In the lobby of the Washington Duke Inn and Golf Club, Director of Sales and Marketing Jim Bressler pulls out a long-rusted copper box, its warped corners showing every one of its 84 years.
"I think you'll find these interesting," he says.
He pries open the lid to reveal dusty artifacts left over from the 1924 grand opening of the Washington Duke Hotel-the Inn's ancestor, a landmark of a Durham of another time. Inside are an invitation to the opening gala, a 7/8 ounce pack of Duke's Mixture tobacco-"none genuine without this signature, W. Duke Sons & Co., and Red Seal"-and a brittle pack of Chesterfield cigarettes.
"You wanna light one up?" Bressler smiles.
These cigarettes can't be smoked-they are from another era, one that passed long before the coming of the Washington Duke Inn. But the specter of "W. Duke Sons & Co." still shines over the Inn that was built in 1988 to carry on the family's tradition.
Duke University's own luxury hotel turns 20 today, but those two decades barely scratch the surface of the history it holds.
Since it opened in October 1988, the Washington Duke Inn-or the "WaDuke," as students have affectionately deemed it-has hearkens back to the tradition of Durham's famed Washington Duke Hotel by packing its restaurants and hallways with Duke family heirlooms and pieces of the University's history snatched from its archives.
The lobby exudes the Dukes' tobacco-leaf affluence at the first step inside: busts of the Dukes down the hallway, a full-size portrait of Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke, Washington Duke's gold-capped cane as well as the patriarch's custom-made desk.
"We have language in our mission statement that says we will honor our Duke heritage," General Manager Randy Kolls said. "It's a great pastime for people to be able to wander through the hallways. It's what sets the hotel apart from just another nice hotel."
But make no mistake: The WaDuke is a nice hotel. It has all the requisite reminders of wealth-the Rolls-Royce gliding into the loading dock, stopping between the first lion and the second lion; limousines rolling up to the main entrance, their drivers standing idly next to the equally idle doormen; the students scurrying through the halls rushing to make a 5 p.m. J.P. Morgan recruitment event-an old-family manor converted to a world-class resort.
The difference, of course, is that at most five-star hotels, college students cannot pay with food points.
"Year after year we see an increase in the number of Duke points spent here-we see that the Duke population has wrapped its arms around us," Kolls said. "They feel comfortable here, and we're comfortable to have them. It's a great two-way benefit."
The Fairview Dining Room and the Bull Durham Bar began accepting the DukeCard as payment for meals five years ago, Bressler said. He added that he sees the increased presence of students dining at the WaDuke as a sign that Duke has a student body with advanced taste.
"The student population here is very sophisticated," he said. "This provides the perfect setting for students to enjoy the sophistication they all have inside of them. They act like ladies and gentlemen, and we treat them like ladies and gentlemen. We don't treat them any different from any other guest, and they keep coming back in higher numbers."
And if sophistication among college students is rare, on-campus lodging as upscale as the WaDuke is rarer still, Bressler said.
"I would say that a year doesn't go by that we don't get another campus coming in to use this as a vision for their own campus," he said. "I think we're very well known. They come here to see how we do it. It's a model. It's special. It's unique. As Randy likes to say, 'This is the living room of the University.'"
Even with the constant stream of note-taking admirers and potential copycats, a luxury hotel is not the typical venue for those first-day-at college cliches, and freshmen are often blind-sided by its opulence.
"We hear the 'wow' thing a lot from people coming here for the first time," Kolls said.
And for the northerners venturing below the Mason-Dixon for college, the Inn's barrage of Southern charm-the white patio veranda flanking the well-coiffed green of the 18th hole, the notices in calligraphy for the formal-dress-required Afternoon Tea-may come as a shock, Kolls said.
Many of those getting their first impressions of Duke through the WaDuke's 271 rooms and suites are the sought-after administrators, professors and exemplary students wooed by the University, Kolls said.
"When Duke recruits its outstanding administrators, this is where these folks stay," he said. "Certainly Dr. Brodhead stayed here when he visited. Dr. Dzau is the same way. Coach Cutcliffe stayed here. The purpose is to put the best foot forward and create a positive impression."
But these are not the only noteworthy guests at the hotel. Sen. Edward Kennedy stayed here while he was recuperating from his tumor surgery, and the last few months have seen Katie Couric, Kevin Costner and Peyton and Eli Manning all check into rooms.
"We run the gamut from people who are instantly recognizable to captains of industry who you may not recognize," Kolls said. "This is a hotel that, because of Duke, will on any given day host the highest profile of people."
The WaDuke is owned by the University and employs 300 staff members. In 2005, a $25-million renovation added, among other improvements, 100 new rooms, a presidential suite, a second ballroom and a state-of-the-art conference center.
Physical limitations may keep the WaDuke from expanding its walls anytime soon, but Kolls said his hotel will continue to treat Duke students, faculty and alumni in the same tradition in which the Duke family would have treated them at the original hotel more than 80 years ago.
"Our mandate is to be always responsive to the needs of our customers, but not abandon the principles that got us where we are," he said. "One of the neat things is watching alums come back, so the cycle continues. It's pretty special for us to have them come back and reminisce."
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