The Russell House (Detroit - 1871, 1874, 1883)
Photo Courtesy Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection
Status: Building demolished in 1906.
Located on the edge of Campus Martius at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Cadillac Square, The Russell House hotel grew with the city of Detroit in the second half of the nineteenth century. The hotel’s owners commissioned numerous additions, remodels, and redecoration projects in short succession. The Wm. Wright Co. played a role in at least three of these in 1871, 1874, and 1883.
In 1871, Wright artisans decoratively painted the walls and ceilings of the hotel office and entrance hall in delicate colors and redecorated the cozy reading room. Three years later, the office, halls, and a gentlemen’s parlor were refreshed, with particular attention paid to the latter. Called “the most elaborately decorated room in this city,” the parlor featured a new Wilton carpet, crimson window treatments, and new wall decorations. “The exquisite and harmonious blending of the many colors and shades cannot be described on paper . . .” The [Detroit] Free Press proclaimed. Then, in 1883 the Wright Company returned, having been hired to cover up their previous work by hanging European style wallpaper in the office and halls of the Russell House.
Sources: The [Detroit] Free Press. July 2, 1883.
“The Russell House.” The [Detroit] Free Press. February 10, 1871.
“The Russell House Improvements.” The [Detroit] Free Press. May 7, 1874.
VanDyne House (Lansing - 1886)
Photo Courtesy Capital Area District Libraries Local History, Forest Parke Library and Archives.
Status: Building no longer stands, demolished in 1931.
The Wright Company’s work on the Michigan State Capitol naturally increased the company’s visibility in Lansing and led to other commissions. These likely helped fill the gaps between the spates of Capitol work, which started and stopped to accommodate the functions of government and special events.
In May of 1886 artisans from the William Wright Co. painted the dining room of the VanDyne House, a hotel and boarding house situated on South Washington Street. The project was part of a larger expansion and redecoration intended to update the Italianate building.
Sources: The [Lansing] State Republican. May 29, 1886.
The Cadillac Hotel Cafes (Detroit - 1902)
Photo Courtesy Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection
Status: Building was demolished in 1923 for the construction of the Book-Cadillac Hotel.
From 1888 to 1923, the corner Washington Blvd. and Michigan Ave. was home to the high-class Cadillac Hotel (where the famous Detroit businessmen, the Book brothers, were born). Like many hotels, the Cadillac featured multiple places to grab a drink or enjoy a meal. In the summer of 1902 two cafes – one intended for women and mixed parties, the other exclusively for men – opened for the enjoyment of hotel guests and local residents who enjoyed dining out.
The William Wright Co. decorated and furnished the café intended for women with mauve-colored silk damask on the walls, plush rose carpets, and gold chairs bearing rose velvet upholstery, upon which was embroidered the Hotel’s crest. A marble fountain from Rome bubbled nearly, while light burned from Renaissance-inspired sconces, bounced off gold-framed mirrors, and shone through large windows trimmed with decorative grills and silk and velvet window hangings.
In contrast, the Wright Co. outfitted the men’s café in walnut with dark green velvet on the walls. Dark green carpeting, tables, “comfortable” chairs, and English prints finished the space, which “will undoubtedly be a source of enjoyment to the many gentlemen who enjoy the hospitality of this café,” The [Detroit] Free Press prophesied.
Sources: “Cadillac’s New Cafes.” The [Detroit] Free Press. July 6, 1902.
The Wayne Hotel Dining Room (Detroit - 1905)
Photo Courtesy Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection
Status: Building demolished in 1931.
Dining out was often a costly and rare experience at the beginning of the twentieth century. Those lucky enough to patronize the Wayne Hotel’s dining room following its 1905 renovation, enjoyed French Renaissance-inspired décor by the William Wright Company. The room gleamed with old mahogany woodwork and furniture, Italian marble floors, and chandeliers and sconces crafted from old bronze and crystal. Crimson damask drapes framed the windows, and large French plate glass mirrors that stretched from the wainscotting to the ornate cornices. It’s no wonder one journalist referred to it as “one of the prettiest and most luxurious dining rooms in the city . . .”
Sources: “Style is of Renaissance.” The [Detroit] Free Press. December 17, 1905.
The Morton House (Grand Rapids - 1908)
Interior photo courtesy Grand Rapids Public Library Grand Rapids History Center
Status: Building demolished in 1922 for construction of the new Morton Hotel, which still stands.
The corner of Ionia Ave. and Monroe St. in Grand Rapids has been the site of a hotel since 1835. After fire destroyed a previous building, a new Morton House hotel was built in 1872. Per an advertisement for the William Wright Company, which appeared in the Bay City Tribune at the 1908 opening of the Wenonah Hotel, the company also did decoration and furnishing work at the Morton House. The timing indicates an early twentieth century redecoration project, but little other documentation could be found.
Sources: Bay City Tribune. November 9, 1908.
Status: Building destroyed by fire in 1977.
Eight hundred and fifty people attended the gala opening of Bay City’s new Wenonah Hotel in November 1908. Area newspapers printed pages of articles that noted everything from the opening dinner menu to the name of the first commercial traveler (or traveling salesman) registered to stay. Many of the firms who built, outfitted, and furnished the hotel bought large congratulatory newspaper advertisements bragging about their parts in the hotel’s construction. Their number included the William Wright Co., who noted that they’d likewise decorated and furnished The Morton House in Grand Rapids, and the Cadillac Hotel and Temple Theatre in Detroit.
Early views of the Wenonah’s interior survive on a handful of colored postcards. The first-floor lobby featured stuffed armchairs and heavy upholstered couches arranged around square columns. Modern electric lights played a starring role, with a ring of bare lightbulbs seemingly growing out of flowers bordering the central atrium. A second story mezzanine served as a Ladies Parlor with conversational seating, large window bays, and plush drapes emblazoned with a W.
Anyone desiring a meal could choose between at least two establishments: the Main Dining Room, and the less formal Grill. The decorations of both rooms incorporated Arts and Crafts elements, including geometric pendant lights, coffered ceilings, and multi-paned windows.
Sources: “Business is in Full Swing.” Bay City Tribune. November 11, 1908.
“Formal Opening of the Wenonah, the Acme of Fine Hotels.” The Bay City Times. November 10, 1908.
“Hotel Opens in a Blaze of Brilliance.” Bay City Tribune. November 10, 1908.
“The Hotel Without a Peer.” The Bay City Times. November 9, 1908.
The Wenonah Hotel (Bay City - 1908)
The Book-Cadillac Hotel (Detroit - 1924)
Status: Building still stands, interior has been remodeled.
Detroit buzzed with excitement in late 1924 as the Book brothers prepared to open their massive 1,200 room hotel, said to be the largest outside of New York City. Constructed on the site of the old Cadillac Hotel, the new Book-Cadillac was an icon from conception. On November 30, 1924 – just a week before the hotel formally opened – The Detroit Free Press published a special 20-page insert discussing every imaginable facet of the hotel’s construction, design, and staff. Several pages featured congratulatory advertisements, including a large piece that proudly proclaimed “The Entire Decorations of the Book-Cadillac Were Carried Out by the William Wright Co.”
The hotel’s Italian Renaissance inspired interior married old-world styles with modern American entertaining in the big rooms designed for dining, dancing, and other social functions. The main restaurant, called the Venetian Room, featured a vaulted ceiling with lavish gold ornamentation and elegant crystal chandeliers. Murals of Italian-inspired landscapes filled the upper portions of the walls, while mirrors and windows moved light through the room. This was a very, very elegant place to dine.
The two-story, Florentine Renaissance style Grand Ballroom measured a massive 145 feet long by 46 feet wide. Second floor galleries located on three sides of the room provided those not dancing a pleasant observation point. The ceiling was divided into three large center fields (which the newspaper suggested could serve as the home of future murals), wrapped in a frame of cream and gold geometric tracery that seemed to extend the walls upward. A platform at one end provided musicians with an elevated place to perform.
The room that seemed to foster the most excitement was the interior Italian garden, the only other two-story space outside of the lobby and Grand Ballroom. Designed to evoke the feeling of being outside, the room featured ornate gate-like metalwork, painted floral motifs between the round arches, and a large skylight reminiscent of the arcades and glass-covered railroad platforms then popular. Special lighting equipment located above the glass could be set to evoke the sun or moonlight visible at any given hour of the day or night. In fact, according to one article, the lighting could be combined with sound to mimic a thunderstorm!
Sources: “Book-Cadillac Hotel Has Many Features.” The Detroit Free Press. November 30, 1924.
“Book-Cadillac Opens Monday.” The Detroit Free Press. December 7, 1924.
Interior photo in the slideshow below courtesy Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection.
