Renovated old digs pull with personality

Hotels with a past make a fresh start and woo guests with their individual style and luxury updates.

By Daniel Yee, Associated Press

Last update: November 16, 2007 - 9:23 AM

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IF YOU GO

The Ellis: 176 Peachtree St. NW., Atlanta; www.ellishotel.com; 1-404-523-5155. Introductory rate: $134 to Dec. 30.

Westin Book Cadillac Detroit: 1114 Washington Blvd., near Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit; www.ferchillgroup.com/bookcadillac.shtml. Reopening in late 2008.

The Alexis Hotel: 1007 1st Av., Seattle;www.alexishotel.com/; 1-866-356-8894. Rates start at $175 (suites from $240).

The Liberty Hotel: 215 Charles St., Boston; libertyhotel.com; 1-866-507-5245. Rates are $325-$525.

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Elaine Hernando planned to stay in one of Atlanta's big-box hotels, but when she saw the Ellis, she canceled her reservation and booked a room at the renovated historic hotel instead.

On the outside, the 15-floor hotel retains its stately 1913 architecture and a traditional open-air balcony on the second floor that was a must for elegant Southern hotels in the era before air conditioning.

Inside, however, the rooms boast 21st-century comforts, including plush beds, flat-screen TVs and even a place to play music from iPods.

"I really like boutique hotels -- we travel a lot for work," said Hernando, 30, a sales representative from Los Angeles. "I loved being there -- the windows have a really great view; the iPod dock, that was cool."

Across the country, hoteliers are seeking to breathe new life into older properties.

Detroit's Book-Cadillac Hotel -- built in 1924 -- is being restored to open late next year as the 455-room Westin Book Cadillac Detroit. In its glory years, the hotel hosted Presidents John Kennedy and Harry Truman, but it stood vacant for more than two decades before renovations began.

In Seattle, a $10 million renovation was just completed for the century-old Alexis Hotel and in Boston, the Charles Street Jail -- built in 1851 and once tagged by officials as "unfit for human living" -- is now the Liberty Hotel.

"There's a trend, generally in the travel industry, for people wanting to make every part of their trip a unique experience and I think hotels are really responsive to that by providing ... a little more personality and a unique experience," said Peter Frank, editor-in-chief of the luxury travel website concierge.com.

Frank said the renovations also provide a new look for the hotels, which are trying to attract luxury customers. Rooms in the Alexis Hotel, which was built in 1901, for example, feature stainless steel four-poster beds, rococo mirrors, 300-thread-count sheets and high-definition televisions.

Before Atlanta's Ellis underwent a $28 million renovation and reopened for business in October, the building had been unable to shake its image as the site of the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. It previously was the Winecoff Hotel, where a fire in 1946 killed 119 people.

But owner Susan Griffin said she saw the value of restoring a historic hotel on downtown Atlanta's famed Peachtree Street.

In Boston, the former jail had been abandoned for about a decade after previous attempts to use the space for offices failed.

"It's a great location at the foot of Beacon Hill, one of Boston's premier residential areas," said Gary Johnson, lead architect for the Liberty Hotel project. "Most people in Boston have never set foot in the building until now."

Keeping with the history of the space, jail cells appear in the hotel's restaurants and bars and guests pass five cells on the way to the elevators.

"Nobody's hiding the fact it was a jail. In fact, we're celebrating that," Johnson said. "The building was once a social reform place. Now it's social in the friendly sense of the word."