St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans

[1] One of the first of the great hotels of the United States, the original Grecian palace-style building, opened in 1837, has been described by author Richard Campanella as "one of the most splendid structures in the nation and a landmark of the New Orleans skyline".

It had a neoclassical front, capped by a tall, white cupola, second in size to only the dome of the Capitol at Washington.

[3] Center with the cupola was a projecting portico of six Corinthian columns, from which a flight of marble steps led to the hotel.

From the saloon a grand spiral staircase continues up to the dome, with a gallery stretching around it on each of the upper stories.

The dome was 46 feet (14 m) in diameter, surmounting an octagon building elevated upon an order of fluted columns.

[4] In 1878, the St. Charles Hotel Company, who owned it, made $100,000 worth of improvements to the building, which thoroughly modernized it and gave it additional rooms.

One author mentions that this building had "strings of colored lights" along its "mezzanine balcony", and contained trees in the hotel lobby.

The 1956 Sugar Bowl after-game dinner banquet was hosted here with civil rights icon Bobby Grier.