Standing proudly atop well-manicured rolling hills, the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach dates to 1927.
The building itself is an art-deco gem writ large in bricks—over half a million of them—which is the most ever used on a single building in Virginia. It features a massive sunken garden that produced flowers used as decorations throughout the hotel.
Bathtubs were initially equipped with an extra handle that allowed guests to run seawater baths, and sinks featured ice water taps that drew from a giant ice-filled tub on the roof. The Cavalier’s radio station, WSEA, was the first to broadcast a congratulatory statement from the mayor of Norfolk to pilot Charles Lindbergh on his Transatlantic flight from New York to Paris.
During World War II, the Cavalier was used by the U.S. Navy as a radar training center. The hotel closed between 1973 and 1976, during which time a sister hotel was built on the boardwalk. A forced sale in 2012 resulted in a major renovation that saved the Cavalier from demolition. It has been restored using many of the touches that made the original hotel a beacon for celebrities and entertainers over the years. This roster included ten presidents, Bette Davis, Liz Taylor, Judy Garland, Doris Day, Muhammad Ali, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and countless others.
The Cavalier was built at a time when spirits were high (and still legal). Tipping a cap to its early roots, it is home to Tarnished Truth—the nation’s first in-hotel distillery. This treat for tipplers has issued several award-winning spirits, including bourbon, rye, vodka, and gin.