The city's oldest operating hotel is expected to undergo a $2.5 million face lift this summer that will take six to eight months to complete.
"We are going to do it all in conjunction to satisfy the historical society and restore it in a historic fashion," said Scott Mills, who owns the hotel along with his wife, Jo Ann.The century-old Hotel Roberts is located in Provo's historic district.
The land was purchased in 1882 by Esther Chidester Pulsipher, who built what remains of the southwest corner of the building and ran the hotel as the Occidental Boarding House.
The Roberts family bought the hotel from Pulsipher in 1885, naming it the Hotel Roberts. The outside of the building was originally brick and now stucco, which Mills said will stay.
"The Spanish stucco on the outside of the building is so much a part of the history of the hotel since it was put on in the 1920s that we chose to leave the Spanish stucco," he said. "We are going to allow the hotel to be what it wants to be and not necessarily change it."
The hotel's visitors have included Helen Keller and her teacher, as well as former President William Howard Taft, who stayed there in the 1920s - about the time he was chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the memoirs of Geneva Roberts Dunn, the oldest daughter of W.D. Roberts.
Mills acknowledges that many of the hotel's current clientele are lower-income customers put up for the night by social services agencies.
"People might have lost their houses, lost their job, they might have been passing through town and their car broke down and they don't have any money," Mills said. "In some of these cases, the agencies will help people out for one or two nights."
Mills said the planned repairs are not meant to discourage that clientele. But he acknowledges many of the agencies may no longer be able to afford the new rates planned after the renovation.
The hotel now charges $25 to $30 a night for a room - $13 to $16 for a room without a private bathroom. Rates are expected to increase to $50 a night.
"When the renovation comes, we will be placed in an entirely different market than what we are in now," Mills said.
At present, there are 67 rooms in the hotel. The number of rooms will drop to about 54 after the restoration is complete.
All of the rooms will have a private bathroom, new phone lines and computer access, Mills said. A fountain in the hotel's courtyard also will be restored to its original height.
Mills said work is expected to begin once the necessary loans are secured.