Norfolk's very own Golden Triangle

Drawing from the Pilot’s expansive archive, Virginian-Pilot news researchers Maureen P. Watts and Jakon Hays look back at our local history. We'll post old photos, stories, advertisements, historical front pages and popular columns unearthed from yesterday’s papers; giving readers a glimpse of this region we call Hampton Roads. Feel free to leave comments or remembrances. he hotel manager unlocked the front door then threw away the key in the traditional symbol that the door would never be closed again. A rabbi, Catholic priest and a Protestant minister perform brief ceremonies of dedication. The massive new building cost more than $6.9 million and two years to construct while sitting on a site once occupied by slums.

The massive new building, rising 170 feet over the downtown area, is a combination hotel, motel, office building and convention center.

It boasts 400 guest rooms, 40,000 square feet of office space, eight stores, and meeting rooms to handle conferences up to 1,000 persons.

Furniture alone cost $750,000, and kitchen equipment another 250,000. The hotel was financed by outside money attracted to Norfolk by the city’s ambitious downtown redevelopment program. Prices range from $10 to $50 a day. The building is climate controlled and has an Olympic-size swimming pool. It has two restaurants. The last major hotel built in the city was the Commodore Maury, erected in 1906 to accommodate visitors to the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. The Monticello Hotel was built in 1898, but was extensively remodeled after a serious fire in the winter of 1917-1918.

An undated photo of the hotel site.

July 3 1959 - The future site of the hotel.

An aerial shot of downtown Norfolk and the future site of teh Golden Triangle.

Construction in July 1960

The hotel is nearing completion but still under construction in early 1961.

A small group tours the hotel on opening day.

The hotel in Oct.