The Unbelievable Biltmore

Edina’s Biltmore Motel was built on the site of the village’s original baseball field in 1954. The motel had a great location on Vernon Avenue with easy access to Highways 169,212, and 100. It was built about the same time Southdale Mall and played host to out-of-town shoppers for many years. The Biltmore boasted 40 spacious drive-up rooms. Visitors parked just outside their doors. Advertising emphasized in-room television and telephones, the dining room, coffee shop, wall-to-wall carpeting and quiet double-wall construction so nobody had to hear what was going on next door.

A year after the motel opened, a group of investors doubled its size by adding 40 rooms and a conference center with a seating capacity of 250. It wasn’t long before the Biltmore began to attract company meetings and little conventions. In 1964 a little fire caused structural damage to a number of rooms, but they were quickly rebuilt and remodeled.

In the 1970s, the motel’s restaurant became a soda fountain, decorated in the style of the  Al’s Diner on the Happy Days TV show and a women’s boutique called Lucille’s were added to the amenities. In 1984 the mid-century modern Biltmore also known as “Edina’s Guest Bedroom” was demolished to make way for new condominiums.