Philadelphia · Avenue of the Arts
The Bellevue Hotel
Opened in 1904 as the Bellevue-Stratford, the 'Grand Dame of Broad Street', and closed after the 1976 Legionnaires' outbreak; rooms fill floors 12–17.
- Built
- 1904Built 1902–04 as the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel (NPS significant years 1903, 1904, 1910); the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia dates the hotel to 1904. Guest rooms now occupy the 12th–17th floors of the historic building.
- Style
- French Renaissance (Beaux-Arts era)
- Architect
- G.W. & W.D. Hewitt (with Hewitt & Paist)
- Type
- Grand hotel
- Rooms
- 184
- Area
- Avenue of the Arts
- Credentials
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places; Inside a National Register historic district; Local landmark
The story
Designed by G.W. and W.D. Hewitt, the 19-story, steel-framed Bellevue-Stratford opened at Broad and Walnut in 1904 with 1,090 guest rooms, Thomas Edison-designed light fixtures and year-round roof gardens, and was nicknamed the ‘Grand Dame of Broad Street.’ In July 1976 an American Legion convention at the hotel was linked to an outbreak of a then-unknown pneumonia, later named Legionnaires’ disease; 34 of the 221 people who fell ill died, the bacteria were traced to the hotel’s air-conditioning system, and the hotel closed for lack of business. Today the hotel’s 184 rooms sit on the 12th to 17th floors, with the Sporting Club at The Bellevue fitness complex and the 19th-floor restaurant Pergola (formerly XIX).
Good to know
- Address: 200 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
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Sources (4)
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.