[3] Lucius Pond Ordway had been negotiating unsuccessfully for three years to build a new modern hotel in St. Paul.

A deal was struck in 1908 when Ordway offered to finance the hotel with $1 million of his own money if the community would match the investment.

[8] Other critics highlighted the Beaux-Arts architecture and the three zones of the hotel with the first floors faced with stone, a terra-cotta midsection, and the cornice described as "gaudy" and "precipitously overhanging".

At the time of its opening, it was said the view of the Mississippi Valley, from the hotel's roof, was better than from any other location except the dome of the Minnesota State Capitol.

[5] The hotel's location at an intersection provided a dramatic view of the building when traveling west on 5th.

[1] At this time, the main entrance was moved from the east at 5th and St. Peter Streets to the west facing Rice Park.

[13] Prominent guests in the first year included then-former president Theodore Roosevelt[14] and current president William Howard Taft, who attended a meeting of the National Conservation Congress there in September to discuss future management of the nation's natural resources.

[17] Mike Malone, a United States Treasury Department official observing his activities, also rented a room.

[3] Gene Autry was a week-long guest in 1947, Luciano Pavarotti, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton stayed there as did presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960 when he spoke in the Grand Ballroom to 500 people, with an additional 17,000 in the streets outside.

[11] During their 2011 visit to Minnesota, King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway stayed at the hotel.