Actually, the main wing of the Continental Plaza opened in November 1963, while the adjacent tower wing, which doubled the hotel's size, opened in August 1974.


The original 1963 wing is in the foreground, the much taller 1974 addition is behind it, on the right.

It's true, any building over 50 years is eligible to be part of the Historic Hotels of America, for example.

However, I tend to think that only pre-WWII hotels really count as historic. Hotels before the era of mass automobile/air travel were built to a different standard. They were built to last forever, with stone, marble, hard woods, etc, and they were built with classical interiors of permanent materials.

Post-WWII hotels were built with facades that were often radically altered within a few years, and with interiors of mainly flimsy materials that were refreshed countless times, so almost none of them retain their original design.

There have been a few noble attempts to renovate grand post-WWII hotels in a historically faithful manner, like the Statler in Dallas, but most have been remodeled beyond all recognition, like The Westin Michigan Avenue, for example.




Hotels like this only tend to retain historic elements if they were too expensive to remove over the years, like the spiral staircase in the lobby of The Westin Michigan Avenue