The O.Henry Hotel, like the Roman god Janus, faces both forward and backward.
We look to the past with admiration for old hotels that were both “in and of” their communities. They were locally owned and passionately run to serve not only the traveling public, but their neighbors as well. They were real centers of community life and a source of pride to their cities. Then came interstate highways and commercial aviation, along with some technical advances in hotel facility design, and poof! — the community-centered hotels disappeared. In their place came national, corporately owned, brand name hotels, situated along the highways or near airports. These hotels don’t fill the place of the old hotels in the hearts of their neighbors. While they are within the city limits, they are not “in and of” the community and neighborhoods. So, we thought, “Let’s look forward and bring back the neighborhood, community-centered hotels of old.”
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The O.Henry Hotel, like the Roman god Janus, faces both forward and backward.
We look to the past with admiration for old hotels that were both “in and of” their communities. They were locally owned and passionately run to serve not only the traveling public, but their neighbors as well. They were real centers of community life and a source of pride to their cities. Then came interstate highways and commercial aviation, along with some technical advances in hotel facility design, and poof! — the community-centered hotels disappeared. In their place came national, corporately owned, brand name hotels, situated along the highways or near airports. These hotels don’t fill the place of the old hotels in the hearts of their neighbors. While they are within the city limits, they are not “in and of” the community and neighborhoods. So, we thought, “Let’s look forward and bring back the neighborhood, community-centered hotels of old.”
The O.Henry Hotel was designed to embrace the idea of being “in and of” the city of Greensboro. We have used many local materials, emphasized various landmarks of the city, and selected a location where our guests can enjoy lovely views of Greensboro. We even took some design cues from the original O.Henry Hotel, built downtown in 1919 and demolished in the 1970s. We are pleased that the O.Henry Hotel itself has become a Greensboro landmark. Each day we strive to maintain and nurture this idea of being a community-based hotel.
Our namesake, O. Henry, the distinguished and world-renowned short story writer, was born in Greensboro as William Sydney Porter in 1862. With the city’s justifiable pride in its native son, we couldn’t resist naming our hotel the O.Henry. The 1998 portrait of William Sydney Porter by Frank P. Holton III, commissioned for the opening of the O.Henry Hotel hangs in the hotel lobby.
The O.Henry Hotel is also forward-looking. We provide state of the art amenities for the comfort and convenience of our guests. As we endeavor to maintain the elegance and sense of place of the hotels of the past, the O.Henry is continually being updated to provide for the needs of our modern guests.
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O.Henry Hotel
