John Roza was so enamored with the Hotel Harris he bought it sight unseen.
RUMFORD – Hotel Harris’s new owner has always loved art and antiques.
When John Roza saw the 1905 Beaux Arts-style hotel on a real estate Web site, it’s no wonder he immediately fell in love with it.
He was so enamored with it that he bought the building earlier this week without seeing it in person.
The exterior of the hotel is what drew Roza. It’s colossal Ionic columns, some with tulip-like filigree at the top, has a special significance for him. His father, Jeff, is from the Netherlands. “The columns are gorgeous,” he said.
Owner of a construction company in California that restores water- and fire-damaged properties, Roza doesn’t plan to make any huge changes to the hotel. He plans to continue providing long-term residential apartments and short-term rooms and suites.
But he does hope to beautify part of it.
The first thing he plans to replace is the garnish lobby carpet, as well as the carpet on the stairway. Much of the floor covering will be replaced with Persian rugs. The 1950s and 1960s vintage furniture will also be updated.
“We want to give it a little bit of life,” he said of the plans he hopes to have completed by Christmas.
Stained glass is his passion, he said. So eventually he hopes to replace some of plain windows with the more decorative glass.
One of his dreams is to eventually restore the Grecian urns that once stood atop the hotel. They were lost in a fire more than 50 years ago. He wants to do it because that’s the way the building once looked, he said.
For now, though, changes will come slowly.
Eventually he plans to fill the open street level spaces with businesses or offices, but not just yet.
He wants the tenants at the hotel to feel at home.
“If people love this building as much as I do, nothing but good can come from it,” he said.
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