{"id":878107,"date":"2026-06-19T11:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/878107\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T11:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T11:24:28","slug":"a-historic-hotel-in-dallas-that-hosted-audrey-hepburn-and-elvis-presley-reopens-after-a-major-renovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/878107\/","title":{"rendered":"A Historic Hotel in Dallas That Hosted Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley Reopens After a Major Renovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated4 min read<\/p>\n

The Stoneleigh has been a fixture of Dallas life for more than a century. Opened in 1923, the property was the tallest building west of the Mississippi at the time of its completion, and it remains the second-oldest hotel in the city. Now, after an extensive renovation led by London and Los Angeles-based interior design studio Fettle, the Autograph Collection hotel<\/a> has reopened with a design that treats its layered history not as a constraint but as a blueprint.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s story is inseparable from the name Dorothy Draper<\/a>, the legendary American decorator who was hired by Colonel Stewart, a local businessman and hotelier, after he purchased the property in the 1930s. Draper left her mark in ways that are still visible today, most notably in the 400-year-old wood paneling she imported from London\u2019s Charterhouse School, which lines the Music Room on the 11th floor. She also designed custom wallpaper for the corridors\u2014and, unhappy with how it arrived, had it installed upside down in the 11th floor bedroom corridor.<\/p>\n

\"ElegantThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

A look down the 11th floor corridor.<\/p>\n

Fettle<\/a> co-founder Tom Parker describes the project less as a renovation than a restoration, an exercise in recovering what made the building exceptional in the first place. \u201cThe building has a very rich and elaborate history which heavily guided our design approach,” Parker tells T&C. \u201cThe building was a good example of the translation of the Beaux Arts period and how that manifested visually in the Southern states, where geometric and hard lines are seen in the decorative details.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Beaux-Arts vocabulary runs throughout the redesign. Custom carpets echo the period\u2019s geometric pattern work. Printed details in the wainscoting and casing carry the same geometric motifs into the guest rooms. Nearly every piece of furniture, lighting, fabric, and wall-covering was designed bespoke for the project, with the studio drawing on storied design houses including House of Hackney, Schumacher, and Sogni di Cristallo.<\/p>\n

\"BathroomThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

A look at the mix of patterns woven together in a junior suite bathroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love guests to arrive and really be able to see how beautiful the building itself is from the get-go,\u201d Parker says, \u201cthen during their stay begin to discover the sense of stories and nostalgia that are interwoven into the history of the spaces, whether this is through the more subtle moments within the signage, fabric patterns, and touchpoints or through the small collections of historic photos of the building in the 1920s and 1930s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker says Fettle\u2019s approach to historic properties<\/a>\u2014as seen at the Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, the Ritz-Carlton Nob Hill in San Francisco, and the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah\u2014is more like editing than overhauling. \u201cAll of these properties have loyal local guests who are always very keen that the fabric of the building isn\u2019t destroyed during a renovation,\u201d Parker says. In the case of the Stoneleigh, the Fettle team found the Dallas community<\/a> was most drawn to the stories, the architecture, and the sense of gravitas of the building. \u201cPrior renovations hadn\u2019t highlighted any of these details so the building had begun to feel somewhat watered down over the years,\u201d Parker says. \u201cOur intent was then to keep all of the things that make the building magical and embellish this with more decorative elements and storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StylishThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

Bar Leonessa pays homage to the property being founded in the Prohibition era.<\/p>\n

\"OutdoorThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

The renovation also extended to the hotel\u2019s pool, reimagined as a social destination with custom coral and green parasols.<\/p>\n

One of the more significant structural changes involved relocating the bar. The previous bar felt disconnected from the lobby\u2019s architecture, and Fettle repositioned it\u2014now called Bar Leonessa\u2014to sit beside the lobby, framed by dramatic floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains. An onyx and marble bar front anchors the space, complemented by bespoke fringed lamps and back bar displays bearing the original \u201cS\u201d logo of the hotel. The redesign also transformed the former dining space into a series of private dining rooms leading to a new restaurant called Lion\u2019s Den, helmed by Michelin-starred chef Michael White and named for the stone lions at the building\u2019s entrance. \u201cThis gave the space more of a grand arrival experience and allowed us to create a greeter moment and as such the Lions Den feels like more of a destination within the building,\u201d Parker explains.<\/p>\n

\"CozyThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

A corner table view at Lion\u2019s Den.<\/p>\n

The 11th floor\u2014once the Colonel\u2019s private Draper-designed penthouse\u2014is what Parker singles out as the hotel\u2019s most extraordinary space. In addition to five signature suites and meeting rooms, the level houses the Colonel\u2019s original music room, dining room, and library. \u201cIt\u2019s dressed in 400-year-old, hand-carved paneling, which Draper imported herself from London, and the triple height spaces as a \u2018minstrel\u2019s gallery\u2019 overlooking it where bands can play,\u201d Parker says. \u201cOur furniture approach for this room was more refined and rich than some of the other areas, and it helped create one of the spaces I have most enjoyed in the decade since co-founding Fettle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ElegantThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

A look at the Oscar de la Renta-designed tapestries in the Draper Suite.<\/p>\n

\"LuxuriousThe Stoneleigh<\/p>\n

Inside the master bedroom of the Presidential Suite.<\/p>\n

Of the hotel\u2019s 176 guest rooms, 56 are suites. The 12th floor Penthouse Suite\u2014once favored by guests including Elvis Presley and Audrey Hepburn\u2014draws on the Asian-inspired origins of the Colonel’s sleeping quarters, reinterpreted through a 1930s lens and featuring one of the largest penthouse terraces in Dallas. For the Draper Suite, the studio imagined where Draper herself might choose to reside, centering the room around a lavish bed canopy and drapery crafted in fabric by Oscar de la Renta. The Presidential Suite features Draper\u2019s signature style of pattern matching across the headboard, drapery, and a baldachin in chintz from Lee Jofa. Maggie\u2019s Suite, named for the alleged mistress of the hotel\u2019s manager who legend has it still haunts the property, features a custom tapestry headboard and an adjacent boudoir with a bespoke dressing table.<\/p>\n

For Parker, the goal was never to impose a new identity on the building, but to let the building assert its own. \u201cIdeally guests will depart with a sense, either consciously or subconsciously, of Stoneleigh\u2019s layered history as well as an appreciation for the property\u2019s rare balance of gravitas and wit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Rachel King (she\/her) is a news writer at\u00a0Town & Country. Before joining\u00a0T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at\u00a0Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in\u00a0Forbes,\u00a0Observer,\u00a0Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and\u00a0Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at\u00a0@rk.passport<\/a>.<\/p>\n