Hotel Fontenelle

Hotel Fontenelle was an upscale commercial hotel once located at 1806 Douglas Street in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Designed by noted architect Thomas Rogers Kimball in the Late Gothic Revival style, it was built in 1914 and demolished in 1983. It was named for Logan Fontenelle, a well-known chief of the Omaha Tribe.

For many years it was the flagship of hotel magnate Gene Eppley's Eppley Hotel Company, which in the 1950s was the largest privately held hotel company in the US. He operated 22 units in six states. Eppley lived in the hotel after buying it in 1920, and died there in 1958. He had sold his hotel empire to the Sheraton Corporation, for thirty million dollars. The hotel remained in operation as the Sheraton-Fontenelle until 1968, at which time it became an independent, reverting to the Fontenelle name. It was abruptly closed in 1970 due to the deteriorating condition of the hotel. Many attempts were made to redevelop it, but It remained empty until being demolished in 1983, when the site became a parking lot. The site is now the parking lot of the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse.