Oglethorpe Hotel

[4] For the town of Brunswick, the Oglethorpe was a constant source of celebration and pride in southern traditions and values.

It was built during a time of growing economic prosperity and increasing profits from global naval stores exports.

Eventually the Holiday Inn would fall too and the empty lot in Brunswick's downtown would be called the "Oglethorpe Block.

A newspaper report of the opening reads, "... all Brunswick's friends, well wishers, acquaintances and enemies as well as the world at large to come and see the house that we have built, and the prettiest and most prosperous town that the sun ever shown upon—'BRUNSWICK, THE CITY BY THE SEA'".

Many of the city's important political meetings and dinners were held in the hotel's grand dining halls.

He was an assistant secretary to the navy looking for a location to house small vessels on the Southern Atlantic coast.

The star of the film, Richard Egan even celebrated the premier in the city of Brunswick, visiting the Oglethorpe as well as local theaters.

Thousands of pieces of memorabilia, the safe, the colored tiling, anything that could be removed and carried away before the demolition began was saved.

As the surrounding downtown area fell into financial decline, eventually the Holiday Inn meet the same fate, with most of it demolished except for a small section turned into a JCPenney.

Modern restoration efforts have created a small park dedicated to the Oglethorpe in one of Brunswick's downtown squares.

Tiles from the original flooring in the Oglethorpe now reside alongside plaques describing its importance to the growth of Brunswick.

It was originally saved by S. Hadley Brown who bought it empty with a broken locking mechanism.

The first floor entered through double doors into a grand rotunda with pink, grey, and white marble tiling.

[6][12] Every floor contained firefighting equipment, including a hose that could pump 375 gallons[clarification needed] of water per minute.

[6][12] Within the courtyard, between the wings, was a park of various tropical fruit trees, palmettos, shrubs, and a water fountain.