The Hotel Stratford is a historic hotel located at 229 Market St. in Alton, Illinois. The hotel, originally known as the Illini Hotel, opened in 1909. St. Louis architectural firm Barnett, Haynes & Barnett designed the hotel in the Classical Revival style. The five-story

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

building features brick

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

s, limestone bands and window sills, terra cotta ornamentation, and a cantilevered

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. The hotel opened a rooftop garden in 1910 and a reception room in 1912, and it became one of many hotels which drew conventions to Alton; a contemporary newspaper account described the building as part of the "greatest improvement in property in the city of Alton". In 1925, new owner E. J. Lockyer renamed the hotel to its current name. The hotel is the only hotel built in Alton before 1950 that is still in operation. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 27, 2000.

References

Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Neoclassical architecture in Illinois Hotel buildings completed in 1909 National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Illinois Buildings and structures in Madison County, Illinois {{MadisonCountyIL-NRHP-stub