For many destinations, the key to future success means looking backward. All across the country a commitment to historic preservation is transforming once blighted or lackluster areas into living illustrations of a destination’s unique origins.
For meetings, this trend is bringing a wealth of distinctive places in which to sleep, meet, dine, explore, and celebrate. The experiences available are as diverse and memorable as the destinations themselves, everything from gathering in the same hall where the First Continental Congress once met to wandering along the narrow pathways of a 1,000-year-old pueblo perched on top of a New Mexican mesa.
Here are a few examples of places that are making the most of their pasts.
Philadelphia: City of Firsts
While the City of Brotherly Love, the nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800, was soon overshadowed by a burgeoning New York City and a new capital, Washington, D.C., everything has turned out well for Philadelphia. Few cities boast such an enviable legacy, including an intact historic district with such venues as Carpenter’s Hall, where the First Continental Congress met.
Just how relevant is this historic legacy for attracting meetings?
“It’s very important. It builds a base from which to launch any type of theme or program,” says Jack Ferguson, executive vice president of conventions for the Philadelphia CVB. “Ben Franklin is just as much associated with the city now as he was back then.”
In fact, Franklin, whose 300th birthday was celebrated last year, may have played a part in influencing the International Association of Fire Chiefs to book two future conventions in Philadelphia for 2010 and 2013. It didn’t hurt the CVB’s bid that Franklin formed America’s first volunteer fire department in 1736 and that the city offers the Fireman’s Hall Museum in a restored firehouse.
Philadelphia has a cluster of new major attractions celebrating its central role in the nation’s history, among them the National Constitution Center, Independence Visitors Center and Liberty Bell Center. They all opened at a total cost of $235 million within the past few years.
The city is continuing its restoration efforts. Franklin Square, one of its five original squares, came to life last July following a $6.5 million renovation. It features a carousel, two playgrounds, minigolf, crafts, and story-telling programs.
Philadelphia has long offered such historic magnets as the Betsy Ross House and such standout museums as the Franklin Institute, hosting the King Tutankhamun Exhibit until Sept. 30.
In addition, the city contains a wealth of lesser-known gems, many with event space, that work especially well in medical or scientific meeting programs. They include Pennsylvania Hospital, the country’s first hospital, where visitors can tour a colonial surgical amphitheater; and the historical Mutter Museum, famous for its oddball medical anomalies.
Albuquerque: Millennia Destination
In 1706, the year Ben Franklin was born, Spanish colonists first settled in the high-desert country by the Rio Grande and the Sandia Mountains they called Albuquerque. Last October saw the finale of 18 months of 300th anniversary celebrations.
Albuquerque’s must-see attraction is Old Town, with its Pueblo-Spanish architecture and plazas centered on historic San Felipe de Neri Church, site of the original settlement. Old Town has hotels, 150 shops, more than 20 galleries, restaurants, and six museums. It’s less than two miles from a revitalized downtown, home to the 600,000-square-foot Albuquerque Convention Center.
“A city with deep roots in history is always looking for ways to position itself in the market, and we’re totally unique and authentic, from our food and culture to our environment,” says Linda Brown, vice president of convention sales at the Albuquerque CVB.
“We can provide different kinds of themes, which meeting planners like,” she says, adding that themed entertainment can include dancers, flute players and storytellers from the nearby Native American pueblos. She adds that the city is also known for affordable original art and handicrafts.
Convention programs often include a “Night in Old Town” dine-around or tours of such sites as pueblos, history museums and the Petroglyph National Monument.
Another prime location attraction is the Indian Pueblo Center, where the state’s 19 pueblos are represented. The center has just unveiled an expansion that includes a new event arena and has launched a tour program to several nearby pueblos, including Acoma Sky City.
An hour west of the city off I-40, Acoma Sky City features a sheer-walled, 370-foot-high sandstone mesa. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this is North America’s oldest continuously inhabited community. People have lived in Acoma since 1150, and 15 families still reside in the pueblo year-round.
Sky City offers tours of its adobe houses, plazas and a church dating from 1640. It recently opened the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum.
Virginia’s Historic Triangle
Virginia has been planning for Jamestown 2007 over the past decade, with new attractions interpreting Jamestown’s history opening across the Tidewater Peninsula.
“We started marketing Jamestown 2007 for groups three years ago and we’ve been very pleased with the response. The town has been very busy,” says Kate Hamaker, director of conference sales at the Williamsburg Area CVB, which promotes the “Historic Triangle” of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. “We’re best suited to groups of up to 300 people but we’ve had them up to 1,000.”
At the Jamestown Historical Site, the $4.9 million “Historic Jamestowne Archaearium” opened last year. Here, hundreds of objects excavated at the Jamestown fort over the last decade are revealed to the public for the first time. Also, in January, the National Park Service opened a new 18,000-square-foot visitor center.
Nearby is the state-run Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum with three replica ships, villages, costumed interpreters, and activities. In the past few years it has expanded in phases with a new visitor center, a theater and galleries totaling 30,000 square feet.
Adjoining the city of Williamsburg is 300-acre Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia’s capital from 1669 to 1780. Billed as the world’s largest living history museum, it features hundreds of original and reconstructed buildings. Among off-site venue possibilities are four taverns and the Governor’s Palace.
The five Colonial Williamsburg properties have more than 1,000 of the area’s 10,000 guest rooms. More than $200 million has been spent on hotel renovations and expansions during the past six years, including the reopening of the 65-year-old Williamsburg Lodge last fall.
The renovated property has a new 20,000-square-foot spa and a new conference center with 45,000 square feet of meeting space that includes the second-largest ballroom in the area. There are also 126 new guest rooms at the lodge, bringing its total to 323.
St. Louis: Preservation City
The Gateway City has made the most out of its role in opening up the West.
Its signature attraction on the banks of the Mississippi, the Gateway Arch, turned 40 in 2005. Built to honor Thomas Jefferson and his westward vision, it features the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, which includes the Museum of Westward Expansion with a Louis and Clark exhibition running until Sept. 23. The complex also offers off-site venues that include the 1860s Historic Old Courthouse and riverboat cruises.
Nearby is the America’s Center convention complex, the new Busch Stadium and the Leclede’s Landing entertainment district. Filling a site between Leclede’s and the convention complex is Pinnacle Entertainment’s $430 million Pinnacle Casino, set to open this fall.
Some $3.5 billion in new development surrounds the America’s Center convention complex, which includes 502,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space, an IACC-certified conference center, a 1,400-seat theater, and the Edward Jones Dome.
“We now have a well-rounded product,” says Donna Andrews, spokeswoman for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission. “Everything is gorgeous. We have boutique stores, restaurants, lots of nightlife, and green space. Old brick warehouses have been restored. People are returning to live downtown.”
St. Louis has received accolades for the preservation of old buildings in its downtown core, where 2,600 hotel rooms have been added in recent years.
A warehouse built for JC Penney in 1929 is now the Sheraton St. Louis City Center Hotel & Suites. The city also has the Drury Plaza Hotel, formerly a 1919 warehouse; Hilton St. Louis Downtown, a 112-year-old bank building; and Westin St. Louis, once a 19th century railroad warehouses called Cupples Station.
