Qualla: The Roosevelt New Orleans

The Roosevelt New Orleans: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit None listed., Public domain. In 1964, novelist Arthur Hailey checked into a grand New Orleans hotel and stayed for two months. What he observed there -- the politics, the personalities, the invisible machinery that keeps a great hotel running -- became the raw material for his bestselling novel Hotel. The building that inspired him had already lived several lives by then, and it would live several more. Originally opened in 1893 as the Hotel Grunewald by a German immigrant whose music hall had burned down three decades earlier, the property on Baronne Street has been renamed four times, survived two catastrophic storms, served as the unofficial Louisiana headquarters of one of America's most powerful and controversial politicians, and hosted Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Guy Lombardo in its legendary Blue Room. Today it operates as The Roosevelt New Orleans, a Waldorf Astoria property, having come full circle to reclaim the name it carried from 1923 to 1965.

Image: None listed. | Public domain

The Roosevelt New Orleans: A Cavern Beneath the Chandeliers

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Photographer not credited., Public domain. Louis Grunewald built his 200-room hotel to be ready for the 1894 Mardi Gras season, and his timing was impeccable -- the St. Charles Hotel, the only other major hotel in the city, burned down shortly after the Grunewald opened. By 1908, Grunewald had added a 14-story Annex tower...

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The Roosevelt New Orleans: The Kingfish's Parlor

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pburka, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Vacarro business group bought the hotel in 1923, they renamed it The Roosevelt in honor of Theodore Roosevelt, whose Panama Canal had been an economic windfall for New Orleans. The man who truly defined the Roosevelt era, however, was Seymour Weiss -- a former barber sho...

Image: Pburka | CC BY-SA 4.0

The Roosevelt New Orleans: Storming the Sazerac

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOLAskip, CC BY-SA 3.0. On New Year's Eve 1935, Weiss opened the Blue Room, which became the premier music venue in New Orleans for decades, hosting acts like Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Sammy Kaye, and Guy Lombardo. In 1938, the Main Bar opened with its mahogany counter, walnut-paneled walls, and mural...

Image: NOLAskip | CC BY-SA 3.0

The Roosevelt New Orleans: Drowned and Reborn

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Not credited., Public domain. The Swig family purchased the hotel in 1965 and rechristened it the Fairmont, modernizing the property over the following decades. Then Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. The Fairmont New Orleans closed indefinitely, and repair work stalled in 2007 when damage estimates pro...

Image: Not credited. | Public domain