The bellman assisted me with my luggage up the escalator to the elevators and proudly pointed out the ornately carved Steinway piano in the lobby. “It’s from the Guggenheim home in New York and was supposed to be placed on the Titanic when it returned from its voyage to Europe had it not run into that little bit of trouble.” He winked. What a showpiece it was with a tuxedo-clad pianist perched at its bench playing Beethovan’s “Fur Elise.” It set an elegant tone in the baroque-style lobby filled with an impressive, museum quality collection of fine art and prized antiques including a bronze Dore Gueridon table and a pair of early Flemish tapestries.
My own memories of Dallas in the 1980s are of a city not bashful about flaunting its wealth. The city is divided by money—old and new. And the Adolphus smelled like old money—fitting given that the hotel sits in the heart of Dallas’ financial district on Commerce Street. Pretty much anyone who was anyone passing through Dallas laid his or her head on an Adolphus pillow. A lengthy roster of historic figures and celebrities dating back to its early days include the likes of Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, political figures like FDR and royalty including Queen Elizabeth II. She didn’t actually stay the night but stopped off for a catnap en route somewhere important.
The bellman pressed the elevator button for the nineteenth floor and escorted me down the dark green hallway to one of the skylight suites with a vaulted angled ceiling. It would be too cliché to say everything’s bigger in Texas but certainly this is the largest suite of any hotel in the world where I’ve stayed. It had a spacious living room, dining area, study, wet bar, master bedroom, and enormous bathroom complete with a bidet. I felt like I was in a Manhattan penthouse apartment and savored that idea as I ran a bubble bath and soaked off the day’s tension. Larry King Live piped through a special TV speaker in the bathroom. I love thoughtful details like that.
PREVIOUS PAGE
