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Poinsett Hotel

Coordinates: 34°50′56″N 82°24′01″W / 34.84889°N 82.40028°W / 34.84889; -82.40028
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Poinsett Hotel
Poinsett Hotel is located in South Carolina
Poinsett Hotel
Poinsett Hotel is located in the United States
Poinsett Hotel
Location120 South Main Street,
Greenville, South Carolina
Coordinates34°50′56″N 82°24′01″W / 34.84889°N 82.40028°W / 34.84889; -82.40028
Area.86 acres (0.35 ha)
Built1925
ArchitectWilliam Lee Stoddart
Architectural styleBeaux-Arts; Skyscraper[2]
MPSGreenville MRA
NRHP reference No.82003863[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 1, 1982

The Poinsett Hotel, or Westin Poinsett Hotel, is a twelve-story, landmark hotel in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, one of the first skyscrapers in Greenville. Named for Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War under President Millard Fillmore, the Poinsett replaced an earlier resort hotel, the Mansion House, built in 1824. In 1982, the Poinsett was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[3] The hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, an organization sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation intended to promote heritage tourism.[4]

Built at the end of an era during which small Southern cities demanded quality hotels to attract business travelers and symbolize their new urban status,[5] the Poinsett Hotel was, in part, conceived to accommodate visitors to a biennial Southern Textile Exhibit held in Greenville. A century-old hotel, the Mansion House, was razed and a larger building was designed for its Main Street location by noted New York architect William Lee Stoddart. To help raise money for the project, local businessmen, led by textile magnate John T. Woodside (1864-1946), sold $100 shares of stock to 1,700 local residents; and the hotel was named for Joel R. Poinsett, a South Carolinian who had served as Secretary of War and as the first U.S. Minister to Mexico.[6] Groundbreaking occurred in May 1924; and the $1.5 million Poinsett Hotel opened in June 1925.[7]

The hotel was not immediately successful—in fact, it lost $30,000 in its first year of operation and never turned a profit in its first five years—but it prospered during the latter years of the Depression under the management of J. Mason Alexander (1895-1980), who emphasized customer service. Just how Alexander brought the hotel through receivership and made the Poinsett one of the most successful and popular hotels in the South "has never been fully explained." In 1946, the Poinsett was named the best medium-sized hotel in the nation.[8] Another sixty rooms were added in 1941, bringing the total to 248.[9]

As the number of private automobiles increased during the 1950s, city hotels lost business to motels, which were located on major highways rather than in the urban core. In 1959, the Poinsett was sold to Jack Tar Hotels, and its profitability continued to decline despite renovations made in 1964 that included all new wiring, 70 new telephones, ice machines, and a swimming pool on the roof of the parking garage.[10] Ownership changed hands several times in the 1970s and '80s. Beginning in 1977, James C. Bible (1924-1991) tried to operate the hotel as residence suites for retirees, but he was perpetually at odds with city government over his inability or unwillingness to meet the fire codes.[11] The city finally closed the hotel in January 1987.[12] During the next decade the building was repeatedly vandalized, and intruders set two fires. The hotel was considered one of the most endangered historic structures in South Carolina.[13]

Nevertheless, the revitalization of downtown Greenville was already underway during the mayoral administration of Knox H. White.[14] In November 1997, Steve Dopp and Greg Lenox, developers of the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston (also designed by William Stoddart), purchased the Poinsett and acquired a franchise from Westin Hotels & Resorts. The project received about $4 million in tax dollars, and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits were awarded as part of an approximately $20 million restoration. The Westin Poinsett reopened on October 22, 2000.[15] In 2014, tripadvisor.com ranked the Poinsett first among 63 Greenville hotels.[16] A decade after the grand reopening, Knox White said that saving the Poinsett "was key to so much further growth of Greenville....People began to realize that redevelopment and historic preservation could happen, and it didn't just mean bulldoze and build modern."[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary
  3. ^ "National Register of Historic Places Nomination Continuation Sheet: Poinsett Hotel". National Park Service. Retrieved April 7, 2020. With accompanying two photos from 1981
  4. ^ "Hotel History - The Westin Poinsett". Historic Hotels of America. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  5. ^ A. K. Sandoval-Strausz, Hotel: An American History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 124-135; "Stoddart, William Lee (1868-1940)," North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary.
  6. ^ Judith Bainbridge, "Poinsett's Rebirth Recalls its History," Greenville News, October 4, 2008. Poinsett introduced the eponymous Christmas plant to the United States from Mexico in 1825. It was typical of the era to name hotels after at least passably local notables from the past. Other Stoddart hotels were named for Sir Walter Raleigh, Virginia Dare, Lord Baltimore, George Washington, George Mason, Patrick Henry, Daniel Boone, and O. Henry.
  7. ^ Archie Vernon Huff, Jr., Greenville: The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995), 307.
  8. ^ [https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/life/2020/06/20/bainbridge-hotelier-alexander-greenvilles-host-most/3190056001/ Judy Bainbridge, "Hotelier Alexander was Greenville's host with the most," Greenville News, June 20, 2020. Alexander conducted daily white glove inspections, had guests given only new bills and washed coins in change, and required service staff to memorize the names of visitors. Alexander's head chef came from Paris via New York, as did his German pastry cook.
  9. ^ David Tillinghast, "Poinsett Hotel is Valuable Greenville Home Enterprise," Greenville News, July 19, 1941. In 1941, thirty of the hotel's 200 employees had served there for more than ten years. Historic Hotels of America.
  10. ^ Bainbridge, "Hotelier Alexander."
  11. ^ Beth Padgett, "Hotel residents entreat city to overlook fire rules," Greenville News, April 8, 1981; James Epes, "Court records trace decline of Poinsett," Greenville News, September 17, 1987.
  12. ^ Historic Hotels of America. During the late 1980s, Bible and his wife Ann engaged in an unusually litigious divorce, and she eventually gained possession of the hotel. Federal court records.
  13. ^ Dale Perry, "Hotel Business owners not surprised by fire," Greenville News, August 23, 1991; David Winfrey, "Fire damages Poinsett Hotel," Greenville News, August 23, 1991; Bryan Gilmer, "From Grandeur to Disrepair," Greenville News, December 10, 1995; "Poinsett's Rebirth Recalls its History."
  14. ^ City of Greenville website.
  15. ^ E. Richard Walton, "State aid sought for Poinsett shortfall," Greenville News, November 18, 1998, page 1A; Jan Scalisi, "Harper Corporation helps restore landmark to original elegance," Greenville News, Special Edition, October 20, 2000; Woody White, "Deterioration actually made project easier," Greenville News; Jim DuPlessis, "Master Revitalizing Poinsett Plaster," Greenville News, July 4, 1998; Richard Walton, "Poinsett Hotel gets $2 million state loan," Greenville News, December 8, 1998; Richard Walton, "Hotel to unveil next step of $20 million renovation," Greenville News, September 23, 1999; Historic Hotels of America. A good summary of the renovation and reopening of the Poinsett is John Boyanoski with Knox White, Reimagining Greenville: Building the Best Downtown in America (Charleston: The History Press, 2017), 47-62.
  16. ^ Tripadvisor.com
  17. ^ Boyanoski, 62.
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