Hotel du Pont

Character and identity

Set inside a 12-story Italian Renaissance landmark from 1913, Hotel du Pont trades in genuine old-school glamour rather than a contemporary reinterpretation of it. The 217 rooms sit above carved stonework, mosaic ceilings and a grand double staircase that anchors the public floors, while bathrooms run notably oversized for soaking. The Green Room, oak-panelled and unmistakably of its era, handles the fine-dining brief, with a separate bar and a spa rounding out the in-house offer. Service follows a formal, traditional Wilmington register, and the property has been a fixture of downtown Delaware civic life for over a century.

Who's it for

Bottom line

The reason to book is the building itself: a 1913 Italian Renaissance landmark with the kind of craftsmanship and proportion modern hotels can't replicate. Spend the money if you value historic architecture and traditional formality over contemporary polish, book a room with one of the oversized bathrooms, and time a stay around a Green Room dinner before an evening at the opera.