A closer look at the Campbell Hotel

For many months, we’d watched as the former Casa Loma Hotel building on Route 66 in Tulsa was being renovated. A few weeks ago, a new neon sign had been installed for what is now called the Campbell Hotel.

With the Tulsa Designer Showcase starting this weekend, we finally had a chance to see what the building would look like on the inside. Photos usually aren’t allowed, but I received permission from the showcase’s director to capture a few images for Route 66 News readers. The event is designed to let local interior designers show off their talents, and raise money for the Foundation for Tulsa Schools.

First, a few facts. The block-long structure was built in 1927 as a 36-room hotel on its second floor and a host of businesses on the ground floor, including a drugstore, grocery, and barbershop. Group M Investment acquired the building in 2008 to bring it back as a luxury boutique hotel. Rechristened the Campbell Hotel after its creator Max Campbell, it will contain guest rooms on the second floor and an events center on the first floor. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A postcard provided by Designer Showcase volunteers listed the amenities of the hotel when it opens:

• 26 themed guest rooms
• Introductory rates of $119 a night
• Continental breakfast
• Laundry and dry-cleaning service
• High-speed Wi-Fi
• 24-hour security and front desk
• Complimentary parking on-site and airport shuttle
• Daily newspaper available in the lobby
• Spa and salon
• Seating area with a fireplace in the lobby
• Small conference room on the second floor
• 4,000-square-foot event center on first floor

Guests enter the hotel from the back, which includes a good-sized parking lot.

And here is the front lobby of the Campbell Hotel.

And this is the events center, which will be used for business conferences, receptions, and the like:

The second floor contains all of the guest rooms, which are down a series of hallways with original wood flooring.

We noted that many of the bathrooms in the Campbell Hotel contain the original honeycombed floor tile.

Several bathrooms even boast the original porcelain tub.

The Campbell Hotel also kept the transom windows above the doors as a way to identify room numbers.

Those windows were used for ventilation. I doubt those windows will tilt inward as they once did, however.

Each of the 26 guest rooms was decorated in a certain theme. Here’s a look at the Rose Bowl room, which pays homage to the former Rose Bowl bowling center down the street on Tulsa’s Route 66.

And here’s one of the Art Deco rooms, which includes a nod to the historic Warehouse Market building about a mile away on Route 66:

The Designer Showcase featured rooms paying tribute to American Indians, the University of Tulsa, cowboys, and local musicians Patti Page and Leon Russell. Volunteers cautioned that although the hotel’s owners have purchased some decor from the event, not all of it will be kept.

Regardless how much decor stays, I came away impressed. The rooms are good-sized, with big bathrooms and deep closets. Enough of the hotel’s old charm has been retained. And in addition to being on Route 66, the Campbell Hotel is walking distance to the University of Tulsa and a short drive to downtown, the Cherry Street and Utica Square shopping areas, and numerous other attractions.