Sheraton Hotels and Resorts

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand (Westin being the oldest).

History

The origins of the brand date back to 1933, when Harvard classmates Ernest Henderson and Robert Moore purchased the Continental Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1937 they purchased the Standard Investing Company and made it the company through which they ran their hotels. Their second hotel, and the first as part of the new company, was the Stonehaven Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts, a converted apartment building they purchased in 1937. The chain got its name from a third hotel the pair acquired in Boston, which already had a large lighted sign on the roof saying "Sheraton Hotel" that was too expensive to change. Instead, Henderson and Moore decided to call all their hotels by that name.

Henderson and Moore purchased Boston's famed Copley Plaza Hotel in 1941, continuing with their rapid expansion opening properties along the entire East Coast. In 1945, Sheraton was the first hotel chain to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.