Fairfax Hotel
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Fairfax Apartments (Fairfax Hotel)
1905–1907, Mitchell and Breese. c. 1985–1986, renovation. 117 W. City Hall Ave.
Originally one of several medium-sized hotels erected around the time of the Jamestown TerCentennial Exposition, the Fairfax is designed in the Renaissance palazzo mode. The main entrance is particularly handsome with its roundarched portal flanked by similarly shaped windows and set beneath a balcony into which the name of the hotel is incised. The lower section of the building is rusticated, and quoins divide the upper street facades vertically into bays. Terra-cotta panels alternate with windows at the seventh story; a glimpse of the eighth story may be seen over the replacement cornice. Following a long decline, the hotel was renovated and converted into apartments in the mid-1980s. The main lobby has been partially restored.
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