How Did It Become So Grand?

I promise not to write too many more pieces about the fractionals at the St. Andrews Grand. But I truly appreciate the restoration of historic architecture and I am glad to see a landmark building restored to a place of grandeur and dignity.

The six-story, red brick structure, which sits across the street from the clubhouse at St. Andrews golf course, was originally constructed with Dumfries red sandstone quarried in southern Scotland. In 1895, it opened for business as the Grand Hotel. Those who have played the Old Course at St. Andrews–truly the home of golf–will tell you that the building’s cupola looms above the eighteenth green. Walk across the Swilcan Bridge, and the eighteenth hole is framed by the Valley of Sin to the front, and the red brick fortress of the old Grand Hotel behind.

Rudyard Kipling and King Edward VIII are listed among the notable guests at the Grand Hotel. And, of course, many of golf’s early greats stayed there, including the legendary amateur Bobby Jones, who was a hotel guest when he claimed his 1927 victory at The Open, one of three times he won the event, and one of thirteen Major Championship victories he achieved during his career.

In 1949, St. Andrews University purchased the Grand Hotel and converted it to dormitory space. Then, in 2004, Wasserman Real Estate of Providence, Rhode Island, bought Hamilton Hall from the university and commenced their plans for renovation and restoration as a showpiece fractional property. The architectural firms of Hurd Rolland Partnership (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Van Tilburg, Banvard, and Soderbergh (Santa Monica, California, USA), and designer Randall Ridless, are working together to protect and preserve the integrity of the building’s design, decor, and harmony within the historic environment.