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King David Hotel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The King David Hotel (???? ???? ???) is a 5-star hotel in Jerusalem, Israel. The hotel was built with locally quarried pink limestone and opened in 1931. It was founded by Frank Goldsmith, father of the billionaire investor, Sir James Goldsmith. The King David Hotel is now a Jerusalem landmark and one of Israel's most famous hotels. It is owned and operated by the Dan Hotels group.
History

In 1929, Palestine Hotels Ltd. purchased 4.5 acres (18,000 m?) on Jerusalem's Julian’s Way, today King David Street. Half the construction costs were paid by Albert Mosseri, an affluent Egyptian Jewish banker and director of the National Bank of Egypt, and another 46% by other wealthy Cairo Jews. The approximately 4% remaining was paid by the National Bank, which purchased 693 shares of the company between 1934 and 1943.

From its earliest days, the King David Hotel hosted royalty: the dowager empress of Persia, queen mother Nazli of Egypt and King Abdullah I of Jordan stayed at the hotel, and three heads of state forced to flee their countries took up residence there: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, forced to abdicate in 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, driven out by the Italians in 1936, and King George II of Greece who set up his government in exile at the hotel after the Nazi occupation of his country in 1942. During the British Mandate, the southern wing of the hotel was turned into a British administrative and military headquarters. In July 1946 it was blown up by the Irgun, the pre-state underground led by Menachem Begin. A warning call by members of the Irgun went unheeded. For many years, the British denied they had been warned. In 1979, a member of the British Parliament produced evidence that a call had indeed reached headquarters regarding an imminent attack, but the officers had dismissed it as a joke, declaring they did not take orders from Jews.

This act of terrorism resulted in the death of 91 people. An additional 45 people were injured. The bombing of the hotel produced the largest death toll of any single act of terrorism in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On May 4, 1948, when the British flag was lowered, the building became a Jewish stronghold. At the end of the Israeli War of Independence, the hotel found itself overlooking "no-man’s land" on the armistice line that divided Jerusalem into Israeli and Jordanian territory. It was purchased by the Dan Hotels chain in 1958. The film "Exodus" was shot at the hotel in 1960. When Jerusalem was reunited following the 1967 Six-Day War, the hotel was expanded, with two additional floors.


King David Hotel today

Today, the King David Hotel is part of the Dan Hotel Chain, and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World and continues to accommodate foreign heads of state and diplomats visiting Israel. To mark the hotel's 75th anniversary, an exhibit of historic photographs is on display in the lobby.

Our last night on the road was spent in Winslow, AZ. Winslow used to be the largest city in northern Arizona, but started to decline when I-40 replaced Route 66, effectively bypassing the town. Winslow is probably best know to those old enough to know or remember the Eagles song, Take it Easy. A highlight of the town is the La Posada hotel.

La Posada embodies the visions of both Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the hotel’s renowned architect, and Allan Affeldt, its current owner. But the story really begins with Fred Harvey, who “civilized the west” by introducing linen, silverware, china, crystal, and impeccable service to railroad travel. (He was so legendary that MGM made a movie called The Harvey Girls starring Judy Garland.) Harvey developed and ran all the hotels and restaurants of the Santa Fe Railway, eventually controlling a hospitality empire that spanned the continent.

In the 1920s, Harvey decided to build a major hotel in the center of northern Arizona. “La Posada”—the Resting Place—was to be the finest in the Southwest. Construction costs alone exceeded $1 million in 1929. Total budget with grounds and furnishings was rumored at $2 million (about $40 million in today’s dollars). They chose Winslow, then (as now) the Arizona headquarters for the Santa Fe Railway. Winslow was ideally situated for a resort hotel since everything to see and do in northern Arizona is a comfortable day’s drive. They asked Colter to design the new hotel.

Colter worked for the Fred Harvey Company from 1905 until her retirement in the 1950s. Although famous for her magnificent buildings at the Grand Canyon, she considered La Posada her masterpiece. Here she was able to design or select everything from the structures to the landscape, furniture, maids’ costumes, and dinner china. Many people consider this the most important and most beautiful building in the Southwest.