Seelbach Hotel - History

History

Louis Seelbach and his brother Otto came from a family in a small, rural town in Bavaria. Emigrating from Germany in 1869 at age 17, Louis Seelbach arrived in Louisville shortly after reaching the United States. He worked for the original Galt House for a time upon his arrival, but after turning 22 in 1874, he realized that his ambitions lay beyond that job. He proceeded to open the Seelbach Bar & Grill that same year, and it quickly became a great success. When coupled with the quickly expanding Louisville population and economy, the success of the restaurant allowed Louis Seelbach to bring his brother Otto over from Frankenthal, Germany to help him open the first Seelbach Hotel. They opened it in 1891 above the Seelbach Bar & Grill on 6th and Main.

The brothers were intent on building Louisville's first grand hotel: a hotel worthy of the opulence present in hotels in Europe. The Seelbachs purchased a piece of property on the corner of 4th and Walnut (now Muhammad Ali Blvd) Streets, broke ground in December 1903, and opened the doors on May 1, 1905, just in time for the Kentucky Derby.

On the opening day, over 25,000 people visited the hotel. The Seelbach hosted a gala that evening, throwing dinner parties in every one of the 150 rooms. The structure incorporated marble from Italy, Germany and France, along with wood from the West Indies and Europe.

The hotel attracted a great number of people in its first two years, and, luckily, the Seelbach Realty Company – formed in 1902 before the property purchase – had been planning from opening day to expand the hotel. On January 1, 1907, the second phase was completed, raising the number of rooms to 500. The lower two floors of the ten-story structure were constructed with stone, while the upper floors were brick. The rooftop garden was also enclosed at this time to make it functional as a winter garden as well. This new and improved Seelbach regularly hosted guests of the Kentucky Derby.

In 1925, Louis Seelbach died while president of the Seelbach Hotel Co., creating a need for new management. On April 1, 1926, Chicago-based businessman Abraham M. Liebling bought the hotel for approximately $2,500,000.

In 1929, the hotel was sold to the Eppley Hotel Company for $2,000,000. Mr. Eppley, of Omaha, Nebraska, owned many hotels throughout the Midwest, but eventually sold The Seelbach Hotel and all his other properties in 1956 to the Sheraton Hotel Corporation (now Sheraton Hotels and Resorts) as part of a $30,000,000 deal. This made the Seelbach part of the second largest hotel sale in all of US history. The hotel was then renamed the Sheraton-Seelbach Hotel.

The hotel was sold by Sheraton in the mid 1970s, and following a severe economic slump in the nation in 1975, it was forced to close its doors after its owners went bankrupt. For a few years, it lay dormant. Then, in 1978, Louisville native and Hollywood television actor, Roger Davis, decided to intervene and restore the Seelbach. The work began in early 1979 and continued until the grand re-opening on April 12, 1982. The Hotel regained much of its former reputation over the next two decades.

In 2009, the hotel finished its most recent $12 million renovation. The hotel was bought and sold by a number of corporations' hands after its re-awakening. The Seelbach is currently managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts, under the Hilton Hotels and Resorts flag. Hilton is a subsidiary of The Blackstone Group — it is the parent company of Hilton Worldwide — which bought out MeriStar Hospitality Corp in 2005, one of the former owners of the Seelbach.