Cresthil By Hilton: The Predecessor to Hilton Garden Inn
Sep 19, 2020, 3:36 pm
#61
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 589
I hope nothing has been cast in concrete yet. Because the first ever property I have been able to find - trading under that name - is Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh/Southpointe in Canonsburg, PA. It appears to have opened in late 1990, a full year before the Cresthil-properties changed their name to HGI and more than half a year before the Detroit-Southfield (Compri)-hotel reopened as a HGI. If I had nothing else to do I would get to the bottom of it soon.
Sep 19, 2020, 3:58 pm
#62
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 2,506
I hope nothing has been cast in concrete yet. Because the first ever property I have been able to find - trading under that name - is Hilton Garden Inn Pittsburgh/Southpointe in Canonsburg, PA. It appears to have opened in late 1990, a full year before the Cresthil-properties changed their name to HGI and more than half a year before the Detroit-Southfield (Compri)-hotel reopened as a HGI. If I had nothing else to do I would get to the bottom of it soon.
Honestly, Cresthil seems like the name of a 55+ planned living community.
Sep 19, 2020, 4:02 pm
#63
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 589
I wonder if that was their way of testing out a 2nd brand before deciding whether to bring them over? It was still in the CH brand infancy, so it would allow them to try out the HGI stuff and pick whichever one seemed to do better.
Honestly, Cresthil seems like the name of a 55+ planned living community.
Honestly, Cresthil seems like the name of a 55+ planned living community.
Sep 21, 2020, 12:10 pm
#64
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Posts: 9,995
Good point about Cresthil sounding like a retirement community. I am sure it was also frequently misspelled, given Hilton's unique spelling (I presume to better enable it to be a registered trade mark). This is back when people still used phone books and live travel agents and directory assistance operators. I wonder how often people were told, "I'm sorry, sir, I can find nothing listed under that name." So while "Garden Inn" is nothing to write home about, it clearly was the better name.
Sep 21, 2020, 12:43 pm
#65
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 589
Good point about Cresthil sounding like a retirement community. I am sure it was also frequently misspelled, given Hilton's unique spelling (I presume to better enable it to be a registered trade mark). This is back when people still used phone books and live travel agents and directory assistance operators. I wonder how often people were told, "I'm sorry, sir, I can find nothing listed under that name." So while "Garden Inn" is nothing to write home about, it clearly was the better name.
Sep 21, 2020, 1:37 pm
#66
Join Date: Feb 2005
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I wonder if that was their way of testing out a 2nd brand before deciding whether to bring them over? It was still in the CH brand infancy, so it would allow them to try out the HGI stuff and pick whichever one seemed to do better.
Honestly, Cresthil seems like the name of a 55+ planned living community.
Honestly, Cresthil seems like the name of a 55+ planned living community.
Great thread (and surprised I've never seen it before) -- I've driven by the HGI Southfield many times, considered staying a few but never have (the Embassy Suites across the freeway beat it handily on cost/value the last time I was in the immediate area, others it's been considerably farther than the nearest Hilton-family with no price advantage to justify being out of the way) -- and had always wondered how that HGI being the "first" with the uninspired-borderline brutalist exterior architecture got the "Garden" name or even was derived from/inspired by the Courtyard brand but looking at the other early properties it makes a lot more sense.
Also interesting to see the stylized and very 70s Hilton H make its appearance on the early signage
For the "Hilton Inns" red herring I had thought that at one point in the many iterations of the ultimate corporate overlord (as "Hilton Inns of America" but apparently it existed only as a franchisor for the non-major-market full-line Hiltons -- or at least I haven't found any concrete evidence indicating otherwise. Digging through it it seems like Hilton's ultimate corporate parent has changed, morphed, and been replaced with some considerable frequency over the years.
Sep 21, 2020, 1:39 pm
#67
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 589
"Come live out your years over the hill at Cresthil... Where it's all downhill from here"
Great thread (and surprised I've never seen it before) -- I've driven by the HGI Southfield many times, considered staying a few but never have (the Embassy Suites across the freeway beat it handily on cost/value the last time I was in the immediate area, others it's been considerably farther than the nearest Hilton-family with no price advantage to justify being out of the way) -- and had always wondered how that HGI being the "first" with the uninspired-borderline brutalist exterior architecture got the "Garden" name or even was derived from/inspired by the Courtyard brand but looking at the other early properties it makes a lot more sense.
Also interesting to see the stylized and very 70s Hilton H make its appearance on the early signage
For the "Hilton Inns" red herring I had thought that at one point in the many iterations of the ultimate corporate overlord (as "Hilton Inns of America" but apparently it existed only as a franchisor for the non-major-market full-line Hiltons -- or at least I haven't found any concrete evidence indicating otherwise. Digging through it it seems like Hilton's ultimate corporate parent has changed, morphed, and been replaced with some considerable frequency over the years.
Great thread (and surprised I've never seen it before) -- I've driven by the HGI Southfield many times, considered staying a few but never have (the Embassy Suites across the freeway beat it handily on cost/value the last time I was in the immediate area, others it's been considerably farther than the nearest Hilton-family with no price advantage to justify being out of the way) -- and had always wondered how that HGI being the "first" with the uninspired-borderline brutalist exterior architecture got the "Garden" name or even was derived from/inspired by the Courtyard brand but looking at the other early properties it makes a lot more sense.
Also interesting to see the stylized and very 70s Hilton H make its appearance on the early signage
For the "Hilton Inns" red herring I had thought that at one point in the many iterations of the ultimate corporate overlord (as "Hilton Inns of America" but apparently it existed only as a franchisor for the non-major-market full-line Hiltons -- or at least I haven't found any concrete evidence indicating otherwise. Digging through it it seems like Hilton's ultimate corporate parent has changed, morphed, and been replaced with some considerable frequency over the years.
May 26, 2022, 6:34 pm
#68
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I used to go back and forth between the Eden and HGI in Lancaster, but haven’t been around recently enough to recall whether the fire escape map still had Cresthil on it. Was there an outdated rate card number on the inside door too, or did they manage to keep that updated with the name nowadays?
May 28, 2022, 2:27 am
#69
Join Date: Jul 2012
Programs: HH D
Posts: 1,639
I used to go back and forth between the Eden and HGI in Lancaster, but haven’t been around recently enough to recall whether the fire escape map still had Cresthil on it. Was there an outdated rate card number on the inside door too, or did they manage to keep that updated with the name nowadays?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/360123457417
hint: Scoll down to see the logo.
Last edited by Sisosig; Mar 19, 2023 at 6:19 am Reason: added hint
Jun 7, 2022, 3:49 pm
#70
formerly Will Stonehocker
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 589
I used to go back and forth between the Eden and HGI in Lancaster, but haven’t been around recently enough to recall whether the fire escape map still had Cresthil on it. Was there an outdated rate card number on the inside door too, or did they manage to keep that updated with the name nowadays?
Last edited by cblaisd; Jun 7, 2022 at 6:07 pm Reason: merged poster's two consecutive posts