By Cathy H. Burroughs, International Travel Writer & Adventure Blogger, journeyPod.com
Christmas, the winter holidays and New Year’s are a particularly thrilling and exhilarating time to visit the meticulously refined and historic Westin Poinsett Hotel (www.marriott.com). This landmark hotel was Greenville’s first skyscraper when completed in 1924, and is now present day downtown Greenville’s only four diamond AAA hotel in picture perfect Currier and Ives’s glory. Its namesake poinsettias together with its swooping lighted Christmas tree and garlands of greenery adorn the wrought iron balustrades of its lobbies, ornately-tiled veranda, upper mezzanine and elegant retro grand piano bar with its live music and handcrafted cocktails.
In its high-ceilinged, intricately marble-molded, chandeliered ballrooms and its wrought-iron gated Spoonbread Restaurant, the hotel serves up out-of-this-world delicious multi-coursed feasts for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A scrumptious and sumptuous spread of traditional Southern fare (be sure to get extra helpings of cornbread dressing when you go back for seconds and thirds) and American innovation, these splendid meals have become a new holiday tradition for us. Tables overflowing with shrimp cocktail, roasted pork loin, sage butter rubbed turkey, broiled Red Snapper with lobster cream sauce, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, ravioli station, prime rib, macaroni pie and a slew of homemade desserts plus chocolate fountain are but a few of their offerings. These are all artfully created, conceived and displayed with irresistible gravied excess and contemporary attention to fresh, original and healthy ingredients by Executive Chef Curtis Wolf & Co. Also noteworthy are the hotel’s deservedly famed breakfast buffet with omelet and pasta bars – a culinary coup, and yes, gluten free options are available.
As you enter South Main Street’s bricked courtyard with circular drive, striking marquee and three-tiered water fountain, walk back in time as well as in the footsteps of Hollywood’s George Clooney and Renee Zellweger. Both actors stayed here during the filming of Leatherhead which features the hotel’s dignified and striking façade. You can find a gallery of other illustrious guests in its lower level who were attracted to “Carolina’s finest” hotel and social destination such as President Barack Obama, General Wesley Clark, the violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, American singer Bobby McFerrin, flamboyant pianist/showman Liberace, Robert Kennedy, actors John Travolta and John Barrymore, actress/ singer Jessica Simpson, cellist Yo–Yo Ma, Beatle’s drummer Ringo Starr, journalist Dan Rather, doomed pilot Amelia Earhart, railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, and others. Also pictured in the gallery are images of newly betrothed couples posing passionately or rakishly on the hotel’s roof against the backdrop of its iconic glowing neon sign.
Frequently ranked #1 in Trip Advisor for Greenville’s preferred hotels, The Westin Poinsett, noted by one writer as having “the charm and ambiance of a local inn and the amenities of a large hotel,” rose like a phoenix from the ashes of its 100-year old predecessor Mansion House hotel. Built just a few feet from this previous hotel’s site, the 12-story, 200-roomed Westin Poinsett has had a number of iterations, emerging during Carolina’s “building boom” of the 20’s to bear the mantle of J.R. Poinsett, South Carolina’s Secretary of State and U.S. Minister to Mexico. An avid botanist Poinsett introduced Mexico’s bright red pointed flower in 1825, the now ubiquitous Catarina, Christmas Star or Christmas Eve Flower – his namesake as well.
The original Poinsett Hotel was intended in part to accommodate the Biennial Southern Textiles Exhibit when the Palmetto State was in its mill heyday and city founders used to brag Greenville was the “Textile Capital of the World.” Originally renowned as being “one of the most beautifully furnished hotels in the country,” it was the most popular hotel in the state in the 40’s and 50’s. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, now, nearly 100 years after its founding, it has had its lavish lobbies and opulent ballrooms updated as well as its gracious and comfortable rooms redone.
Create your own architectural tour as you wander the hotel’s green, brown, gold and russet décor and public spaces, exploring the pentimento (as opposed to pimento cheese) hotelscape, as one guest called it. You can still find the remains of its eras in its elaborate woodwork, iron descending stairwells, prestige construction and other enduring and alluring architectural earmarks.
Outfitted in earthy and elegant wood tones with mini fridges, top of the line bedding, classy bathrooms, 24-hour fitness room, free WIFI, satellite programming, River Falls Spa, Joel’s Java coffee shop, and more the hotel has enough exacting details that will satisfy the most discerning; they are pet-friendly and there’s even a penthouse Presidential Suite. Reserve a free airport shuttle, as well, if you wish.
A feather in the cap of South Carolina’s progressive and brilliantly revitalized city – #2 in Travel + Leisure’s highly prestigious Best Places to Travel worldwide and voted as “one of America’s Best Downtowns” by Forbes.com – the hotel with its clean-lined exterior and ornate interior is a vintage masterpiece. Designed by noted architect William Lee Stoddard, he was frequently commissioned throughout the South and masterminded Atlanta’s Georgia Terrace, Baltimore’s Lord Baltimore Hotel and in the northeast, New York’s Battery Park Hotel.
Once considered one of South Carolina’s “most endangered historic sites,” The Westin Poinsett with its geometric Beaux Arts style has prevailed against the odds. Its imposing and singular rectangular silhouette and L-shaped façade with tall arched windows, cornices, and friezes with terracotta festoons and urns adds serious gravitas to the town’s already dazzling culturally-endowed cityscape; both are further enlivened with their nighttime illumination.
Its next door companion in a suite of historical edifices is Greenville’s more petit neoclassical architectural gem – City Hall which has as its sentinel a statue of Poinsett, himself, positioned in front, part of a series of a whimsical and beautifully done statuary and quotation series – with even some tiny mice – that celebrates Greenville’s history.
These statues punctuate the stunning, lush and tree-line boulevard and wide sidewalks of Main Street and the eminently walkable downtown. A short stroll from the hotel is the dramatic rushing waterfalls and 32-acres of the award-winning Falls Park of Reedy River brought back from the dead, and now a thriving and popular landscaped showplace. It was recently awarded as one of the country’s top ten parks with such greats as New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Its daring single cable suspension pedestrian Liberty Bridge is a design wonder and an adrenaline rush to cross.
Back to your room you can view the courtyard or the city and the hotel’s neighboring pint-sized Rockefeller Centeresque ice rink or wander a few doors down to find an authentic French sweet and savory creperie known as Crepe du Jour with late night hours and happy hour drinks.
From the hotel’s perfectly positioned central locale, easily hoof it to the Peace Center and to most of the city’s attractions, restaurants, museums, zoo, comedy clubs, theaters, super cool biking/walking Swamp Rabbit Trail (you can rent bikes from the hotel!) and Fenway-inspired minor league ballpark Fluor Field on the city’s West End.
Emblematic of its reputation for unparalleled service, its pivotal general manager who began in 1930, Mason Alexander, nicknamed “Mr. Poinsett,” was known as the man who changed the course of the then-faltering Poinsett. He was also the man who provided clean money, giving new meaning to the term “money laundering,” as he set the hotel’s high standards including the policy to polish all coins.
As the #1 ranked in Guest Satisfaction for Westin Hotels and with its current, consistent, top notch and earnest dedication to quality hostelry we are hard-pressed to determine if Mr. Alexander may have been reincarnated as the hotel’s more than a decade “sui genaris”* exceptional in-the-trenches General Manager Fabian Unterzaucher; 18-year veteran, the lauded Concierge Janice Smith, outstanding Food and Beverage general Michael Graves, wonderful Director of Sales and Marketing John Geddes or some other impeccable, kind, attentive, unfailingly polite, behind-the-scenes, go-to-the-mat member of this rare hotel’s superb team.
The Westin Poinsett – 4 Star Hotel
120 S. Main Street
Greenville, SC 29601
864-421-9700
*from Trip Adviser reviews
Special thank you to Michael Graves, John Geddes and Fabian Unterzaucher.
Cathy H. Burroughs is a noted travel writer and adventure blogger who covers the SE, the US and the world, most notably Europe.
