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On a stay a few years back, to attend a special anniversary party, we stayed at the old Mayflower Park Hotel. It is situated almost perfectly, between the Nordstrom flagship store, and the old Bon Marche', then a Macy's, and now Uniqlo and office space.
Here is some information about it:
Still locally owned, the Mayflower Park
Hotel (once the Bergonian) was opened in 1927. The hotel was ritzy in its design: all lush palms, busy carpets and silk drapes. Perhaps the most significant spot is the Carousel Room (pictured). The hotel was established during Prohibition, so there were no bars to be seen, but in 1947, 14 years after nationwide Prohibition ended, the Bartell Drug Store in this spot was replaced by a quirky bar-restaurant.
With fairground horses adorning the ceiling, the Carousel Room was one of the most unique watering holes in the city. Today, the bar is known as chic Oliver's Room (pictured). Over the years, many dignitaries have stayed at the
hotel too: Franklin D. Roosevelt penned his inaugural speech here and Winston Churchill attended a state dinner here in 1945. Now the hotel is as popular with
business travelers as it is with tourists.
No doubt, the hotel needs to be refurbished or demolished, particularly in light of housing prices in downtown Seattle, thanks to Amazon, google, and Microsoft. The rooms have high ceilings, the floors creak, and the water quite slow to heat up. But it does have some old world charm, compared to the new cookie cutter hotels.
The biggest problem I encounter with older hotels is their
smell. This holds true for places like Del Coronado in San Diego, the Hay-Adams in Washington, DC, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco, The Mission Inn in Riverside, and the Brown Palace in downtown Denver. I am certain there are many, many others.
The next biggest concern would be ghosts. While I have never encountered one, I think an old hotel would be the perfect place for a ghost to live. These hotels have certainly seen their share of deaths and strange events.
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