The Cavalier Hotel

The Cavalier Hotel

The photo above is the the front entrance to The Cavalier Hotel. 

The Cavalier is a historic hotel in Virginia Beach with a bountiful history. The final product of it's original construction was finished in 1927. This building is what helped sensationalize Virginia Beach, and it now is sitting in the "resort area" of Virginia Beach. Some notable figures have stayed at this place. This extensive list includes Frank Sinatra, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Muhammad Ali, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Bette Davis, Will Rogers, Fatty Arbuckle, and Benny Goodman. Most, if not all of these figures, are obviously notable. The fact there there were a handful of U.S. presidents to stay here is quite an interesting aspect too. There may have even been more people of importance who stayed here, but who weren't significant enough to be featured on The Cavalier's website.

This hotel has gone through quite a whirlwind during their timeline from their opening, to today. Opening up during the roaring twenties, and featuring such prestigious people throughout time, this hotel has managed to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When it originally opened, the hotel was set on a vast amount of land - 350 acres to be exact, and 290 of those acres was a golf course surrounding the hotel. As you'll see in my photos, residential housing has taken over a lot of this land. The original amount of rooms this hotel had was 195, but after it's long history, it's been reduced now only 85, commodious rooms and suites. It's also worth noting that many of the original 195 rooms were combined to make more spacious rooms.

This was quite a bustling hotel when originally opened. It had boutiques, offices for a photographer, stockbroker, and doctor, a salon, an ice cream store, and other miscellaneous retail shops in and throughout the hotel. To add more luxury to this glistening hotel, in 1929 they created the "Cavalier Beach Club" that showed popular bands for throughout time. This hotel stayed extravagant until, unfortunately, the military took the hotel for a few years. The hotel and its land became a place for radar training for U.S. Navy soldiers in 1942, which lasted 3 years during World War II. Why the military disrupted a grand place like this that was bringing in a lot of revenue to the local area, I don't know. The land was eventually given back to the owners in 1945. The website glosses over what the hotel's purpose was during the 50's and 60's, but some places say it held a private club during that time. In 1976, the hotel re-opened to the public.

Recently, in 2012, there was some controversy over this hotel. It had some structural weaknesses and had to go through a court ordered sale due to a dispute with the family who owned it. Luckily, a group called "The Cavalier Associates" won the bidding for the hotel - they were the only ones who didn't want to demolish the building, and quickly started planning to refurbish it. This was a long process and it's probably one of the main reasons why the hotel decreased in the amount of rooms and its overall size. Much of the surrounding land was sold to create residential housing, this gave them some money to help restore the hotel. They also made the street this hotel is on, Cavalier Drive, into a public street to collect tax benefits. Thankfully for this hotel's rich history, the new owners were given some grants combined with the other practices to get money raised for its restoration, and in 2014 they began restoring it. In effort to get the grants for the hotel being such an influential and historic place, 2014 was also the year The Cavalier got its name down in the National Registry of Historic Places.

The hotel officially reopened in Spring of 2018. It's budget had unexpected, additional demolition that increased the expected budget from $50 million, to $74 million by the end of it. It now only lays on 21 acres of land, and has 62 rooms, and 23 suits.

I should also mention that a sister cavalier opened up on Oceanfront in Virginia Beach in 1973. It was called "The Cavalier Oceanfront" and was eleven stories high overlooking the Atlantic. This is worth noting because they demolished this sister hotel in 2015, and now a new hotel is set to open on its land in 2020. I'm not sure if this new one has anything to do with the Cavalier name though, but it may be a future blog if it does.

So I self-toured through The Cavalier Hotel, and I'll take you on a virtual tour as well. I believe two photos are blurry, and that's because I took them nervously and quickly, but I think they're worth putting in here so you can feel like you're walking through it too. The place is pristine now, and it was filled with elegant people, so at times I felt overwhelmed taking a photo. I'll point out to these instances when I come to them.

Here is the circle leading up to the front entrance to the hotel. Since parking is for residents or guest only, I had to park on a residential street that had three hour parking. I walked up the pathway you can can see at the back center of this photo, and faced the front of the hotel that's behind me when taking this photo. The pathway to get here went behind a diverse many of astounding houses. They were residential houses that I'm assuming we're part of the land owned by the Cavalier that got sold off to help raise funds to restore it. 

While you've seen this photo, this is what I faced when walking out from the circle. So the circle and the pathway through the residential houses is behind me. I walked out from it and saw this extravagant sight.

Now this photo is a bit blurry. I was nervous when taking it. Even though I had been told that they offered self-guided tours, I felt out of place here. Pulling out my camera first thing did draw some attention. Luckily there was a man, who I'm going to guess was a valet driver or perhaps a doorman, who walked me inside. He was extremely friendly and talked to me about what a beautiful Mother's Day it was. I told him I was there to do a self-guided tour, and he told me about a few spots to check out. He was a nice, older gentlemen and I'm happy he was my first interaction at this hotel.

The photo above is what they call "The Grand Lobby." To the left and right there was spiral staircases leading down. I walked up however to get a pamphlet from the front desk for the tour.

This was above me when I took a picture of the Grand Lobby. A ravishing chandelier with an antique design surrounding it. This was one of the features that showed me they added the original 20's charm back into this recent restoration.

Here are the two chairs in the Grand Lobby. Behind it, the red room you see, is technically the front desk. A polite woman game me a self-guiding tour pamphlet when I told her that's what I was doing. The scarlet of the room was a striking aspect that stood out among all of the black and gold accents of the rest of the hotel.

I walked to the end of the lobby, and straight forward from it was a museum and gift shop. It had a lot of history written on the walls and in photos. I managed to capture this photo of some artwork of the Cavalier. The top left photo was an old photo of the grounds back in the hotel's heyday. That's my best guess anyways. You can see a vast amount of land in comparison to the present time.

If you go left right before the museum and gift shop, it leads to a gleaming room called "The Raleigh Room." It was a place where many people were sitting and lounging, enjoying some coffee and finger foods. This staircase was to the left, right before you entered the Raleigh Room. It had a black and gold accented 20's look to me, and the mirror on top was a bit eerie. It was also a lot darker to see, but I brightened it up a bit. This was a staircase for staff only though, so I couldn't walk up it.

Here is the first site I saw in the Raleigh Room. A man was playing the grand piano beautifully, and there was historic remakes of famous art on every wall. 

On the opposite wall of the piano was this attractive setup for guests to sit and begin having their morning tea or coffee. There were a few guests here lounging in other areas, so I obviously didn't take a photo of them or every setup like this. However, I did get a few setups that I'll post down below. There was a mirror behind this antique, green couch - you can see me taking a photo and my husband slightly standing besides me. We dressed nice to come visit this hotel so we wouldn't stick out too much.

This was next to the green couch, you can still slightly see it to the right. A painting of a girl is featured here and she goes well with the black, comfortable-looking chairs. She looks Russian to me, and I apologize to anyone who may know this painting and wants to yell at me that she most certainly isn't Russian, maybe you even want to lecture me on learning my historical figures too. Perhaps it's the hat that makes her look it though - whoever she is, she's absolutely stunning nonetheless. 

The back left wall had this decorative setup. More antique furniture and designs, and more remakes of famous artwork. You can see in the most right chair that it has an intricate design seen in the light.

This was in the back center wall. The deep, pink chairs accented by the woman's dress and single rose placed on the table was an artistic sight to see. I really tried to fix the lighting in this photo when editing, but then it became quite difficult to see the painting of the lovely woman featured. I apologize for the bright background. 

Outside of the museum and gift shop was the "Becca Garden." This was my first sight when stepping out of one of the doorways leading to it, it was to the right from the door. A fancy setup is featured with hanging vines and other contrasting greenery. This looks like another lounge area - perhaps it's a place for guest to have supper. The draping floral life and hanging lights looks remarkable.

On the opposite side of the elegant lounge area, to the left of the doorway outside, is this more casual lounge. It features a relaxing setup of rocking chairs and a fire pit. There are also some covered areas in the background for when the Virginia Beach humid weather starts making it's way out this summer. 

Here is an downward photo of spiral staircases, colorful flowers, and the circular middle of the Becca Garden. The lampposts are all 20's style as well. You can also see residential housing that sits on the land that was once all the Cavalier's. 

I'm now downward a bit and standing to the left of the original photo of the gardens. I'm straight above the white and pink flowers. 

Now I'm completely to the left of the flowers, on one of the rounded stairways down to the center circle. I love this charming photo as you can see the exquisite hotel, both lounge areas, and the spot where I took the first photo of the Becca Garden. They truly are keeping their garden in a pristine condition.

Here I am in the center of the circle, underneath the delicate, white archway. The shrubbery is all healthy and it was a magical area. Even though it was the center circle, it felt extremely private. I would liked to have danced in the middle there if it was nighttime and no one was around. I noticed a lot of the foliage had lights wrapped around it, so I can only imagine how glimmering this area is at night. A romantic spot for sure.

A photo I took from the circle of the hotel. The architecture is one of the most unique, well thought-out designs I've had the privilege to see.

I walked to the very right of the garden, past the rocking chair lounge area, and entered through another way back into the hotel. You can see they have tanning chairs out front, and if you look closely, there are poles with horses on them directly in front of the brick exterior. I felt like I was back in Saratoga Springs for a second. They call this place featured the "Grand Lawn Loggia." If the guest sit in these chairs, they can see the Atlantic Ocean across the roadway.

Here is through the door back into the hotel. This is another "loggia" of the hotel called "The Plunge Pool and Loggia." If you walk all the way to the end of this lounge area, and turn right, you'll be out in the Grand Lawn Loggia area again. If you turn left, you'll be in the pool room. I did not take any photos of the pool room. Many people were in bathing suits and a lot of people were eating brunch in there. I felt it would be an invasion of their privacy and a disturbance to their relaxation. I want to reiterate that the people staying at this grand hotel were elegant people. They seemed like old money to me. I didn't recognize anyone, but one of them could have been someone of significant importance and might have assumed I was taking a photo of them. Even if they weren't, I just didn't want to be disrespectful with so many people in the room. People, particularly old money, like their privacy. I found that out when exploring different places up in Saratoga Springs.

So this lounge area is a lovely area. The greenery on the wall and all of the shrubbery transitions well from the Becca Garden. It's a nice mixture of that, and fashionable furniture, like black and white chairs and table.

Here is an up-close picture of one of the furniture setups. Black and white are one of my favorite color combinations, so this setup was glamorous to see. You can also see the pool room a bit in the background through the windows. Just google search a photo of that, because it's worth seeing. Two of the staff members I talked to said it was their favorite room in the hotel. The pool water was a deep blue, and the whole room, including the furniture, was a color combination of black and white.

Wow, this looks familiar. We have now taken a left from the loggia, went through the pool room and came out of the doors in the left of this photo. One more place I'll show you on the lobby level is a snippet of the Crystal Ballroom. Do you see up the stairs, the doorway on the right side of photo. Not the one straight across from the pool room, but down the photo a bit, it looks darker and it's more across from the lobby area. That leads to a hallway that leads to the Crystal Ballroom. Also, the first door you see to the right, the one I told you to ignore that's straight across from the pool room, is another entrance to the crystal ballroom. That one was locked so I took the smaller hallways down to it. You can see how big the Crystal Ballroom is though with the distance between the hallway's doorway, and one of the direct entrances to the room.

Here was something featured in the hallway on the way to the Crystal Ballroom. I'm going to assume it's a part of the distillery down below that I'll feature a photo of later. I could very well be wrong though. It was too interesting not to put in.

Here is my one snippet of the Crystal Ballroom. I know, I didn't get photos of two luxurious areas of the hotel. This and the pool room. The crystal ballroom was filled with food and people getting ready for something. Maybe it was a reception, or some other sort of party. The people in there were wearing nice clothes and were staring at me and the camera in my hand like a hawk. I thought it best to not disturb the party, or attempt to take any photos. The place was ravishing though. Google search images of the Crystal Ballroom of the Cavalier as well. This photo is a good indicator of the sparkling interior. The grey look and mirrors featured looks like an ideal, shimmering entrance to a place called the "Crystal Ballroom." How did I take a picture of mirrors and not get myself in it? Have a good guess.

On the way out from the hallway, this antique phone was resting on a marble counter. It's the little touches like this that make me happy they restored such a historic place. Those who restored it gave the history justice with these fine touches throughout the hotel.

I've now walked down the lobby, back to the entrance of the Grand Lobby, and went down the stairways to the bottom floor. This is the photo above the staircases going down. Both staircases going left and right lead to the same place, which is under this twinkling chandelier and the large photo of men.

Here is my second blurry photo. We've turned around from the men-at-the-table photo, and this is what's behind us. A checkered floor that's so clean a reflection is gleaming, a distillery, and a spa. The distillery and alcohol shop were the black store to the right of this photo. The spa was at the very end of hallway, where the glass doors are open on the left.

Here is a photo of the distillery. The woman working in the shop selling the alcohol made here said they do give tours of the distillery. She told us this distillery is actually not original to the Cavalier when it was first built. I found this shocking since it felt like an original feature. I believe she said it was put in around 2006. It says in their tour template that this was the first craft distillery in the country to be put in a hotel. On the tour, I'm almost positive she said they give samples of the alcohol made there, so it may be something to try one of these days for my husband and I to have a date night.

Here is a crest on one of the doorways in the hotel. My husband wanted to take this photo. It's beautiful and the gold is yet another touch to show the 20's features of this hotel. I'm going to assume the C stands for Cavalier.

One more antique crest. There was one on each elevator, and this one definitely is representative of the Cavalier.

Now we're out of the hotel, past the Grand Lawn Loggia, and out on the street where the ongoing road through Virginia Beach passes by the hotel. To the left is the Atlantic Ocean, to the right is the front of the hotel. Not the entrance that we originally went in though.

Written above: "KV 31 - THE CAVALIER HOTEL - The Cavalier Hotel, completed in 1927, is emblematic of Virginia Beach's transformation from small town to major resort during the Roaring Twenties. The hotel's luxurious accommodations attracted visitors from across the country, including several U.S. presidents. It's 500-watt radio station, WSEA, was the first to report on the return of Charles Lindbergh to the United States after his transatlantic flight in 1927. The Cavalier Beach Club regularly hosted big band performances featuring international stars. During World War II, the U.S. Navy operated a radar training school at the hotel. The Classical Revival building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

Last, but certainly not least, is the view of the Cavalier from Atlantic Avenue, under the sign. You can see why I wanted to go here after passing by several times. A dazzling, sensational sight that holds so much awe in its story. I hope you enjoyed going through it with me, because I loved seeing the hotel and documenting its newfound restoration. The owners did a magnificent job bringing this piece of history back to life.