H.L. Stevens & Company was an American architectural firm that designed hotels around the United States.[1][2][3] It was based in Chicago-, New York-, and San Francisco. At least 15 of its works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their architecture.[4]
The firm specialized in small (less than 500 rooms) hotels and apartment houses in a Georgian Revival or Colonial Revival style in either a rectangular or H-shape, which in at least one case was viewed as a refreshing change from the small, squarish hotels that a city had previously experienced. Their buildings, primarily in the Northeast, are in many cases still extant.[1]
In 1912, there was some dispute surrounding the State of Illinois's approval of the firm as an architectural firm, because, as a corporation, it appeared incorrect to allow the designation of the corporation as a licensed architect.[5]
The firm developed hospitals during World War I. During that time, it created an integrated approach to design and construction that would be termed "fast-tracking" today; it applied this approach to its development of hotels starting with the Penn Alto Hotel.[3]
Works include (with attribution that varies in punctuation):
Burritt Hotel, 67 W. Main St., New Britain, Connecticut, (Stevens, H.L., Company), NRHP-listed[4]
Franklin Hotel, 176 East Main St., Kent, Ohio, (Stevens, H.L. & Co.), NRHP-listed[4]
One or more works in Downtown Birmingham Historic District, boundary increase II: roughly along 23rd St. and 3rd Ave., bounded by 5th Ave., 22nd St., and 2nd Ave., Birmingham, Alabama, (Stevens, H.L.), NRHP-listed[4]
