As it turns out, the “THE” letters that now adorn the new Bolla Restaurant at the new Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa have quite a story of their own. I was able to find some interesting insight into their history from Christen Fox at Prescott Realty. It turns out it wasn’t always “The Stoneleigh” after all:

” After visiting the Stoneleigh Court Hotel in 1934, Colonel Harry E. Stewart fell in love with the elegant ambiance of the hotel and chose to purchase it. In 1938, the sign ‘HOTEL STONELEIGH’ found its home atop the prestigious hotel, where it sparkled visibly over the city of Dallas. Burnt out in its prime, the “O” and “L” shined no more in 1951. As owner of the hotel, Colonel Stewart had to make the difficult decision of what to do with the remaining letters. With much creativity and little pressure, the word ‘HOTEL’ was transformed into the word ‘THE’. Thus, the hotel was labeled, ‘THE STONELEIGH’.

It has been almost sixty-five years since the hotel sign has been changed from its initial ‘HOTEL STONELEIGH’ spotlight. Although the recent hotel renovation highlighted the fragile condition of the entire roof top signage structure, state and local historic consultants gave permission to create an exact replica to allow the preservation of the original sign.”

In other news, the Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa was announced last night as a Best Real Estate Deal of the Year by the Dallas Business Journal in the category of “Best Rehabilitation/Re-Use”!

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Historic Features, In The News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.