The Roosevelt Hotel (New Orleans, Louisiana)

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123 Baronne Street
New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 648-1200
www.therooseveltneworleans.com/

The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans was built by Louis Grunewald, a German immigrant, and opened in 1893 as "The Grunewald". After various expansions it was purchased by a group of New Orleans investors and renamed "The Roosevelt Hotel" (in honor of late former president Theodore Roosevelt) in 1923.

The long-time manager in that era was Seymour Weiss, a confidant of U.S. Senator and Louisiana Governor Huey Long who had a 12th-floor suite. During the 1930s, when he was a U.S. senator, Long used a suite at the Roosevelt as his Louisiana headquarters and effective residence when he was physically in Louisiana.

The Roosevelt was acquired by First Class Hotels in 1965. Although officially renamed The Fairmont, for decades the hotel continued to be called "The Roosevelt" by many locals.

When it was the Grunewald Hotel it hosted "The Cave", considered by some the first nightclub in the United States. It featured waterfalls, stalactites, and chorus girls dancing to Dixieland jazz. As the Roosevelt, a new night club, "The Blue Room", was opened and was long a well known venue of nationally touring musical acts.

The Fairmont was known for the Sazerac Bar and the Sazerac Room for the finest dining. The main lobby area was elaborately decorated each Christmas season, and many locals made visiting the Christmas display part of their yearly holiday tradition.

The Fairmont New Orleans was damaged in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and closed indefinitely. In 2007, First Class Hotels began remodeling the 504-room 135-suite luxury hotel as part of Hilton's Waldorf-Astoria line. On reopening of the hotel in 2009, the owners reverted the name of the hotel to the "Roosevelt" title it had held from 1923 to 1965.