More than 150 people gathered Wednesday night for drinks, dinner, dessert and dancing as Charleston’s grand dame, the Francis Marion Hotel, celebrated 100 years at the epicenter of the Holy City.
“When it opened during the Roaring ‘20s and the Charleston Renaissance, the Francis Marion Hotel was the largest and grandest hotel in the Carolinas with 312 guestrooms, the Gold Ballroom and the Sky Terrace Ballroom,” co-owner Steve Dopp said in a welcome. “Notable guests over the years have included President Dwight Eisenhower, Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Doris Day, Bob Hope and Elvis Presley.”
Spoleto Festival USA’s Mena Mark Hanna and the Charleston Literary Festival’s Sarah Moriarty talk with Rotarian Karl Riner. Credit: Andy Brack 
Co-owner Steve Dopp and lawyer John Kuhn.. Credit: Andy Brack 
Charleston City Council member Mike Seekings and Rotarian Cleave Hamm. Credit: Andy Brack 
Dopp welcomes guests. 
WCBD meteorologist Rob Fowler, left, with dinner tablemates. 
Credit: Andy Brack
Among those in attendance Wednesday were several members of the Rotary Club of Charleston, whose predecessors raised $50,000 in stock in 1922 as part of the seed capital to fund the hotel’s construction. Dopp said that amount would be the equivalent of more than $1 million today and helped “to finance the construction of the hotel and then [they] met here for over 50 years.”
Dopp recalled buying the hotel with partner Greg Lenox in 1989 after it had been closed for about a year. Six years later working with some limited partners, they raised $1.25 million in equity “and they took some real risk as this part of King Street had not yet come back. I think they would all agree that their investment has worked out remarkably well. We completed the $12 million restoration and reopened in 1996.”
Dopp also thanked the area’s historic preservation organizations, civic organizations, banks, businesses and several nonprofits with which it has been aligned through the years. The hotel also received congratulatory proclamations from Historic Hotels of America and the City of Charleston.
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