page_title: Seelbach Hotel
section_title: 1925–2009
hierarchical_section_title: Seelbach Hotel / History / 1925–2009
caption_attribution_description: English: 4th St, one of the crossroads that The Seelbach sits on, in 1910.
context_page_description: The Seelbach Hilton is a historic hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, founded by Bavarian-born immigrant brothers Louis and Otto Seelbach. It opened in 1905 as the Seelbach Hotel, envisioned by the Seelbach Brothers to embody the old-world grandeur of European hotels in cities such as Vienna and Paris. To do so in early 20th century Louisville, they employed a French Renaissance design in constructing the hotel. Louis was already a restaurant owner in Louisville when his brother Otto joined him from Germany around 1890, forming the Seelbach Hotel Co. The company began construction on the hotel in 1903.
  The hotel was quickly regarded among the finest hotels in the United States and throughout its long history has been frequented by many notable Americans—for instance F. Scott Fitzgerald, who took inspiration from the Seelbach for a hotel in The Great Gatsby. The hotel is part of the Hilton Hotels & Resorts chain.
context_section_description: In 1925, Louis, president of the Seelbach Hotel Co., died, creating a need for new management.  On April 1, 1926, Chicago-based businessman Abraham M. Liebling bought the hotel for approximately $2.5 million. In 1929, he sold the hotel to the Eppley Hotel Company for $2 million. Mr. Eppley, of Omaha, Nebraska, owned many hotels throughout the Midwest, but eventually sold The Seelbach Hotel and all his other properties in 1956 to Sheraton as part of a $30 million deal. This made the Seelbach part of the second largest hotel sale in all of US history. The hotel became the Sheraton-Seelbach Hotel, but its name was soon shortened to just the Sheraton Hotel. Sheraton sold the hotel, along with seventeen other aging properties, to Gotham Hotels in 1968 and it regained its original name. Following a severe national economic slump in 1975, it closed after the owners went bankrupt.
  In 1978, Louisville native and Hollywood television actor, Roger Davis, bought the Seelbach. Restoration work began in early 1979 and continued until the grand re-opening on April 12, 1982. National Hotels Corporation, a subsidiary of Radisson Hotels and DoubleTree Hotels managed of the property which had regained much of its former reputation.
  The hotel has changed hands a number of times after its re-awakening. When MeriStar Hospitality Corp bought the hotel in 1998 and it became The Seelbach Hilton. The Seelbach was, by 2009, jointly owned by Interstate Hotels & Resorts and Investcorp and operating under the Hilton flag.  In 2009, the hotel finished a renovation at a cost of $12 million.
caption: 4th St, one of the crossroads that The Seelbach sits on, in 1910
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