Friday, July 2, 2010

Inside the Hotel Lafayette

Before the doors of the Hotel Lafayette were locked, awaiting financing options for renovations, I took a few pictures.  The interior, at least the parts visible to me, were always immaculate.






One worker in particular took time to fill me in on bits of history and clearly loved the hotel.  He mentioned how some parts of the ceiling had been lowered, pointed out some unique light fixtures, and told how they used to have their own seamstresses on call and that bolts of cloth were still in storage at one point. Many services the hotel provided were self-contained.



He also climbed up on the counter and took a better picture of the wooden mural behind it than I could have managed from the floor.



Another mural was across the foyer. I hope they're in the next edition of the Lafayette.



At one time it was important to have list of churches available for visitors to choose from; then Pepsi took precedence. Phone booths are right across the hallway, only one looking like it might work.  Who ever thought that would be "old fashioned" ?



Moving day for the Lafayette Tap Room too. They weren't too happy so I didn't ask if I could get a last picture.


Hopefully the ability to sell tax credits or whatever it is the State keeps passing and then reneging on comes to pass so more restorations can take place.  But meanwhile, its so long for now...


3 comments:

stephanie said...

I'm surprised it was that clean inside!
Given the quality of people I've seen going in and out of there, I though it'd be less taken care of.
Hopefully Rocco keeps is as authentic as possible

Jill said...

What great pictures - I've never been inside the Lafayette and I can say that it looks a lot nicer than I had imagined :) I love those wooden murals... and I love the new look of your blog!

Anonymous said...

It is a mess in there. they only show you the lobby. the rooms are filthy, the bathrooms are horrid and dirty and scary. the rooms and floors and beds were awful. i know because when i was homeless in 2007, this is where they held me. i would never sleep under their covers, only on top fully dressed. and they are rude if they find out you're a homeless human. Lafayette I can see was once a beautiful hotel but it was an awful hellish experience for ME!