[2] That same year, architectural students of the Savannah College of Art and Design determined that William Jay was the building's architect.

[2] He placed a "classically bordered advertisement in Joshua Shaw's United States Directory for the Use of Travellers and Merchants[6] of 1823:[3] This elegant establishment, which is entirely new with all its furniture and other arrangements, is in the centre of business and contiguous to the banks, and the post office is attached to the premises.

All the stages start from the door.In 1822, an ill-advised hotel venture on Tybee Island eventually led to Byrd falling behind on his rent to Early.

[2] In December 1828, Captain Henry W. Lubbock, who had commanded the steamboat Macon, tried his hand at shore duty and became the hotel's manager.

[2] As well as informing people that the hotel's stable could accommodate thirty horses, he also advertised that his bar was serving Vassar's Double Brown Ale on draught.

[2] The following year, Hollis drummed up business by charging admission to view a lion and lioness on display in a large cage.

[2] He also supplied the food and beverages for a hotel-sponsored dinner at the Cotton Exchange honoring John M. Berrien, attorney general of the United States.

[2] In the mid-1830s, the hotel's only real competition was from the Mansion House, a large double-piazzad wooden structure on the northwestern corner of Broughton and Whitaker Streets.

Foley was acclaimed for managing to keep the establishment open through Savannah's yellow fever epidemic in 1854, the only public house in the city that did not close.

Bonaud managed to keep the hotel doors open until just before General Tecumseh Sherman reached Savannah in his March to the Sea in 1864.

"[2] In 1825, naval commodores William Bainbridge, James Biddle and Lewis Warrenton were guests at a festive gathering, while the Marquis de Lafayette was also entertained there in March that year.

"[2] Retired British naval officer and scientist Captain Basil Hall and his wife of three years, Margaret, stayed at the hotel in 1828.

[2] John James Audubon stayed at the hotel in March 1832 after having to divert to the city when a gale forced into shore the schooner on which he was bound for Charleston.