There was a time when the name said it all: In New York, New York, it was the Waldorf. In San Francisco, California, it was the Fairmount. In Atlanta, Georgia, it was the Winecoff. In McAllen, Texas, it was Casa de Palmas. And in Garden City, Kansas, it was the Windsor.

These names quite simply represented "the place". It was THE place to stay, THE place to have dinner, THE place to have a wedding. They represented unsurpassed quality in reputation, service and architecture. And as important, they represented the community's sense of arrival - a first class place for visitors to stay, for residents to socialize. In today's vernacular, these hotels then were the grand dames of the communities.

Sadly, the aging grand dames have had a poor survival rate. Beginning with the Depression and into the postwar America, these hotels were less grand dames and more like aging dinosaurs. With elaborately designed spaces, to stay on top, these hotels required a steady influx of money to keep them running. Maintenance and upkeep is expensive and the maintenance of expensive settings is even more expensive. Yet, the go-go years of the 1920s seduced many hotel owners to refinance their properties to ...