For groups, the newly renovated Mills House hotel in Charleston, S.C., sits at a fitting address in the city’s historic downtown: Meeting Street.
The landmark pink hotel, which dates to 1853 (though the original building was demolished and replicated in the 1960s) has completed a full renovation of its 218 guest rooms and suites, added a rooftop terrace and bar, and opened two restaurants. The transformation has culminated in the property becoming part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, the portfolio’s first property in South Carolina.
The upscale hotel includes a light-filled lobby and lots of indoor/outdoor spaces including a courtyard, complete with fireplace and comfortable couches.
Meeting space at the property includes the 2,485-square-foot Signers Ballroom on the first floor, divisible into three breakouts (Rutledge, Heyward, and Lynch) each accommodating 75. The hotel itself has another half-dozen small meeting rooms, but its biggest space is next door. Hibernian Hall, owned and managed by the Hibernian Society and on the National Registry of Historic Places, offers groups that are lodging at Mills House a 3,640-square-foot meeting room upstairs with a 600-square-foot stage and 20-foot ceilings. Downstairs, a 2,397-square-foot gathering space, a library, and an elegant rotunda can all be used for meetings or receptions.
The hotel is located in Charleston’s French Quarter, about six blocks from White Point Garden on the south end of the city, where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet. The College of Charleston is a less than a mile from the hotel, and Charleston International Airport is 12 miles north, about a 25-minute drive.