BY KRIS LEONHARDT
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Continued from previous week
GREEN BAY – On Jan. 12, 1924, architect superintendent Thomas Kelly announced that the hotel would open the first week of March.
Though it wouldn’t be entirely completed, he said the hotel’s lower floors would be ready for use.
The Hotel Northland was to become the fourth “skyscraper” in the city, behind the Herrick building, Minahan building and the Bellin building.
In February, J.N. Huffman, Milwaukee, was announced as the first manager of the hotel.
Huffman was once employed with Green Bay’s Beaumont Hotel and worked with other hotels in Milwaukee and Chicago.
He set to work on hiring 150 staff members for the new hotel.
Six cooks were hired to serve guests under the direction of Chief Lucien M. Bauer.
They were further assisted by a butcher, bakers, second cooks, roast cooks, fry cooks, assistant cooks and a multitude of other kitchen and dining staff.
The day of the March 21 opening, a Press-Gazette headline read “All records for speed broken at Hotel Northland” as contractors and staff rushed to get things in place before the 7:30 p.m. dinner-dance to celebrate its launch.
“While carpenters were still placing the walnut panels of the woodwork, hotel employees were hanging draperies, washing the floors, sweeping and dusting,” the article read.
The following night, the hotel welcomed guests from Milwaukee, Fond du Lac and Oshkosh, who would be the first to occupy the rooms. “The combined wealth of the guests,” the article stated, was more than $50 million.
The Saturday night event was labeled “one of the most brilliant functions the city has seen in months” and welcomed 400 people in a mix of traveling guests and local residents.
The four parlor cars, lounging car and baggage car that brought about 180 guests to the event which was labeled the “Fifty Million Dollar special.”
“In addition to the two huge Kissel busses of the hotel, nearly every taxi cab in the city was commandeered to bring the guests from the train to the hostelry,” a March 24 article stated.
After its grand opening, contractors and staff continued work on the hotel and a month later, the fifth floor was opened for use.
In May, the opening of the seventh floor was announced.
By the end of the summer, the hotel was complete in its magnificent grandeur.
The rooms were filled through the summer and fall months, and soon the Schroeder company looked to do more.
The hotel was quickly becoming the social nucleus of the city.
Next week: The epicenter