The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with a free exhibit developed in collaboration with the Detroit Historical Museum.
The hotel was designed by architect Louis Kamper for the brothers James Burgess, Frank, and Herbert Book. They opened the 33-story Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924 with 1,135 guest rooms. For years, it was a prominent place for high-profile meetings and social events. The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit Director of Sales and Marketing Scott Stinebaugh says the hotel’s guests over the decades have included U.S. presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy) and other high-profile guests including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Lady Bird Johnson, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Danny Thomas, Errol Flynn, Joe Louis, Frank Sinatra, and others.
“It changed the whole landscape and skyline of the city when it opened,” Stinebaugh says.
The Book-Cadillac Hotel was eventually closed in 1984 and liquidated two years later. Facing demolition, it was rescued when the Ohio-based Ferchill Group took over in 2006. It reopened in 2008 as The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit following a $200 million redevelopment that created a 453-room luxury hotel and 65 upscale condos on the top floors.
“When it reopened in 2008, it kind of re-emerged as a symbol of the resurgency of the city,” Stinebaugh says. The hotel’s current owners, Oxford Capital Group and Oxford Hotels and Resorts, completed another renovation to the tune of $23 million last year.
Now, Stinebaugh says the focus is on celebrating the building’s 100th anniversary. In a room located next to Starbucks Reserve on the hotel’s main floor, visitors can peruse a collection of artifacts and photos that outline the history of the storied structure.
“We’ve got a lot of really unique items,” Stinebaugh says. “We’ve got a wedding dress from a wedding in the ’20s, a debutante dress from a debutante ball in the ‘30s, we’ve got one of the Book brothers’ original top hats—a lot of cool keys and menus and a lot of great photography that one might not have ever seen before of the early days of the hotel.
“It’s a really neat thing to take some time and walk through and learn about the history, about the parcel of land the hotel sits on, and how it came to be. When it opened it was the tallest hotel in the world. It was a really big deal,” he adds.
It was such a big deal, in fact, that it changed the vibe of Detroit’s Washington Boulevard, he adds, noting, “They called Washington Boulevard the ‘Fifth Avenue of the Midwest.’”
The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit also hosted a private party this month to commemorate its centennial, with partners including the Detroit Historical Society, Cadillac, and The Parade Company. “There are so many people who have celebrated milestones at this hotel, whether a wedding or anniversary or birthday party or special moment in their lives,” Stinebaugh says. “It’s just an iconic building.”
