When we come out of our involuntary hibernation, you may well be eager to get outdoors and start road tripping again.
No one knows what to expect — brave new world, renaissance or something else — but surprises can be pleasant. Case in point: overnight lodging that used to be something quite different than what it is now.
Closest to home are Milwaukee’s Brewhouse Inn and Suites, a 90-unit hotel on the original Pabst brewing campus, and the Iron Horse Hotel, a former bedding factory and warehouse. At the Brewhouse Inn is a row of copper tops from long-ago brewing kettles and a five-story atrium. The Iron Horse, which reopened in June, has 300-year-old pine beams and wrought iron chandeliers.
In Madison, the pet-friendly and 144-room Hotel Indigo is inside the former Mautz Paint Company; splashes of color at the hotel’s Palette Bar and Grill acknowledge the backstory. So do hallway murals.
The Charmant Hotel in downtown La Crosse was an 1898 candy factory that has become a 67-room boutique property. The hotel’s Sweets Bar sells handmade chocolates.
Elsewhere in the Midwest are buildings repurposed into additional examples of unique accommodations. Overnight rates at most include free bicycle rental. (The Last Hotel is an exception.)
Davie School Inn, Anna, Ill.: A sturdy 1910 school recently turned into bed and breakfast lodging. Décor in some of the 11 suites plays up the building’s original purpose. Original classroom chalkboards, bookcases and hardwood floors remain. Furnishings match themes, most of which concentrate on a school subject (math, art, geography, earth science, history). Innkeepers also decorate with items bought from travels to India. Rates include a hot breakfast delivered to your room.
Anna is 20 miles south of Carbondale and nearly surrounded by the hiking and biking trails of the Shawnee National Forest. Giant City State Park and the Shawnee Wine Trail are within 15 miles. Within 10 miles west is the Great River Road.
Detroit Foundation Hotel, Detroit: The longtime headquarters for the Motor City’s fire department in 2017 was converted into an upscale but pet-friendly, 100-room hotel. The Apparatus Room at ground level — a combo restaurant, bar, lounge and performance space — is the best place to visualize the building’s former life. Look for the original fire pole and tall, arched doorways for firetrucks to come and go.
Popular on Saturdays, except winter: The Eastern Market, 43 acres of farm vendors and other hometown retailers. Many murals add vibrant hues outside of buildings here and elsewhere.
Hewing Hotel, Minneapolis: In 1897, trains stopped inside the building’s basement to pick up farm equipment for delivery throughout the rural Midwest. Now the brick and timber warehouse (a reference to building materials, not inventory) contains 138 hotel rooms and is dog friendly. Photos and other artwork by Minnesotans are plentiful, as are the property’s original pine beams. Take in cityscapes from the rooftop patio, sauna or spa pool.
The hotel’s North Loop neighborhood is next to downtown Minneapolis, easily accessible by light rail.
Hotel Grinnell, Grinnell, Iowa: Inside a revamped 1921 junior high school are 52 rooms and suites designed for couples (with heated tubs for two) to groups (10-bed bunk rooms). Room keys look like a hall pass. Accommodations, which used to be classrooms, are furnished with original art and iron beds made locally. The Periodic Table is the hotel bar, musicians perform in the former auditorium and the ballroom used to be the gymnasium. (The school’s old scoreboard hangs in a lounge.)
Grinnell, 60 miles east of Des Moines, has more locally owned restaurants and diversions than the average town of 9,100 because of Grinnell College, a private liberal arts school, whose grads include musician Herbie Hancock. Pella, 35 miles south, shows off its Dutch pride in architecture, museums, shops, food and festivals.
The Last Hotel, St. Louis: Open since late 2019, in a former shoe factory, is a 142-room hotel with an 11th floor, rooftop swimming pool (built for year-round use) and lounge. The original marble and terrazzo floors, ornate columns and bronze light fixtures remain. Leather, a nod to shoe making, is a favored decorating material.
The hotel is in the city’s historic Garment District and next to the four-story City Museum, where shoelaces still are made. But the bigger reason to visit the museum when it reopens is its eclectic funhouse, a mix of art and repurposed places to slide and climb, from ground to roof. Also downtown: Gateway Arch National Park and the National Blues Museum (where you can make your own music).
Under an overhaul this year but not yet open are these additional properties that will include hotels:
Bottleworks Hotel, Indianapolis: Expansions to a century-old Coca-Cola bottling plant made it the biggest in the world by 1949. The art deco style of the complex, in the Mass Ave neighborhood, is turning into a mix of retail, culinary and entertainment venues. The project will include a 140-room hotel, in the former administrative building.
Hotel Millwright, Amana, Iowa: Part of a long-ago textile mill — the only one left in Iowa — is turning into a pet-friendly, 65-room hotel with conference center within an eight-acre woolen mill compound. The area is part of Amana Colonies, seven historic communities that were settled by Germans who were self-sufficient and lived communally for 80 years. The area is 25 miles northwest of Iowa City.
Longaberger Basket, Newark, Ohio: The shuttered headquarters for basket maker Longaberger Company is a building shaped like an enormous picnic basket. The 1997 building is being transformed into a hotel. Newark is 40 miles east of Columbus. Stay tuned to explorelc.org.
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June 09, 2020 at 08:22PM
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Stay in a repurposed candy factory and more historic buildings at these Midwest hotels - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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