The Kimball to Celebrate 100th Anniversary
by Bill Dusty
Springfield’s Kimball Towers is gearing up to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the formal opening of the Kimball Hotel on this St. Patrick’s Day, 2011.
The celebration will begin at 10:00am on March 17 as Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and the St. Patrick’s Day Committee present a proclamation to The Kimball on the steps of the hotel before the Committee continues on to City Hall for a raising of the Irish flag. A light buffet dinner will then be served to invited guests at 6:00pm, to be followed by a pictorial history presentation by Jim Boone of the Springfield Preservation Trust at 7:00pm.
The event is being sponsored by the Kimball Towers Condominium Association, The Armory Quadrangle Civic Association and Caron Management, LLC.
Kimball's main dining hall
Since its opening one hundred years ago, the world has seen two world wars, the rise and decline of Communism, racial desegregation in the U.S., and several astronauts walking on the moon.
A brief history of The Kimball can be found at the Kimball Towers website and includes:
Built in what was the affluent residential neighborhood of Chestnut and Bridge Streets, the Kimball offered 309 rooms, a dining-room capacity for 450, a 22-foot-high banquet hall for 350 guests, and, in 1912, room rates from “$1.50 to $3.50 per day”.
Proms, wedding receptions, conventions, balls, and weekly Rotary and Kiwanis meetings kept Kimball facilities fully booked. For years, radio programs were broadcast from its Westinghouse WBZ studios.
Difficulties after World War II, with a decrease in train travel and the rise of motels to accommodate highway travelers, gradually closed the hotel, banquet, and office services.
The building changed hands several times between 1964 and 1980; was renovated into residential apartments, and renamed Kimball Towers.
In 1985, the building was again renovated and converted to residential and commercial condominium.
A selection of postcards and images of The Kimball through the years is shown below.
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1 Response for “The Kimball to Celebrate 100th Anniversary”
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Interested in the family background of Wiliam Kimball and the nature of the business in which he was involved. My mother’s maiden name was Miriam Kimball. Her father was Benjamin Kimball and he had a brother named William Kimball. They were the founders of Kimball Furniture in downtown Springfield and I am interested in knowing if the Kimball Hotel was founded by the same William Kimball, who was my grandfather’s brother.
Thank you.