One marvelous makeover
Thanks to a visionary father and helpful sons, the old Hotel Belvidere is nearly fully restored to its former glory
Monday, February 26, 2007
BY MIKE FRASSINELLI
Star-Ledger Staff

It had been a landmark since the early 19th century, when lanterns supplied the light and patrons descended to the basement tavern to bid on pieces of the noose used in public hangings next door.

But when Jeremy Deutsch flew in from Ohio three years ago to visit the building that his father, Sidney, had just bought, the 1831 Hotel Belvidere looked every bit of its century and three quarters.

Doors were falling apart. So was a pigeon coop in the back. The wooden floor was rotted.

"I thought he was off his rocker," the son admitted. "There were holes in the floorboards. You could see all the way down to the basement. Literally, if you took a step you would go all the way through."

These days, after a renovation that has restored the historic Warren County building to its past splendor, the son has another word to describe his dad: "Visionary."

"He was able to see the beauty in this and turn it around," said Jeremy Deutsch, now Hotel Belvidere manager.

Having opened the hotel on Front Street to visitors about a year ago, Sidney Deutsch is preparing to work on the final stages of the renovation -- the basement area that could once again be home to a tavern, and a 2,000-square-foot section of the first floor that could house a coffee shop.

Joe Hyziak, co-owner of Service Partner Inc., an independent electronic component distributor in Belvidere, last month attended a post-holiday party at the hotel with about 40 customers and employees.

"He did a nice job trying to keep the architecture and some of the features the same," said Hyziak, who renovated a dilapidated industrial warehouse.

In 1831, the hotel was lit by lanterns and candles. The basement bar was used to circumvent a town ordinance prohibiting drinking alcohol above street level, Jeremy Deutsch noted.

There, patrons stood at a bar without stools. If a patron was too drunk to stand, he was too drunk to be served.

After Prohibition's end, the bar was moved to the first floor and, following World War II, became known as "Harry's Blue Room." The Blue Room had a 72-foot horseshoe-shaped bar, one of the biggest in northwestern New Jersey, Jeremy Deutsch said.

As with any hotel that dates back more than 175 years, stories abound about supposed visitors.

Instead of the usual "Washington slept here" story, the hotel has a "Millard Fillmore visited here" claim.

Jeremy Deutsch thinks it must be true, rationalizing that if somebody were to fib about a 19th century president who visited, surely they would pick a better-known name like Abraham Lincoln.

Another visitor rumored to have walked into the tin-roofed tavern and stayed at the hotel was Tiny Tim, the falsetto-voiced singer of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."

A fire, believed to have been set by a woman who lit a wastepaper basket in a closet, burned the hotel on the first day of winter in 1958. The hotel reopened the next year.

In recent years, the hotel became a weathered refuge where a dozen people paid $50 a week to stay at a building with one working shower and two working toilets.

Then, Adam Deutsch got thirsty one night.

Another son of Sidney's, Adam Deutsch wondered whether Belvidere had more than one bar. He found out the Hotel Belvidere had one of the town's two liquor licenses (the other is a tavern on Greenwich Street).

He told his father about the hotel. The father, who worked in real estate and moved from Branchburg to retire to White Township in Warren County, looked at the building. He was impressed by the neighborhood, which includes a library and the 1826 Warren County Courthouse, once the site of public hangings. Following executions at the courthouse, spectators customarily would go next door to the Hotel Belvidere tavern, where pieces of the rope were auctioned.

At first, Sidney Deutsch thought about converting the hotel into apartments. Then, after getting calls from people wanting to stay at the building for a few nights at a time, he decided to keep it as a hotel.

Adam Deutsch helped with the construction, while brother Greg helped with computers and technical support and brother Jeremy helped with marketing and general operations.

Jeremy Deutsch was working on a political campaign in Ohio in November 2003, when his dad told him about a great hotel he found in Belvidere. He flew in and saw the rotted floorboards and doors and pigeon coop.

"I was expecting something a little different," Jeremy Deutsch said.

"I guess it was like what you would call a diamond in the rough," Sidney Deutsch said. "Not that it was easy to polish it off."

Touches from days gone by include original attic windows, banisters and doors. Also remaining are old dressers and a three-door icebox that used to go underneath the counter of the wooden bar.

Saving the stone walls where they could, contractors put in a half-dozen suites, nine rooms for day-to-day occupancy and eight rooms on another wing.

Soon, Sidney Deutsch will determine how he wants to renovate the final portions of the hotel.

But it will be at his pace.

"For two years, the building told me what to do," he said. "We get to pick and choose now."

Mike Frassinelli may be reached at mfrassinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218.

© 2007 The Star Ledger

Family builds new future for old hotel
Tarnished community gem refurbished.
With little competition and lots of work, success is possible

Monday, April 17, 2006
BY LYNN OLANOFF
The Express-Times
BELVIDERE - The 175-year-old Hotel Belvidere probably has as many stories as it does years in existence.

There's the hand-carved mahogany bar where people would gather in the 1800s after public hangings at the courthouse next door.

There's the infamous fire of 1958 that destroyed the rear half of the third floor.

And for the past couple of decades, most of the stories have been about how the hotel had become rundown with its rooms used for long-term living quarters.

Now there's a new story about the building at Front and Hardwick streets.

It was reopened in January as a 13-room hotel with a new exterior modeled on its historic appearance with full wrap-around porches.

Inside, the original banister from 1831 is part of an elegant lobby with a two-tier staircase. The rest of the interior was essentially gutted, with modern rooms and suites replacing rooms that had fallen into disrepair.

"We've had a great response from the town for what we did," said owner Sidney Deutsch, who spent more than two years renovating the building. "Most of the town people feel this is their building we're just the custodians."

No competition in town

Town business owners and officials see the hotel as a key property to revitalize businesses and bring in tourists.

"In my mind, it will be the anchor of the town as far as tourism and the economy," said Anne-Marie Farley, co-owner of the Rose Cottage, a gift and antique shop.

There are no other hotels in Belvidere and few others in Warren County.

"People ask where they can stay and now we have a place to send them," said Giselle Palmasano, chairwoman of the Belvidere Economic Development and Tourism Committee.

The lack of major competition in the area has given Hotel Belvidere a better first three months than expected, said Jeremy Deutsch, Sidney's son, who along with his brother, Adam, and his mother, Alma, are the hotel's entire staff. Relatives of residents visiting for weddings or birthdays have been weekend guests while business travelers for DSM, BASF or county government have stayed during the week. Rooms rent for $79 a night and suites, $99.

"There's weekends in May, June forget it there's no room at the inn," Jeremy Deutsch said.

Renovations, eatery eyed

The Deutschs have plans to renovate another eight to 10 hotel rooms, as well as the historic bar. A restaurant or a deli also will likely be built in the next year, said Sidney Deutsch, who ran a deli for 35 years in Somerset County before moving to the Brookfield senior development in White Township about five years ago. He also has owned other restaurants and apartment complexes, but this is his first hotel.

"It is a very welcome addition to have them open," said Art Charlton, director of the Warren County Public Information and Tourism Department.

Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com.