Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The New Hotel Jefferson














They don't call bars and restaurants "The Rendezvous Room" or the "Club Continental" any more.  It's too bad, really.  These names have an air of elegant sophistication, or at least a little bit of intrigue about them. This is due in part to the fact that  I have always been partial to alliteration.  But it is also because there is no cynicism in these names; they weren't meant to be ironic.  The names were simply a sign of the times.

As the Mystery Sender writes, the the New Hotel Jefferson doesn't appear to exist any longer.  There are lots of "Jefferson" named places in St. Louis, but no New Jefferson Hotel.  It's a pity.  I would love to see a room that still looks like the Rendezvous Room, or make an appointment to rendezvous with someone there!

3 comments:

  1. I was ready to put on my pencil skirt and my peter pan hat and head down there to meet my clandestine lover for a drink. Hmmm, change of plans. Where will we go now?

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  2. What an elegant looking dining room... can you imagine what it would look like in candlelight! PFF thanks for stopping by!

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  3. The building which once was the Jefferson Hotel still exists on Tucker Blvd (12th St. It was originally constructed to accomodate to surge of visitors to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. An addition was built in 1928 that brought the hotel's room count up to 910. For decades, the hotel was host to a who's who list of visitors to St. Louis, including President Harry S. Truman. The 1916 Democratic National Convention also was held at the building.
    In 1975, the hotel closed and it reopened as an apartment building called the Jefferson Arms. In need of repairs and updating, the building was sold in 2006 to a developer hoping to put in retail and a theater but this never happened. It was sold again in 2008 and the new developer is converting it to loft-type apartments.

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