane Katrina the hotel was closed for years. In 2007 the hotel was sold to Hilton Hotels and was restored to become The Roosevelt in the Waldorf-Astoria family of hotels. The hotel reopened to public on the 1sy of July 2009 but the official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held only today.
The ceremony was supposed to be held at the University Place entrance but due to the weather (it rained in the morning) everything was moved inside the long lobby that connects the University Place and the Baronne Street entrances. So the workers had to take away the red carpet while the honorary guests were seated inside, and any person could also enter the hotel and see the ceremony.
Nobody stopped people, whether guests of the hotel or just curious visitors like me. No one stopped me from freely wandering inside and the first thing I was offered were a paper fan (in my pocket in the picture) and a cocktail (mimosa). This was expected but still quite unusual for a Russian kind of experience. No one forbade me from taking pictures (well, I didn’t try to get to the press row or anywhere close to the mini-stage).
University Place façade details:
Entering the hotel:
At the times when it was the Fairmont Hotel, the lobby floor was covered with carpeting. I once was here in August 2005, days before Katrina. When the restoration took place in 2007, carpeting was removed and the historical mosaics were found there. They are now once again open to public:
The floor of the famous Sazerac bar:
Other interior pictures. There are actually lots of eagles on the walls both inside and outside. Somehow, when seeing these on the lobby walls in the yellow light I felt a bit like in the 1930s Germany. But then it is simply one of the symbols of the United States, and only natural in a hotel named after one of the presidents.
An authentic mailbox and a sign with the special Braille characters for the blind:
And an authentic car. It is still in use:
Baronne Street façade details:
View from under the canopy at the Baronne Street entrance:
Welcome back to New Orleans, the Roosevelt!
