History

The Story of the Yellow-Brick Hotel

By: Lewis O. Powell, IV Research Archivist, Troup County Historical Society

To begin to understand the history behind the Hotel Colonial, step around to the Haralson Street side and look at the roofline. Jutting from the back of the main hotel building is a smaller roofline and this is where the hotel’s history begins, literally behind the hotel.

This roof covers a home that dates to the Antebellum era. While the exact date is unknown, it is found on the 1860 map of the city and identified as the home of Mrs. E. E. Law. During the dark days of the Civil War as Sherman was waging his campaign to seize Atlanta in 1864, the area south of Atlanta was deemed a hospital zone by the Confederacy. As the region was nearly untouched by war and had an operational railroad, the Confederacy commandeered buildings, both public and private, throughout LaGrange for use as hospitals. One of those hospitals, referred to as the Law Hospital, may have occupied this house. It is also important to note that another hospital utilized the 1844 First Presbyterian Church building only yards away (this is the building that is currently occupied by Pretty Good Books). Following the war, the house remained a private residence for many more years. It is unknown when the Young sisters took up residence, but the house may have served as a boarding house for a time before 1921. Three of the sisters, Anna, Ethel, and Lois, operated a millinery shop that opened around 1920. In December of 1921 an announcement was made on the opening of the Hotel Colonial, which was to be managed by Anna Young. Presumably, this operated out of the Young sister’s home. Surviving pages of the 1922 guest book attest to the fact that the hotel had only a handful of rooms, though they had many guests to occupy them.

Business was booming, and the trio of young ladies decided a further investment was required. In 1925, the sisters contracted with the Atlanta architectural firm of Ivey & Crook to design a large, new hotel addition to their modest home. The firm consisted of principal designer Lewis “Buck” Crook and architectural engineer Ernest Daniel “Ed” Ivey, both of whom received their training at Georgia Tech. Both men interned with Neel Reid and are now considered among the pantheon of Atlanta classicist architects at that time. The façade of the large, three-story yellow-brick Neoclassical hotel prominently features arches, an element found in a multitude of the firm’s designs including the Municipal Pool Pavilion (now Sweetland Amphitheatre), and the original Memorial Library building (behind the hotel on Church Street). On a piece of millinery stationary, the sisters added up the costs of the project and came to the sum of $96,400, a considerable amount of money at that time.

Daniel Lumber Company was named the general contractor with two other local companies, Gilliam Electric and Black Plumbing slated as well. Construction began in the fall of 1925 and the new hotel opened on February 22, 1926. Just a week before the opening, bandleader John Philip Sousa and his band became the first guests of the hotel when they played here as part of their tour.

The hotel opened with some fifty rooms, most with a private bath or connecting

The Hotel Colonial shortly after its construction in 1925 by Snelson Davis. Troup County Archives. Portrait of Anna Young, manager of the hotel. Photo circa 1910, from the Young Sisters Collection, Troup County Archives.

Far left: A war bond dinner held in the dining room of the Hotel Colonial with actress Jane Withers (second from the right) and musician Graham Jackson (far left) in 1944. Photo from the Pittman Cleveland Collection, Troup County Archives.

Left: A bed room at the Hotel Colonial probably in the 1930s from the Young Sisters Collection, Troup County Archives.

bath. The first floor featured a lobby, writing room, ladies and gentlemen’s parlors, a main dining room, and a well-stocked kitchen. These rooms, both public and private, would serve LaGrange for many years to come. Among some of the luminaries to stay here are Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who visited the city in 1930, while serving as governor of New York State. During World War II, actress Jane Withers visited the hotel as part of a war bond drive. As she dined in the hotel’s dining room, guests were serenaded by musician Graham Jackson, a personal friend of FDR’s.

Anna Young managed the hotel from its opening in 1921, through the construction of the main hotel building and the Depression until 1941 when she began to lease it to Hal N. Brady, Jr. After twenty years of leasing the hotel Brady purchased the building from the Youngs and ran it until 1967, when he announced that the hotel would close and be renovated into apartments. It reopened in February of 1968 with efficiency apartments, as well as one-andtwo-bedroom apartments.

In the early 1980s, several investors attempted to reopen the building as a hotel, though the business deal failed. The building has served many different occupants over the past forty years and reopened last year after major renovations. The story of the yellow-brick hotel started with the dreams of three young ladies and has continued with a local landmark. Local insight. Financial strength. Serving LaGrange for 80 years.

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