Birmingham ยท Downtown & the Heaviest Corner
Tutwiler Hotel
The 1914 Ridgely Apartments, a luxury apartment hotel; a DoubleTree since August 2026, and not the original Tutwiler Hotel, demolished in 1974.
- Built
- 1914Built 1914 as the Ridgely Apartments, an eight-story apartment hotel; remodeled into a hotel in the 1980s and given the Tutwiler name after the original Tutwiler Hotel was demolished in 1974. Bham Now says the Ridgely opened in 1913.
- Style
- Venetian Renaissance-derived arch motif
- Architect
- J. E. R. Carpenter, with William L. Welton (associate)
- Type
- Boutique hotel
- Rooms
- 149
- Area
- Downtown & the Heaviest Corner
- Credentials
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The story
The Ridgely was the first luxury apartment hotel in downtown Birmingham, financed by Major Edward Magruder Tutwiler and developed for his friend Robert Jemison Jr. Its features included private porches, a roof garden and a children’s playground. The separate original Tutwiler Hotel was demolished in 1974, and in the 1980s developers remodeled the Ridgely into a hotel and took the name. A $9 million renovation made it a Hampton Inn & Suites in 2007. A&R Group’s $7 million investment led to a DoubleTree by Hilton rebrand, marked by a ribbon-cutting on August 6, 2026.
The ghost story
Bham Now reports that sixth-floor guests have heard knocking at their doors with no one there and noises from empty rooms; an investigator it quotes says the spirit is a little girl, and a tour guide ties her to a family from the building's Ridgely Apartments years. WVTM 13 names rooms 613, 615 and 416 as sites of reported encounters, and StyleBlueprint repeats a 1995 bartender's story of lights switching on and a mysterious meal, credited to the ghost of Colonel Tutwiler.
Source: bhamnow.com
Good to know
- Address: 2021 Park Place, Birmingham, AL 35203
Sources (2)
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.