Ambassador Hotel (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

Ambassador Hotel
Ambassador Hotel, February 16, 2007
Ambassador Hotel (Tulsa, Oklahoma) is located in Oklahoma
Ambassador Hotel (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Location1324 South Main, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Coordinates36°08′34″N 95°59′15″W / 36.14278°N 95.98750°W / 36.14278; -95.98750
Built1929; 95 years ago (1929)
ArchitectN. E. Peters
Architectural styleMission/Spanish Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.99001085[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 17, 1999; 24 years ago (1999-11-17)

General Patrick Hurley opened the Ambassador Hotel in 1929, intending it to be a luxury "extended stay" residence for Tulsa businessmen (mostly oil business top executives), who were building mansions that were not yet ready for occupancy. Hurley never stayed in the hotel he founded. He moved to Washington, D. C. in March 1929, after President Herbert Hoover chose him to be Secretary of War, after the death of the previous Secretary, who died in December 1929. Hurley never returned to Tulsa.

The hotel business in Tulsa cooled with the onset of the Great Depression. The building had a succession of owners and uses after the Great Depression, and was vacant for more than a decade at the end of the 20th century. An investment group bought the property in 1999, and spent heavily on restoration before reopening it as a boutique hotel, a niche market it continues to occupy. In 2014, the Ambassador agreed to rebrand itself as part of the Autograph Collection Hotels of Marriott International.[2]

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ "Ambassador Hotel Tulsa to add Marriott's Autograph Collection as part of rebranding." Tulsa World. August 20, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2015.