Look to your left and you will see a massive red brick building resting on an elegant light stone base, defined by three towering vertical sections connected by dramatic arches near the roofline. You are standing in front of the Omni William Penn Hotel.
I am so thrilled to share this place with you. Built between 1915 and 1916, this twenty three story marvel originally cost six million dollars to construct, which is roughly one hundred and eighty million dollars today. When its doors opened on March 11, 1916, newspapers across the country declared it the Grandest Hotel in the nation. The opening night gala was the biggest party Pittsburgh had ever seen, hosted by the United States Secretary of State.
If you step inside today, you can still visit the Terrace Room, a gorgeous restaurant dating all the way back to that opening year, complete with a wall length mural depicting the taking of Fort Pitt. But the stories that echo through these halls are what make it truly legendary. Imagine the sheer chaos in April 1970 when the local zoo president addressed a rotary conference inside alongside an eight month old elephant named Rani, a llama, an eagle, and a snapping turtle. Or picture the romance of 1934, when a young Bob Hope dropped to one knee and proposed to his wife right here. The brilliant hotel staff even invented the famous bubble machine later popularized by bandleader Lawrence Welk.
In 1929, an ambitious owner named Eugene Eppley financed a massive expansion that filled the entire city block. Take a glance at your app to see the magnificent interior of the grand lobby, capturing the sheer scale of the space. This expansion made it the second largest hotel in the entire world, bringing the room count to a staggering sixteen hundred. It also added a spectacular Art Deco ballroom at the very top, full of the glamorous geometric shapes and sleek lines that made the 1920s style so popular.
Music lovers, this spot is sacred ground. In the winter of 1937, the legendary Count Basie and His Orchestra held a residency in the hotel lounge called the Chatterbox. The live radio broadcast from that room became the first known recording of the Basie band with jazz icons like Lester Young and Buck Clayton. The swing music pouring out of those doors must have been absolutely electric.
Over the decades, this hotel has hosted luminaries like John F. Kennedy, as well as Harry S Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who both actually stayed here during the intense heat of their 1956 presidential campaigns. If you look at the second picture on your phone, you can see how the grand building illuminates the skyline, serving as a shining beacon of Pittsburgh history. Today, it remains a proud and award winning member of the Historic Hotels of America.
Take your time admiring the grand exterior, and head to the next stop whenever you're ready.
