Hotel Brexton

The Hotel Brexton, in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a Queen Anne-styled building which was built in 1881. It was built as a residential hotel for Samuel Wyman, who was a Baltimore merchant.[1] It is a member of the Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[2]

Hotel Brexton
Hotel Brexton is located in Maryland
Hotel Brexton
Location within Maryland
General information
Location868 Park Ave, Baltimore, Maryland, US
Coordinates39°18′04″N 76°37′08″W
Completed1881

The Brexton is a six-story building made of Baltimore pressed brick and Scotch sandstone.[1][3] The hotel's "most defining characteristic", according to the Historic Hotels of America program, was "its wonderful spiral staircase, which extended up through every floor of the hotel."[3]

Building
East-facing side Brexton Hotel. The spiral staircase is in the north turret, to the right

Designed by Charles E. Cassell,[4] the Hotel Brexton was built as a six-story Queen Anne-style residential hotel with a spiral staircase from the lobby to the fifth floor of its north turret.[5] The hotel opened to the public in 1891 with 60 rooms and was later turned into an apartment building.[4]

The building had to be closed down in the 1970s due to its failure to comply with updated building codes, and it remained vacant for over 20 years.[1] During this time, several concerned citizens vocalized interest in revitalizing the building, including Rose Pettus Hayes, who purchased the building in the 1970s for $55,000, and Roger Wood, who formed the Brexton Renaissance in 1997.[3] The Brexton Renaissance served as a non-profit organization and registered charitable entity with the sole task of raising funding for and refurbishing the building.[3] However, many of these attempts were insufficient at bringing the building up to code until it was purchased by Richard Naing of RWN Development Group.

In the early 2000s, Naing worked alongside architectural design architect Donald Kann to restore and renovate the hotel's interior and exterior, including reconfiguring the interior to create 29 guest rooms, including a Wallis Warfield Simpson suite.[1][6] The work, completed in 2010 and costing $4.5 million,[3] included the "replacement of over two hundred windows that had rotted or disappeared and the restoration of the original spiral stair."[1]

In 2010, the Hotel Brexton received its name[2] and received the 2010 Historic Preservation Award from Baltimore Heritage, Inc.[5] It has since become a member of the Historic Hotels of America.[1][6]

In 2018, Lonely Planet guidebook said the hotel had "been reborn as an appealing, if not overly lavish, hotel."[7]

After being damaged by a lightning strike in 2018, the hotel closed for repairs and renovations.[8]

Wallis Simpson

The hotel was home of Bessie Wallis Warfield (1896–1986), who later became known as Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee for whom Edward VIII abdicated, during her formative years. Historical accounts differ as to Warfield's time at the hotel. One suggests that her mother took a small apartment and brought Bessie here following her father's death on November 15, 1896.[3] Another accounts that T. Wallis Warfield and Bessie moved, at the end of summer 1896, to the then run-down Brexton Residential Hotel, which was T. Wallis's last home.[9] The Washington Post suggested that Simpson and her mother moved to the Brexton in 1905.[6]

References
  1. Johns Hopkins. "Hotel Brexton". Explore Baltimore Heritage. Archived from the original on June 4, 2021. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  2. "Hotel Brexton". Historic Hotels of America. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  3. "Hotel Brexton: History". Historic Hotels of America. Archived from the original on June 4, 2021. Retrieved June 3, 2021.
  4. Gunts, Edward (January 20, 2010). "Landmark city hotel regains some grandeur". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
  5. Linda (August 12, 2010). "The Hotel Brexton - One of Baltimore's Best!". The Distracted Wanderer. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  6. Sachs, Andrea (January 3, 2013). "A Baltimore hotel fit for a duchess". Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 1, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
  7. Planet, Lonely; Walker, Benedict; Armstrong, Kate; Atkinson, Brett; Bain, Carolyn; Balfour, Amy C.; Bartlett, Ray; Benchwick, Greg; Bender, Andrew; Benson, Sara; Bing, Alison; Bodry, Catherine; Bonetto, Cristian; Brash, Celeste; Cavalieri, Nate; Clark, Gregor; Grosberg, Michael; Karlin, Adam; Kluepfel, Brian; McCarthy, Carolyn; McLachlan, Craig; Bell, Loren; Harrell, Ashley; Bremner, Jade; Lioy, Stephen; Johanson, Mark; Balkovich, Robert (April 2018). Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781787019515. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  8. Colin Campbell (May 31, 2018). "Baltimore's Hotel Brexton to close for renovations after lightning strike; owner hopes to sell property". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2022. See also press release version of story Archived September 23, 2022, at the Wayback Machine with additional details
  9. King, Greg (May 2011). The Duchess of Windsor. Kensington Publishing Corp. ISBN 9780806535210. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
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