Why Does Everyone Photograph the Yorktowne Hotel in Downtown York?

The Yorktowne Hotel gets photographed because it is the tallest historic building on Market Street, an 11-story Renaissance Revival hotel that opened in 1925, sat closed from 2016, and reopened on January 31, 2023 after a $54 million rebuild as The Yorktowne Hotel, Tapestry Collection by Hilton. It is at 48 East Market Street, at the corner of Market and Duke.

I have flown the drone around it in daylight, at dusk with the courthouse behind it, and at night with the rooftop lit. For a buyer, its reopening is the clearest sign of what downtown York has been doing for the last decade.

How was the Yorktowne Hotel built?

York paid for it itself. In 1924 the city needed a proper hotel, and a Chamber of Commerce committee sold stock in a community hotel company; nearly 1,200 residents put in more than $1.17 million. The architect was William Lee Stoddart of New York, who designed hotels up and down the East Coast. The building is brick with stone trim, rows of tall arched windows and decorative cornices, and it opened with 198 rooms on October 14, 1925, with a concert by the York City Band and a flag raising by Mayor Ephraim Smyser Hugentugler. Expansions followed in 1929 and 1957, the second one along Duke Street.

Who stayed there?

For most of the 20th century it was the place to be seen in York. The guest list kept by the hotel includes Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lucille Ball, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Margaret Thatcher and Bill Clinton. The hotel is a contributing building in the York Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Why was it closed, and what did the renovation cost?

By the early 2000s the building had fallen into disrepair and landed on a statewide list of at-risk historic buildings. The York County Industrial Development Authority bought it in 2015 for $1.8 million and closed it in November 2016 for a full rebuild. The first plan was about $20 million; by the time it reopened, local reporting put the cost at $54 million. Two things drove that: Hilton brand standards and federal historic-rehabilitation standards. Each of the 400 replacement windows is a different size, so every one was custom made. The project used the 20 percent federal historic tax credit and a $300,000 Pennsylvania historic preservation tax credit.

What is the hotel today?

It reopened on January 31, 2023 as the 100th hotel in Hilton's Tapestry Collection, operated by GF Hotels and Resorts. There are 123 rooms, including 27 extended-stay suites, the Graham Rooftop Lounge, the Davidson lobby bar, a 4,500-square-foot WellSpan Ballroom and more than 10,000 square feet of meeting space. It celebrated its 100th anniversary in October 2025 and was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2026.

What does the Yorktowne signal for downtown York homeowners?

It tells you the county was willing to spend real money to keep downtown's anchor standing. If you own or want a row home within a few blocks of Market Street, the hotel is the reason visitors now stay downtown, eat on Restaurant Row and walk to Central Market. That foot traffic supports the shops that make a downtown address worth paying for.

If you want to see what a downtown York row home costs today, or you own one and want to know what the last few years did to its value, I can tell you. Call or text me at 717-356-9413.