Boston Valley Helps Rehab Two Historic Luxury Hotel Buildings
Two former luxury hotels, one in the Midwest and one on the East Coast, required Boston Valley’s restoration expertise.
The Belgravia building in the Center City neighborhood of Philadelphia originally opened in 1902 as a hotel. By 2008 the building was sold by a development group to individual residents who formed the Belgravia Condo Association. It is for that association that Boston Valley is making replacement units for much of their ornate brick and terra cotta facade.
Giant cartouche which adorns the front of the Belgravia building.
Boston Valley is also assisting the Greysolon Plaza, known as the former Hotel Duluth, with replacement of their entire terra cotta-clad entry canopy. Also a former hotel opened in 1925 in downtown Duluth, MN, the Greysolon Plaza now contains senior housing as well as serving as a popular wedding venue.
When the building opened, the local paper described the canopy in this way: “Over the main entrance on Superior St. is a massive and beautiful terra cotta canopy, the only one of its kind in the northwest, appropriately lighted and bearing illuminated signs of the hotel.”
Unfortunately under the weight of several feet of snow the support for this canopy gave way and the entire entry crashed to the ground in December of 2013. Boston Valley is now in the process of crafting replacement units, several of which are fantastic representations of ornate historic terra cotta.
The mold from which some of the most ornate pieces were pressed
These sculptural piece hang upside down on the bottom of the canopy.
One unit that creates part of the scroll detailing which trails the upper portion of the canopy.
Will this tiny lion head be noticed by visitors as they enter and exit the Greysolon Plaza?
