Hotel Stratford, Hotel in den Vereinigten Staaten
Hotel Stratford is a commercial and residential building constructed in 1909 and designed by the St. Louis firm Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, located in downtown Alton, Illinois. The structure features a reinforced concrete frame with dark red-brown brick walls divided into two connected sections, with the northern wing containing five stories of guest rooms and the southern portion housing kitchen and dining facilities.
Originally built as Hotel Illini in 1909, the building was renamed Hotel Stratford in 1925 by new owner E.J. Lockyer. The property earned recognition on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and remains the only pre-1950 hotel still operating in Alton.
The Hotel Stratford took its name in 1925 from a new owner who admired William Shakespeare, reflecting cultural tastes of that era. The rooftop ballroom hosted weddings and social gatherings for local society, making it a center of community life for decades.
The property sits on Market Street in downtown Alton, with access via ground-level entrance and a historic manual electric Otis elevator system still intact from earlier decades. Visiting the building requires awareness that it is currently undergoing restoration to meet contemporary safety codes and standards.
The building served as a filming location for the 1998 Hollywood film 'The Big Brass Ring' starring William Hurt and Miranda Richardson, directed by Saint Louis filmmaker George Hickenlooper. The classical architecture provided an authentic backdrop for the production.
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