Merchant Hotel

Coordinates: 54°36′04″N 5°55′30″W / 54.601°N 5.925°W / 54.601; -5.925

The Merchant Hotel is a five-star luxury hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The hotel is situated on Skipper Street.

History

The building was built in the mid-nineteenth century as the headquarters of the Ulster Bank, and was transformed into a hotel in 2006. A modern extension was constructed as well.

Tyrone Crystal built the chandelier for the Great Room, the designer was Marcus Notley. It is made out of embelished gold on metal and 2600 blown out crystal pieces. With 4.5m in height, 2.9m in diameter and a weight of 400kg, it is the largest chandelier in Ireland. The chandelier was installed in 2006.

In July 2009, Merchant Hotel won the "World's Best Hotel Bar" competition.

References

External links

Media related to Merchant Hotel, Belfast at Wikimedia Commons

Merchant Hotel (Oregon)

The Merchant Hotel is a historic former hotel building in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located at 121 N.W. Second Avenue in Old Town Chinatown. It is a contributing property in the Portland Skidmore/Old Town Historic District, which was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1977.

Brothers Louis, Adolph, and Theodore Nicolai were original owners of the hotel. It took four years to build, and the Second Avenue section was completed in 1880. The Third Avenue section opened in 1884. A luxury hotel, it boasted one of the first hydraulic elevators in the city and by 1889 had grown to take up half of the city block. The hotel was purchased by musician Eugene Stebinger in the 1890s.

It is one of the few remaining examples of Italianate, cast iron architecture on the West Coast. It received a $2 million seismic upgrade in 2004. Among the current residents of the building are Old Town Pizza and the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, which includes the Japanese American History Museum. The Faux Museum is in the corner storefront at N.W. Second and Davis. The building is reportedly haunted by a ghost called Nina.