Eppley Hotel Company

The Eppley Hotel Company was located in Omaha, Nebraska. At the time of its acquisition by the Sheraton Corporation in 1956, it was the largest privately held hotel business in the United States.[1]

Eppley Hotel Company
TypePrivately held
IndustryHospitality
Founded1917
FounderEugene C. Eppley
Headquarters
Omaha, Nebraska
,
United States

About

Owned by hotel magnate Eugene C. Eppley, the company was established in 1917. There were 22 hotels spread across six states.[2]

Properties

The 22 hotels in the Eppley Hotel Company's portfolio included Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel, the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky and Hotel Fontenelle in Omaha, Nebraska.

Other properties included the West Hotel in Sioux City, Iowa, which was built in 1903 and became part of the Eppley chain of hotels in the mid-1930s. The West Hotel was razed in 1953.

Sioux City's Warrior Hotel was built in 1930. Eppley built the Warrior in 1929 with the Grand Opening being December 20th 1930. Eppley Hotels sold the Warrior to the Sheraton Corporation of America in 1956.[3]

Omaha's Hotel Fontenelle was built in 1914. An exquisite venue, the Fontenelle hosted dignitaries and luminaries of all sorts, including Presidents Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. After Eppley sold it to the Sheraton corporation, the hotel eventually went to ruins, closing in the 1970s. It was demolished in 1983.

In 1927, Eppley commissioned four murals by Grant Wood for his hotels in Council Bluffs, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Sioux City. The original piece painted for Eppley's Martin Hotel dining room in Sioux City, one of the Corn Room series, is now located in the Sioux City Art Center.[4]

The Hotel Fontenelle, located from 1915 to 1983 in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska.
Hotels in the Eppley chain
Name City Notes
Hotel Norfolk Norfolk, Nebraska
Hotel Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska
Hotel Capital Lincoln, Nebraska
Hotel Lindell Lincoln, Nebraska
Hotel Fontenelle Omaha, Nebraska Built in 1914, this hotel was Omaha's prominent hotel for more than 50 years. It was demolished in 1983.
Hotel Rome Omaha, Nebraska
Logan Apartment Hotel Omaha, Nebraska
Hotel Cataract Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Hotel Carpenter Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Hotel Warrior Sioux City, Iowa
Hotel Martin Sioux City, Iowa
Hotel West Sioux City, Iowa
Hotel Tallcorn Marshalltown, Iowa
Hotel Chieftain Council Bluffs, Iowa
Hotel Lafayette Clinton, Iowa
Hotel Montrose Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Hotel Magnas Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Hotel Seelbach Louisville, Kentucky
Hotel Fort Pitt Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Hotel William Penn Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Hotel Alexandria Los Angeles, California
Elms Hotel Excelsior Springs, Missouri

Merger

Eugene Eppley sold the company to Sheraton Hotels in 1956 for $30 million. The hotel chain's sale was, at the time, the second largest hotel sale in United States history.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Closing the Gap", Time magazine. June 4, 1956. Retrieved 2/3/08.
  2. "Closing the Gap", Time magazine. June 4, 1956. Retrieved 2/3/08.
  3. Take a step back in time: Nebraska Street walking tour. Archived 2008-02-08 at the Wayback Machine Sioux City Museum. Retrieved 2/3/08.
  4. "Introduction", Sioux City Art Center. Retrieved 2/2/08.
  5. "Closing the Gap", Time magazine. June 4, 1956. Retrieved 2/3/08.
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