Hotel John Marshall
| Hotel John Marshall | |
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early postcard view of the building
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| General information | |
| Status | residential apartment building |
| Location | Richmond, Virginia |
| Address | 101 N. 5th Street |
| Coordinates | 37°32′29″N 77°26′19″W / 37.54139°N 77.43861°W |
| Opened | October 30, 1929 |
| Renovated | 2011 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Marcellus E. Wright Sr. |
| Website | |
| johnmarshallresidences |
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The Hotel John Marshall, first opened in 1929, was one of the leading hospitality establishments in downtown Richmond, Virginia. After the hotel closed in 2004, the building was renovated into upscale residential apartments that opened in December 2011.
The Hotel John Marshall, located on Fifth Street between Franklin and Grace in downtown Richmond, Virginia, opened on October 30, 1929, the day after the Wall Street Crash. The opening night ceremony included dinner for 600 guests, amongst which were both the City Mayor, J. Fulmer Bright, and the Virginia Governor Harry F. Byrd.
The hotel’s construction was funded by businessman Thomas Gresham, of the Richmond Hotels, Inc., to which hotel group The John Marshall originally belonged. Architect Marcellus E. Wright Sr., who had studied at The Philadelphia School of Applied Art, designed the 16-story building in a neoclassical style with touches of deco and Moorish ornament. It cost $2 million to build, and the general contractor was Wise Granite and Construction Co. With 418 guest rooms, 500 bathrooms, 2 restaurants in ballrooms in the lobby and a roof garden ballroom on the 16th floor, it was the largest hotel in the state when it opened. It is said that the name was chosen by a suggestion contest, with the winning name paying tribute to Chief Justice John Marshall, whose house, now a museum, sits only a few blocks away.
When the hotel opened, it advertised itself as “The Finest Hotel in the South”: from radio outlets every room, a private switchboard manned by the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., to the rooftop garden ballroom, it was considered both modern and luxurious.
The height of the hotel’s prestige was in the 1940s, when it had a staff of 400 (nearly one employee per guest room) and fed some 1,500 people a day in its restaurants. It had even begun attracting some permanent residents. During this time, the rooms, at $3/night, were more expensive than The John Marshall’s chief competitors, The Jefferson or the now-demolished Richmond Hotel, which rented for $2/night.
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Wikipedia