The Hotel Fort Des Moines, located at 1000 Walnut St. in downtown Des Moines.

Keeping history alive

A look inside the ‘once in a generation’ renovation of Hotel Fort Des Moines

BY EMILY BARSKE

If you look closely at the floor to the right of the front desk at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, you’ll see a slight indentation. In looking at archived photos and blueprints, historians and architects believe it was caused by consistent wear over time as bellhops used to stand beside the desk to greet guests at the hotel.

As the 1919 hotel underwent a historic renovation before reopening in 2021, the front desk was moved back as close as possible to its original location in the lobby after it had been moved at some point. The floor indentation shows how close they were able to get to the original spot and is just one example of how meticulous the project leaders were in ensuring the history of the building would remain alive in the modern day.

Hotel Fort Des Moines owner Raj Patel had fallen in love with the building in 2014, and after pursuing many conversations, he convinced then-owner Jeff Hunter that he would do the restoration of one of downtown Des Moines’ iconic buildings justice. Hunter had also previously proposed a major renovation, but the 2009 recession caused challenges with the financing.

Coralville-based Hawkeye Hotels, of which Patel serves as chief development officer, purchased the hotel for $4 million in 2015.

In doing research and starting the renovations, it was determined that there were likely seven renovations of some kind during its history. “We found that through the layers of wallpaper,” Patel said. The renovation took several years because they didn’t want to “ramrod” through the uncovering of changes the building had seen, he said, and they worked hard with the historical preservation entities involved to document their findings along the way. The pandemic also caused some delays.

Everything down to the materials used in the renovation was carefully thought through. Through research, they were able to find out that the original marble used for the front desk in 1919 was sourced from a quarry in Springfield, Mo. They found out it went dormant after World War II, but somebody had just bought it in recent years and was producing marble again.

“I called [the company] and they actually have a historian and they were able to find the original tickets from 1918 of the marble they supplied to this building,” Patel said. “They told me the exact distance of what they believe the original marble [was sourced] from today’s, and it was less than a mile of difference in that where they poured my current marble from.”

A key piece of the restoration involved opening up the first floor by removing an extension of the second-floor ballroom added during the 1950s that had cut into the original high-ceilinged lobby.

The original 1919 lobby ceiling plans had a rectangular and hexagonal pattern filled in “with an incredible amount of detail,” Patel said. That kind of intricate detail can still be seen in Proudfoot and Bird, the restaurant in the hotel that’s named after the original architects.

“They had an entire [lobby] ceiling in 1919 filled with that detail,” he said. “We couldn’t do that again, as you can imagine how difficult that would be. But we brought back the entire template of the ceiling, which now that I’ve spent enough time up here and looking at it, I think it’s really quite beautiful even without [the original details] because it gives it more of a modern flair.”

Because the ceiling was such an interesting feature, Patel asked the owner of the drywall company if all of his workers who were on-site could touch it at some point during the work. “When they come in here and they show their families, and they come eat at Proudfoot and Bird, it just means so much more to them if they could say that ‘I touched the ceiling and I re-created it.’” So all 60 workers got the opportunity to touch it.

“This only comes along once in a generation where you can take a cherished asset like this and fully redo it and fully take it back to exactly what it was for another 100 years to come,” Patel said.

As part of the renovation, the front desk was moved back to its original location after it had been moved some time ago. The marble used was sourced from the same quarry that the original front desk was sourced from.

The lobby ceiling was one of many original parts of the building that required careful decision-making to determine whether it was possible to match the blueprints exactly or if it was more realistic to use modern touches in the renovation.

Though not original to the hotel, a hidden speakeasy that recently opened in the basement gives the feel of the 1920s. An original crystal doorknob was saved to use for the door to go down the stairs. The basement “was a storage room, had a sewage rejection pit, had broken windows and door frames that they would just keep here in case they ever needed parts,” Patel said. “It was really rough. And I walked down here and I was like ‘Wow, this has to be a bar. This has to be a hidden bar like you see in other cities.’” It can be accessed through the Hobnob Coffee and Wine Bar in the hotel.

A look inside the bridal suite on the second floor of the hotel, which is wheelchair accessible. The suite and other rooms in the hall were called “stateside rooms” because they were right next to the convention rooms and the ballroom. Now the rooms are often booked by wedding parties so they can have access to their rooms just seconds from the Grand Ballroom.

Careful decisions were made on the details inside the guest rooms, including 3D-printed wallpaper that gives the illusion of a thin rope being on the wall and light switches that match the historic feel of the building.

Another nod to the history of the building, the carpeting includes a historic timeline of the hotel

Raj Patel, owner, Hotel Fort Des Moines

If you look closely at the ceiling in Proudfoot and Bird, you can see imperfections in the spacing of the intricate design, which is an indicator that it was completed by hand. The room was always the dining room of the hotel, and was at one time called the “Ivory Room,” which is why they chose to make ivory stand out in the renovation. Among the restaurant’s features, there is an open wood-fire kitchen setup, which allows for different cooking techniques as well as an old-time smell that permeates throughout the entire building.

The restaurant Proudfoot and Bird at the Hotel Fort Des Moines is named after the architects who originally designed the building. “As you can see with my names and different things throughout the building, a lot of it was just a nod,” Patel said. “I wanted to nod back to the history as much as I possibly could without making it too cliche.”

Hotel Fort Des Moines fast facts

First opened: 1919

Original purpose: A venue to hold conventions and salespeople. “Some notable business people from Des Moines and Chicago got together and decided that the city of Des Moines needed a grand hotel to continue furthering the business advances of Des Moines, so this one and the Renaissance Savery were actually built right around the same time,” Patel said.

Year listed on the National Register of
Historic Places: 1982

Renovations completed: 2021

Total project cost, including purchase: $70 million ($50 million of that in construction)

Fun fact: Celebrities such as Hellen Keller, Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Cash have stayed there.