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The
Grande Dame of Broad Street And some are down right mean |
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The
Grande Dame of Broad Street And some are down right mean |
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The Bellevue Stratford Hotel
In late July 1976, a mysterious illness began killing men who had attended an American Legion state convention in Philadelphia one week before. In all, 34 people who stayed or passed through the Bellevue Stratford Hotel when the U.S. veterans' organization met there were killed by the pneumonia-like disease, while another 221 others were sickened.
Panic set in, and state and federal authorities worked around the clock to find the cause of what became known as "Legionnaire's disease." Six months later, scientists had their answer: a bacterium they called Legionella pneumophila that thrives in hot-water systems and is spread through aerosolizing devices such as shower heads or air-conditioning vents.
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The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel |
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The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel has stood along Broad Street in Philadelphia's Center City since the early 1900s, its French Renaissance-style architecture and grandiose stature making it a landmark. Yet the elegant 19-story building, which is listed on national and local registers of historic places, is perhaps best known outside Philadelphia as the place where a mysterious and sometimes fatal disease came to light.
The Bellevue-Stratford hosted the 58th state convention of the American Legion Department of Pennsylvania July 21-24, 1976. In the days that followed the convention, the mystery disease killed 34 participants and sickened 221, all of whom had spent time at the hotel.
It is now known that legionella bacteria lurked somewhere within the hotel. Researchers still haven't identified the exact source, according to Dr. Victor L. Yu, chief of the infectious disease section at the Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Oakland.
The hotel, built from 1902-1904, closed shortly after the outbreak for rehabilitation, according to Jeff Barr, a historical research technician with the City of Philadelphia Historical Commission.
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The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel is PHILADELPHIA.
The Bellevue Stratford Hotel BUILD IN 1904, CLOSED IN 1979, REOPENED IN 1980 AS THE FAIRMONT HOTEL, ALMOST A YEAR LATER MANAGEMENT WAS CHANGED
AND IT REVERTED
FEBUARY 1986... BELLEVUE REOPENS HOTEL ATOP THE BELLEVUE THE NUMBER OF ROOMS FALL FROM 565 TO 173, 10
FLOORS HAVE BEEN CONVERTED TO OFFICE SPACE.
THE HOTEL IS NOW CALLED ................. LIFE IS FULL OF UNUSUAL HAPPENING, AND AFTER RECEIVING THE FOLLOWING EMAIL FROM A YOUNG LADY, I DECIDED THAT IT WAS TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS. I HAVE OMITTED THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION, FROM THE EMAILS RECEIVED, THE PERSON CONCERNED, THE DATE OF THE OCCURRENCE, AND THE ROOM NUMBER Your site is absolutely fabulous. I am very impressed with the quality and quantity of concrete information. I am hoping that this is an interest and you have not had close contact with the disease, but regardless, it is fabulous. Last night I stayed at the Hyatt Hotel in Philadelphia which is at the site of the Legionnaire's outbreak- Bellevue Hotel. I have stayed there several times with my parents as I am a student at the University of Pennsylvania. I am a very conservative student who demands only concrete evidence, but I believe I saw a spirit in my hotel room last night. I would like to know if there is any information available regarding issues of this sort. Additionally, is there any chance that the gentlemen would have worn tuxedos at the conference? Thank you and I apologize for the odd nature of this request. I would not be troubling you unless I felt, as I do, that the occurances in my room last evening indeed happened. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you, My Reply How much do you know about the history of the Bellevue, from the time it was built and through her dark times, and the present times, If i know how much you know, pehaps i can answer your question, it is a fascinating story, the man in the tuxedos could only be one man. I will leave it there.
The answer to my email All that I know about the Bellevue is minimally about the Legionnaires outbreak. I know that VAs gathered there for a meeting and some of the men got sick there and others felt the effects when they returned home. I don't know if any of them died in the hotel, but it seems so? It has taken me a long time to reply because this incident was so real that it has really spooked me. The event was very non-threatening. In addition, it happened after a fire drill at 3 in the morning. We stay the hotel often and it is the second time that there has been a fire alarm that forced us from the room in the early morning. The second time was at 8 am in the fall sometime. We have stayed in the same room several times... *****. I look forward to hearing from you. I then sent the young lady a great deal of information on the Bellevue-Stratford hotel I received this reply. I want to thank you for your vast supply of information. I feel like it will take me some time to read through all of the details and make sense of everything. I plan to take the story with me sometime and sit in the library of the Hyatt and read. Do you know of any butlers or maitre d's still working from the previous owners? I certainly authorize you to print my experience and publish it on your web-page, in fact, I would appreciate it. Again, thank you. I knew that the hotel had been the site of the Legionnaires disease and many other odd occurrences, but I did not know the details and I don't believe that this knowledge could have made me imagine the man that I saw. I do wonder, however, if they have installed a particularly sensitive fire-alarm system based on the history of the building. I look forward to re-reading your chronicles.
March 1, 1881
At age 30,Boldt opens his Bellevue Hotel in
Philadelphia. The building was a red brick structure to which George Boldt
added a black-slate mansard roof and decorated it extravagantly.
1880s He operated the Bullit Building Restaurant in Philadelphia. He managed the The Beach House at Sea Girt, New Jersey. He managed the Berkley Arms Hotel at Seaside Park, New Jersey.
1888
November 17, 1888
1890
HEWITT, GEORGE WATTSON ::
HEWITT, WILLIAM D. ::
SHARPLEY, WALTER
WILLIAM ::
Phineas E. Paist
The Stories for Living The Hotel One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night. "Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked. The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town. "All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out in the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night." When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me; I'll make out just fine," the clerk told them. So the couple agreed. As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you." The clerk looked at the couple and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy. Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit. The old man met him in New
York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th street. He then
pointed to a great new building there, a palace of reddish stone, with
turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky.
"You must be joking," the young man said. "I can assure you that I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth. The old man's name was William
Waldorf Astor, and the
magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young
clerk who became its first manager was George
C. Boldt.
In 1898 the Astor family hired Boldt to run the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. It was while working there that Boldt decided that Philadelphia should have a hotel of at least equal opulence and luxury.
He returned to Philadelphia and set in motion the $8 million construction project that resulted in the Bellevue Stratford hotel. It was a prodigious and dazzling achievement, described at the time as the most luxurious hotel ever built in the United States. People came merely to look upon the golden
marble in the lobby and the ornate elevators, Elevators being something
of a phenomenon at that time.
Also fascinating was its huge ballroom with
its delicate lighting fixtures designed hy 'Thomas Alva Edison.
Then in the summer of 1976 calamity struck.
September 20, 1904
THE ORIGINAL COPY OF THIS NEW YORK TIMES IS ON SHOW AT THE KRYAL CASTLE
William Waldorf Astor`s cousin dies on the Titanic John Jacob Astor (1864-1912) was a cousin of William Waldorf Astor and a great-grandson of the fur trader who founded the family fortune. An inventor and a science fiction novelist, he was also responsible for building several great New York City hotels: the Astoria (later combined with the Waldorf), the Knickerbocker, and the St. Regis. He served as a director on the boards of several major U.S. corporations, but his career was cut short when he perished in the mid-Atlantic aboard the Titanic.
BOLDT CASTLE In 1900 millionarie proprietor of the world-famous
Waldor-Astoria, George C. Boldt, planned to build a full-sized replica
of a Rhineland Castle with over 120 rooms and present it to his wife, Louise.
George C. Boldt Dreams and Loves Grand hotels live out their lives
in stages. First they have their years of opulent splendour and host presidents,
kings, famous authors and captains of industry.
The Bellevue-Stratford was the
creation of George C. Boldt, who came to the United States from Prussia
as a teenager in the 1860s. Determined to make good, he worked his way
up through the restaurant At midnight on September 19, 1904, Boldt closed the doors of the original Bellevue Hotel. At 12:01 on September 20 he officially opened the Bellevue-Stratford. With a price tag of $8 million (real money in those days), the new hotel had more than 1,000 rooms and a staff of 800, including women "whose only duty is to act as trunk packers for the women guests, and who are skilled in putting away expensive dresses without mussing them." The hotel was such a success that Boldt built an addition in 1911.
The addition being added in 1911
and Founders Restaurant.
Abstract .
The hotel's fortunes tumbled too. Modernizations in the 1940s and '50s covered up much of the building's beauty. Then, in 1976, the hotel suffered a knockout punch when 29 American Legionnaires died of a pneumonia-like illness they contracted at the hotel.
A young, working-class
girl from western New York state meets a rich Lancaster, PA businessman fourteen
years her senior at the turn of the 20th century. They fall in love, get
married, and settle in the rich farmlands of central Pennsylvania. His company
expands and eventually becomes world-famous; she enjoys only a few early years
of his success due to a debilitating illness that inevitably shortens her life.
He goes on to fame and fortune and endures the last thirty years of his life
without the one that made him smile. Sounds like an enchanting romance, novel.
The great thing about this story, though, is that it is true!
Kitty and Milton were at Atlantic City during March 1915
when he was called away on business. Kitty made arrangements to return to
Hershey. She had a new nurse drive her in a convertible. The numbness in her
limbs made Kitty oblivious to heat and cold, and she insisted on riding with the
top down. The day was cold and raw, and Kitty’s condition deteriorated with
every mile. They stopped at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, and
Milton was contacted. Kitty had pneumonia. It was two o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday, March
25, 1915 when Milton S. Hershey left the hotel room to fetch a glass of
champagne at the wife’s request. She had died by the time he returned. Milton
had not realized the precariousness of his wife’s health. True to form, Kitty
had known how ill she was, but had not told anyone, not even Milton, about it.
Full story at HERSHEY HISTORY PROHIBITION DAYS
***Bellevue.Stratford.Hotel.Prohibition.Years***
NOVEMBER 1946 The Employees of the Bellevue Straford Hotel
called a strike for more money, some 650 employees went out.
Philadelphia Past Philadelphia's last NABC, the
23rd annual Winter Championships, was held in 1949 at the Bellevue-Stratford
Hotel. "The entire eighteenth floor of the hotel will be used for the tournament,
giving plenty of space, air and light," boasted the November-December issue
of the Bulletin.
1948
Eleanor Sherwood,
former vaudevillian 1950 The Right Worshipful Grand Lodge issued a warrant on July 1st, 1850 and Shekinah Lodge No. 246 F. & A.M. was constituted on August 5th, 1850 at Philadelphia, PA., by the R.W. Grandmaster, Wil liam Whitney and the Grand Officers at Commissioners Hall, Frankford Blvd. & Master Street. Kensington Lodge No. 211 whose name is inscribed on our warrant was the sponsoring lodge. On Thursday evening October 26th, 1950 over
900 members and guests assembled in the Crystal
Ballroom of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel,
1956 When Boldt was planning the ballroom, he directed his architects to design a staircase specifically to show off ladies promenading. The yellow-marble staircase is somewhat infamous, In 1956 Main Line socialite.. Louise Schoettle
*****************Hope Montgomery Scott*****************
10/28/60 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER:
Republican Dinner Rally Bellevue Stratford Hotel, Phila.
Oddfellows hold their convention at the Bellevue, many people get sick 1974 PENNSYLVANIA (PHILADELPHIA) The convention of the Indepentent Order of Oddfellows was held in September 1974 in Philadelphia in the same hotel that hostesd the American Legion Convention two years later, Eleven cases of sever pneumonia occurred among participants and were subsequently diagnosed as Legionniares disease, The epidemiologic investigation resulted in a significant association of the disease with attendance at one convention activity in the grand ballroom at the hotel on Monday 16 September 1974 A serological survey in February and March 1977, showed that peolpe that attended the convention and became ill were more likely to have raised indirect fluorescent antibody titres than persons who had attended and remained well, The illness seen in Odd Fellows members in September 1974, was caused by the Legionnaires disease organism.
1976 Legionnaire`s Convention, 181 people get sick, 29 die The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel has stood along Broad Street in Philadelphia's Center City since the early 1900s, its French Renaissance-style architecture and grandiose stature making it a landmark. Yet the elegant 19-story building, which is listed on national and local registers of historic places, is perhaps best known outside Philadelphia as the place where a mysterious and sometimes fatal disease came to light. The Bellevue-Stratford hosted the 58th state convention of the American Legion Department of Pennsylvania July 21-24, 1976. In the days that followed the convention, the mystery disease killed 34 participants and sickened 221, all of whom had spent time at the hotel. Worlds First Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease
Epidemics:
Legionnaires' Disease President Gerald Ford was so alarmed by the threat of an epidemic that he signed the National Swine Flu Immunization Program of 1976, to ensure mass immunization for all American citizens. Legionnaires' disease:
Abstract An explosive, common-source outbreak of pneumonia caused by a previously unrecognized bacterium affected primarily persons attending an American Legion convention in Philadelphia in July, 1976. Twenty-nine of 182 cases were fatal. Spread of the bacterium appeared to be air borne. The source of the bacterium was not found, but epidemiologic analysis suggested that exposure may have occurred in the lobby of the headquarters hotel or in the area immediately surrounding the hotel. Person-to-person spread seemed not to have
occurred.
Fraser DW, Tsai TR, Orenstein W, Parkin WE,
Beecham HJ, Sharrar RG, Harris J, Mallison GF, Martin SM, McDade JE, Shepard
CC, Brachman PS,
CDC FEARED TERRORIST PLOT IN 1976 LEGION BUG OUTBREAK April 21 , 1982 Scientists probing the mysterious
deaths of 29 American Legionnaires in Philadelphia in 1976 considered the
possibility they were victims of a terrorist germ warfare attack, according
to a new book.
It was feared that terrorists killed the legionnaires as part of an effort to disrupt the nation's Bicentennial celebration, then in full swing. lt eventually was learned, however, that Legionnaire`s disease was a type of pneumonia. The CDC's fear that terrorists may have caused the epidemic resulted from ananonymous phone call that a epidemiologist received in Pittsburgh. The caller, was described as "rational and matter-of fact," gave information from a classified Army manual dealing with chemical and biological warfare. The caller named a chemical agent with side effects resembling those experienced by the sick legionnaires. Several days later, photocopies of the secret Army manual arrived at CDC.
1984 11th September JOSEPH DIGAETANO, 74, BELLEVUE BELL CAPTAIN Joseph F. DiCaetano, 74,
During the 49 years that Mr. DiCaetano
worked at the hotel, he became acquainted with countless business people,
politicians and celebrities. He was a colorful storyteller with a vibrant
personality. Mr. DiGaetano enjoyed recounting such memories as how he drank
with actor Monty Wooley, compared ailments with maestro Fugene Ormandy
and discussed literature with poet Archibald NlacLeish. He delighted in
recalling how physicist Albert Einstein once complimented him on his mind.
He also carefully preserved, as souvenirs, two personal notes of thanks
from Vice Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey, which were
delivered to his home after their visits to the hotel. Mr. DiGaetano had
a lifelong affection for racehorses, according to his daughter Patricia
Colon.
1988 March FRANCIS J. TARASEVICH, 73, HOTEL WAITER TO CELEBRITIES Francis .1. Tarasevich, 73, a waiter at the Bellevue-Stratford who for years held one of the nation's highest security ratings, died.Thursday at St. Agnes Medical Center. He lived in South Philadelphia. For more than 40 years, he saw to the care and feeding of world figures, celebrities and elected officials when they visited Philadelphia. His guests included Presidents Richard M. Nixon, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Fisenhower, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, California Gov. Ronald Reagan and Marilyn Monroe. Humphrey delighted him with a thank-you letter that said Mr. Tarasevich had given him the "best service" he had ever received. His greatest delight was Princess Grace. He had waited on the Kellys since the days when John B. was breathing new life into the moribund Democratic organization in Philadelphia. 'The Kellys, like the Kennedys, traveled and dined together. He watched Grace Kelly mature, go to Broadway and then Hollywood. When, pregnant with her frst child, she returned to Philadelphia with Prince Rainier, Mr. Tarasevich again was chosen to wait on the royal couple. Such duty kept him ander official scrutiny and brought regalar security reviews by the FBI and Secret Service. Through the years, federal agents said yesterday, he held the highest of clearances. When I.egionnaires' disease cast a pall over the Bellevue and led to its temporary closing in 1976, Mr. Tarasevich fell ill with a respiratory ailment. When he recovered, he decided he had had enough. He retired.
HOTEL ATOP THE BELLEVUE TOSSES A GALA FORMER EMPLOYEES DON'T GET REHIRED April 1,1989 Following her $100 million facelift, the grand old lady of South Broad Street threw a gala ball last night to celebrate her rebirth as the Hotel Atop the Bellevue . But before she could show her new look off to some 600 revelers, there was a face-off with former disgruntled employees of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, which closed in l986. They claim owner Ronald Rubin broke an agreement with their union by refusing to place them on the staff of his new operation. The hotel, at Broad and Walnut streets, is now being managed by Cunard Flotels and Resorts, a firm based in Great Britain. This is our turf Our agreement is with Rubin, not with Cunard, charged Robert Baker, president of Local 274, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union. He's using foreign investors as a shield, bringing a third party into play so he can break our contract," Baker said. There was no such agreement, claimed a spokeswoman for Richard I. Rubin & Company, owner and developer of the 19-story hotel and commercial complex building. And said Bellevue Managing Director Michael Duffell. We are, of course, disappointed that an outside group would attempt to disrupt this function. The decision about unions is the employees to make. We will not be persuaded by people on the street to choose for our employees. While 75 union members demonstrated in the rain, some 600 guests paid $250 each to attend the soiree and dance the night away. The reopening gala was sponsored by the Preservation Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and the Preservation Fund of Pennsylvania. To ensure they stayed robust, chefs served marinated salmon on vegetables, horseradish and dill, tournedos of beef with truffle sauce, watercress with warin goat cheese and hazelnut dressing. Mark Davis and his 17-piece orchestra provided the music. The preservationists then honored developer Rubin for the care he took in restoring the Bellevue.
December 8, 1990 JIMMY CALLOS, 76, BELLEVUE MAITRE D' In the Hunt Room at the old Bellevue Stratford hotel, the fixtures included an oval bar, a domed gold-leafceiling, and a maitre d' named Jimrny Callos. Mr. Callos, who looked like Spiro Agnew in a tuxedo, served guests at the Bellevue for more than halfa centary before he retired in I984. Jimmy, as all his guests called him, never forgot a face, or the name that went with it. He was as smooth as the martinis he served in coffee cups to diners who didn't want the world to know they were having a liquid lunch. Everybody knew Jimmy.
Mr. Callos, who waited on presidents, governors and Princess Grace, died Wednesday at Grand Strand Hospital in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. He was 76. A resident of Fort Washington, Md., Mr. Callos suffered a massive stroke while vacationing in South Carolina two days before he died. He never regained conciousness, family members said. He began his career at 17 as
a busboy at the Bellevue, where his father had been a chef. At the time,
Mr. Callos was a student at South Philadelphia high School and worked part
time.
1994 June. TRACKING CULPRIT IN OUTBREAK OF ILLNESS MORE THAN 500 FELL SICK AFTER A FUND-RAlSlNG DINNER AT THE BELLEVUE. THE CAUSE IS A MYSTERY. By all accounts, it was a night to remember. 'The food was spectacular. The guest speaker was witty. The conversations were lively among the 810 women gathered for the banquet dinner at the Bellevue. Best of all, the evening ended with rnore than $1 milliun being raised for Jewish causes. We were hearing so many rave reports as we were walking out of the Bellevue, the director of the women's division of the Federation Allied Jewish Appeal, which sponsored the May 12 fund-raising dinner. Everyone walked out of there feeling very good about the evening. But within two days, according to the Philadelphia Health Department, more than 500 women at the $48-a-plate dinner had taken to their beds or bathrooms, sickened by nausea, vomiting diarrhea, dizziness, body aches and fever. Several with underlying medical problems ended up at emergency rooms. It looked as if this could turn
out to be Philadelphia's biggest food poisoning case in many years. What
in the world could wipe out such a crowd?
Was it something as dangerous as the E. coli bacteria in undercooked Jack in the Box hamburgers that led to the deaths of four children and sickened 600 others last year? The city Health Department moved in quickly to investigate the outbreak at the Bellevue. Now after five weeks of intensive detective work, it has yet to solve the mystery, but it is closing in on a suspect. A family therapist who was among those who fell sick, said the food was great that night. I ate everything. As the calls began coming into the Hotel Atop the Bellevue on the Monday after the Thursday dinner, General Manager could feel his heartbeat quicken. "l had five calls before 9 o'clock, all from ladies who had attended the same function.
1996 BUTLER WHO INHERITED FORTUNE FOUND DEAD
Bernard Lafferty, the butler who inherited a fortune frum tobacco heiress Doris Duke, then nearly lost it over allegations he murdered her, was discovered dead in his bed yesterday. Friends staying at the yellow
Bel-Air Estates mansion he bought recently found the pony-tailed butler
when they checked his room at about 5:30 a.m. Paramedics pronounced Lafferty
dead an hour later, said Scott Carrier, a coroner's spokesman.
Lafferty was 51 , although previous press reports put his age at 49 and Miller, in Denver, Colo., said he may have been 52. Lafferty, who worked at the old
Bellevue-Strattord Hotel in Philadelphia as a waiter and later maitre d',
was named the executor of an estate now valued at $ 1 .5 billion when Doris
Duke, the only child of American Tobacco Co. founder James Buchanan Dake,
died in I993 at age 80.
Bernard Lafferty's will, filed
Wednesday in Los Angeles, left an estimated $3.5 million to the Doris Duke
Foundation, which benefits such pet causes of Ms. Duke's as the arts, medical
research and the environment.
1996 Hyatt Introduces Its First Hotel
in Philadelphia With the takeover of the
Historic Hotel Becomes The Park Hyatt Phi1ade1phia CHICAGO, IL -- December 2, 1996 Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corporation today announced that it has taken over management ofthe historic 170-room Hotel Atop The Bellevue, considered for decades the Grande Dame of Broad Street and downtown Philadelphia's most historic hotel, effective December 1 . Known by locals as "The Bellevue," the hotel is now called the Park Hyatt Philadelphia. The hotel, Hyatt's first in Philadelphia,
becomes the 13th Park Hyatt hotel worldwide. The Park Hyatt brand was launched
by Hyatt in 1980 and includes exclusive "boutiqLie" hotels in major gateway
cities of the world that cater to the individual traveler seeking a high
level of personalized service and luxury. CLirrently, there are Park Hyatt
hotels in Buenos Aires; Canberra and Sydney, Perth, Australia; Johannesburg;
Tokyo; Madrid; London; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Chicago;
and New York.
........................The Hotel Atop The Bellevue............................ Just off Broad Street in the heart
of Center City, the hotel is within walking distance of important business
destinatrons such as the new Pennsyivania Convention Center, as well as
some of Philadelphia's historical treasures, such as the Liberty Bell and
Independence Hall.
1996
Key Features Grand Ballroom is
a 2-tiered balconied meeting room with original lighting designed by Thomas
Edison,
NOW
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GrimReaper Graphic..Copyright © 1996 - 98 . Perry . All rights reserved. Copyright © 1998..All rights reserved Webmaster Denis Green
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Philadelphia's
Bellevue is one of the fortunate ones. When it opened in 1904 it was the
grandest of grand hotels, "The most magnificent hotel in this country,"
according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. By the mid-1970s the hotel had
hit bottom and was facing destruction. Today, resurrected as the Park Hyatt
Philadelphia at the Bellevue, it gives guests a glimpse of hotel life from
the turn of the century.
Included
were two "Cameo" rooms on the roof level,
........
.
