The building housed 200 rooms and opened in December 1893 to be ready for the 1894 New Orleans Mardi Gras season.

As early as 1900, Grunewald began plans and eventually construction of an 'Annex' tower on the University Place side of the block.

The lobby of the Annex featured a large Italian Marble staircase which reached an overlooking mezzanine level of the hotel.

The Cave was designed to mimic a cavern complete with waterfalls, stalactites, glass topped tables and statues of gnomes and nymphs.

He retained ownership of the hotel until early 1923 when, on his doctor's advice, he sold all of his business interests.

In 1923, Theodore Grunewald sold the hotel to a business group headed by Joseph, Felix, and Luca Vacarro.

The group was headed by Seymour Weiss who had started his career at the hotel as the barber shop manager.

On December 31, 1935, the Blue Room opened and was, for decades, the premiere music venue in the city.

The performers in the earlier years of the Blue Room included Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Sammy Kaye, and Guy Lombardo.

Its mahogany bar, walnut-paneled walls, and Paul Ninas murals are still a focal point of the hotel.

Senator, Long used a 12th-floor suite at the hotel as his Louisiana headquarters and effective New Orleans residence.

[4] He was known to imbibe Ramos gin fizzes and even had Sam Guarino, the head bartender, flown up to the New Yorker Hotel in New York City to teach the staff how to make them.

As a sign of his marketing genius, Weiss announced through the news media that the new bar would abolish the previous 'men-only' house rule and admit women.

In 1954, the Shell Building was completed on Common Street, and Weiss negotiated to lease seven floors.

[5] In an effort to ease the transition, the Swigs first changed the name to the Fairmont-Roosevelt and then eventually to the Fairmont New Orleans.

One of the store fronts on Baronne Street that originally housed the coffee shop became Bailey's.

[6] On August 24, 2007, Sam Friedman, a son of the late Louisiana State Senator Sylvan Friedman of Natchitoches Parish,[7] of Dimension Development Company from Natchitoches, Louisiana, announced the purchase of the Fairmont Hotel by First Class Hotels for $17 million from the owners, Roosevelt Ventures, LLC.

The other store front on Baronne Street was converted into the Roosevelt Emporium, the hotel's gift shop.

The rooftop tennis courts that the Fairmont had were removed and a brand new pool deck was constructed with shower facilities, a bar and kitchen.

[8] The Roosevelt Hotel reopened to the public at 3:00 PM on July 1, 2009, with a ribbon cutting in the main lobby by the ownership group represented by Alan Rose, Sam Friedman, Jack Guenther, Neil Freeman, and Lod Cook.

The total meeting space is over 68,000 square feet (6,300 m2) with multiple rooms across three floors of the hotel.