Category:Americus Hotel

Americus Hotel 

hotel building in Allentown, Pennsylvania
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Instance of	hotel building
Location	Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Street address	541 West Hamilton Street
Heritage designation	National Register of Historic Places listed place (B, C, Americus Hotel, NRHP building, 1984–)
Inception	1920s (1926–1927)
40° 36′ 11.16″ N, 75° 28′ 10.92″ W
Authority file  Q4745692 NRHP reference number: 84003454 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

This is a category about a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 84003454.

The Americus Hotel is a 13-story historic hotel located at the northeast corner of Sixth and Hamilton Streets in center city Allentown. It was built in 1926-1927.

The Americus is the second major hotel to be built at that location. In the 1840s, the American Hotel was built as the first major hotel in the borough of Allentown. The American, and later the Hotel Allen on Center Square in the 1880s, were the flagship hotels of the city during the industrial revolution of the 19th Century. Former President Martin VanBuren stayed overnight at the American Hotel. However, by the end of World War I, the wooden American Hotel began to show its age. Also the hotel was not fireproof which was a major cause of concern. With the availability of construction materials after the war, and major construction projects resuming in the 1920s, plans were made to replace the American Hotel with a modern concrete and brick structure. The American closed in 1925. It was subsequently torn down and construction began to replace it.

Albert D. Gomery, who owned a 50% share of ownership in the American Hotel, became the principal head of a consortium to build the new hotel. Other members of the consortium were Malcom H. Gross, General Harry C. Trexler and several other Allentown businessmen. The hotel was designed by Ritter and Shay, a Philadelphia architectial firm, and was built by Roberts and Roller construction, also from Philadelphia. It cost was $2,500,000 to build. The official groundbreaking ceremony was on July 17, 1926.

In July 1927, just before its opening, the New American Hotel, which was what it was referred to during its construction period, was renamed the "Americus", in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, the European discoverer of the American continent. The investors in the new hotel, felt it should be distinguished by a new and different name. The Americus Hotel opened for buisness on September 9th, 1927.

The Americus became the main buisness and convention hotel in center city Allentown for decades. In April 1944, the Americus was sold by Gormley to the Sterling Hotel System, a chain of hotels headed by Andrew J. Sordoni, a Wilkes-Barrie buisnessman. After the sale, Gormley turned to other buisness ventures in the city, and remained active for the rest of his life, passing in November 1961. Many notible public figures and celeberties have either stayed at the hotel or used its facilities since it opened. It also became a centerpiece for entertainment with its banquet facilities, cocktail bars and dancing in the "Skyline Room" for generations of Allentonians. In November 1965, Albert A. Moffa purchaced the hotel from the Sterling Group. Moffa, who owned a number of movie theaters in the area, performed a $500,000 redecoration of the hotel and added several features to it. Moffa also started a helicopter service, called "Americus Airways", which offered passenger service between ABE Airport and Manhattan. Later, in the 1970s Moffa opened a movie theater in the hotel. In November 1984, the Americus was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Citing advancing age, Moffa entered an agreement in 1983 to sell the Americus Hotel to a real estate partnership headed by Philadelphia real estate investor Mark Mendleson. The sale was finalized in August 1985. In August 1988, Mendleson entered into a franchise agreement to market the hotel with the Radission Hotel group based in Minneapolis. The hotel was renamed the Raddison Hotel at the Americus. However, with the decline of the central buisness district, the hotel began to show its age, and the occupancy rate began to fall. A major issue affecting the Americus however, was the growth of the suburbs of Allentown and in paticular, the loss of the convention and trade show buisness. Surburban motels, with easy access by automobile and free parking for guests, meant less and less people were staying in the city. Also trade shows and conventions could pull into the surburban hotels with trucks and simply set up in the ballrooms.

By January 1992, checks began to bounce and bills were not paid and an inspection by the hotel in 1993 showed it failed to meet Radission's standards of quality and service performance. As a reuslt, in January 1994, the hotel lost its affiliation with the Radisson Hotel chain, and afterwards became essentially a rooming house, with its rooms being rented out as month-to-month residences. It was closed in August 2002 after its occupancy permit was pulled by the Allentown Health Department for numerous health and saftey violations. The city and Mendeson fought each other for several years after that to force Mendleson to maintain the property and also to pay his property taxes. In 2007, the city had to erect scaffolding around the building to protect pedestrians using the sidewalk from falling masonry from the deteriorating building. Eventually the Americus Center, the holding company for the hotel, filed for bankrupsy in December 2008, a day before the city was going to sieze the property.

In June 2009, Albert Abdouche, a local businessman who owned the Palace Center banquet hall in east Allentown, obtained ownership of the vacant hotel from the City for $676,000, and announced re-development plans. Trash and roaches were everywhere, there were no working elevators, the interior of the landmark was falling apart and the wiring was nothing short of a disaster. Abdouche invested $3.2 million in the property and started renovating it in February 2010. Over the next decade, the entire hotel was essentually rebuilt inside, also the exterior was refurbished, with Abdouche investing his own resources into the project in an arrangement with the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority (ANIZDA).

The hotel reopened for public and commercial use on July 27, 2021. The lower floors are in-use for accomodation, the upper floors are still being refurbished. Various public events and dining are held in the hotel as well.