MERIDIAN — A historic building in east Mississippi built in the late 1920s has reopened as a hotel.
The Threefoot Hotel in Meridian opened its doors this week after years of renovation and restoration work by Ascent Hospitality, LLC, the company that owns the property.
The 16-story Art Deco structure was built in 1929 and is the tallest building in east Mississippi, according to a news release. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and designated a Mississippi Landmark in 2008.
Before its renovation, the building was an office space. It had been vacant since the 1990s, and local leaders set out to preserve it in the mid-2000s. The Meridian City Council approved a sale agreement for the building in October 2015.
The renovated hotel has 110 luxury guest rooms, 19 suites and two presidential suites with balconies. The hotel also contains a farm-to-table American restaurant, 6:01 Local, and a rooftop bar, The Boxcar. The names honor the city’s early 20th Century rail history, when five rail lines with 44 daily trains made Meridian the largest city in Mississippi.
John Tampa, president and CEO of Ascent Hospitality Management Company, said the company worked to preserve the unique mosaic work on the building’s exterior and the elevator lobby’s marble wainscoting, flooring, mail shoot and the original Art Deco light fixtures. The ground floor elevator contains its original, ornate brass etched doors, polished during the renovation.
“The building joined the landscape in the early 20th Century when Meridian was a force in railroad-dominated industry,” John Tampa with Ascent Hospitality Management Company LLC said in the news release. “We have brought the Threefoot back in a way that captures that luxuriant feel of the ‘Golden Age of Travel.’ “
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