US GRANT HOTEL ON TRACK TO REOPEN IN NOVEMBER
San Diego Daily Transcript
Thursday, August 31, 2006
The US Grant Hotel at 326 Broadway will reopen Nov. 1 after more than 18 months of closure for a $52 million renovation project.
The US Grant, which opened in 1910 and was built by Ulysses S. Grant Jr. to honor his Civil War hero father, closed in January 2005 to begin renovations. The revamped 272-room hotel will debut as a member of Starwood Hotels & Resort Worldwide Inc.'s Luxury Collection, comprised of more than 75 properties. The hotel is owned by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, having been purchased for $45 million in 2003.
The 11-story hotel is being renovated to emphasize its circa 1910 origins, including the addition of wrought iron exterior lights, third-floor rooftop gardens and the restoration of the original entrance on Fourth Avenue, according to Starwood.
Nine-foot ceilings, crown molding, imported custom wool carpets, and rich white-on-white Italian linens are featured in each room. Native American art decorates each foyer and bath and works by French artist, Yves Clement, have been blended into the wall moldings above each bed.
Bathroom appointments include stone counter vanities, basin sinks and marble showers. Guestrooms on the 11th floor and specific suites have been specially designed to accommodate in-room Spa Services.
When completed, the hotel wil offer 270 guest rooms, including 47 suites; 33,000 square feet of ballroom and a special even space; and a new version of the Grant Grill and Lounge.
According to Starwood, Sycuan's purchase of the hotel represents an ancestral tribute to their legacy as it was President Ulysses S. Grant, who in 1875 passed an Executive Order setting aside 640 acres of land in Dehesa Valley in East County for the Kumeyaay Tribes and granted them sovereignty.
Earlier this month, the US Grant re-buried a time capsule first placed in the hotel around the time it opened.
A black briefcase filled with digital annals that chronicle the history and heritage of the US Grant was placed between the basement ceiling and lobby floor of the old hotel on Aug. 3.
In addition to more modern artifacts, the case will also contain items originally put in a time capsule under the hotel in 1907, including a typed and signed letter from the hotel’s developer Ulysses S. Grant Jr. and personal photographs from his family, newspaper clippings; documents from the hotel’s master architect, Harrison Albright of Los Angeles and other materials related to the hotel.
The black brief case containing these items was found in a house in Riverside last year. The bag was apparently recovered twice, in 1953 and 1979, and contains items from those years as well. It’s unclear how the bag ended up in Vera Haache’s Riverside home, but she returned it to the Sycuan Band, who said they will put items from their own heritage in the capsule as well.