HotelChatter Reports :: Hilton Makes Good on the New (Old) President Hotel

September 29, 2006 at 12:30 PM | by Tim L. | 0 Comments

[Fearless Hotel Maven Tim Leffel spends some time in Kansas City, checking out the rebirth of a roaring 20s hotel.]

We love to see an old hotel come back to life, especially when the developer manages to preserve what's great about the original structure, while bringing the rooms up to what we expect in the 21st century.

Kansas City's newest hotel, Hilton President Hotel gets it right. The elegant 1926-era lobby is full of gilded columns, carved cornices, and well, personality. Iron railings and marble extend up to the mezzanine and the refreshingly quirky meeting rooms have original flooring and replica chandeliers.

The rooms are all Hilton modern, so no sacrifices come bedtime. The original room count of 453 was cut down to 213 for the new version, but with fake doors in the hallway showing where all the original rooms were. (To give an idea of how guest expectations have changed, the original President hotel was the first in the city to be able to make ice!)

More on the New (Old) President Hotel post-click.

The developers poured some $45 million into the renovations, restoring a hotel that had been closed for 25 years. The Drum Room bar and restaurant no longer hosts the like of Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, or Patsy Cline, as it did in the old days, but you can still get a classic cocktail.

In many ways, the rebirth of The President echoes what is going on around it. Kansas City has long been known as a vibrant city with an inexplicably sleepy downtown. While many interesting old buildings have been converted to loft space condos, there's still very little to do after the office workers go home. Thankfully some developers are stepping up to change all that: construction cranes and bulldozers are are work creating a live event center, blocks of retail space, a grocery store, and more. Next month, H&R Block moves from the outskirts to downtown, into a brand new building a stone's throw from the President.

The downside of this is that there are lots of anti-views from the hotel at the moment, at least during the day. Pick a room facing east if you want to avoid the construction sites (though at night it doesn't much matter).

But hey, hearty celebrities aren't going to let a little progress get in the way. On the night of our stay, NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was celebrating his birthday in the house.

Kansas City is one of those unheralded gems for tourists. There's great barbeque of course, and it's the home of Hallmark (with the requisite visitor's center), but that's just the start. There's a quality zoo that just had an expensive upgrade and a World War I museum to be finished this December.

The excellent Nelson-Atkins Art Museum is probably the best value in the country---the world-class collection is free to visit, plus a major expansion will be completed next year. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art is also free. Too high-falutin' for you? Then go for the free Harley-Davidson "final assembly plant" tour.

Related Stories:
· Hilton President reviews [TripAdvisor]

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