Dallas, Texas · Four-Star · ★★★★
Le Méridien Dallas, The Stoneleigh
A 1923 Mediterranean Revival landmark on Maple Avenue. Quiet, well-priced, and the most quietly elegant address in Uptown.
A 1923 Mediterranean Revival landmark on Maple Avenue. Quiet, well-priced, and the most quietly elegant address in Uptown.
"A 1923 Mediterranean Revival landmark with the city's prettiest classical bar. Quieter than its Uptown neighbours, better-priced for what you get, and the only Dallas hotel where the Penthouse Suite was once Mary Kay Ash's actual home."
The Stoneleigh opened in 1923 as the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi, and the bones of that ambition still define the hotel today. Designed in a restrained Mediterranean Revival idiom, with hand-cast plaster ceilings, leaded glass, and a marble lobby that feels closer to a private club than a contemporary hotel, the building sits on Maple Avenue at the western edge of Uptown — five minutes by car from downtown, ten minutes on foot to the McKinney Avenue trolley line, and a world apart from the high-glass towers that have grown up around it.
The property became Le Méridien Dallas, The Stoneleigh in 2014, after a careful rebrand that preserved the original architecture and most of the period detailing. Marriott's Le Méridien programme has a light touch with heritage buildings — the lobby's restored 1923 plasterwork remained, the elevators kept their bronze surrounds, and the public spaces were updated rather than gutted. The result is a hotel that reads as historic without feeling preserved in amber. It is the rare Dallas address where you can sense the city before oil money rebuilt it.
The Penthouse Suite is the building's most quietly extraordinary asset. The two-storey duplex on the eleventh floor was, for many years, the personal residence of Mary Kay Ash — the cosmetics founder who built her empire from Dallas and lived at The Stoneleigh in its post-war residential era. The suite retains the proportions of a true apartment rather than a hotel arrangement: a private staircase, a working fireplace, a wraparound terrace with skyline views, and roughly 4,000 square feet of usable space. It is the suite Dallas locals book for milestone anniversaries, and the one out-of-towners are most surprised by.
Otto's, the ground-floor restaurant, anchors the social life of the hotel. The room itself — high-ceilinged, with original architectural detail and a long marble bar — is among the prettiest classical hotel dining rooms in Texas. The cooking is a contemporary American menu with French technique, weighted toward the kind of dishes that work for both a quiet anniversary dinner and a Tuesday business meal. Breakfast is the underrated hour; the dining room at 7am, with morning light through the leaded glass, is a more civilised start to the day than most Dallas hotels will offer.
The hotel has 174 rooms across eleven floors, with categories ranging from Classic Kings to a series of suites culminating in the Penthouse. Internally facing rooms are notably quieter than Maple Avenue-facing ones; request a higher floor where possible. The McKinney Avenue trolley — Dallas's restored 1923 streetcar — runs three blocks east and connects the hotel directly to the West Village shopping district and the Dallas Museum of Art further south. For business travellers, downtown's Arts District is a five-minute Uber; for guests on a quieter trip, the trolley itself is part of the appeal.
For a Dallas anniversary that wants the gravity of a historic building rather than the gloss of a new one, The Stoneleigh is the city's quietest argument. The Penthouse Suite — Mary Kay Ash's former residence — is the milestone choice: a private terrace, a working fireplace, and a sense of permanence the Crescent Court cannot match. For shorter celebrations, request a high-floor Junior Suite, book Otto's for the late seating, and walk back through the marble lobby that has hosted Dallas anniversaries for a hundred years.
Better priced than the Crescent Court or the Ritz-Carlton, quieter than the Joule, and ten minutes from any Uptown or downtown meeting — The Stoneleigh is Dallas's most undervalued business hotel. Otto's bar is a credible client venue without theatrics. The rooms have proper desks, fast complimentary WiFi, and the kind of insulated walls that come standard in 1923 construction. Request a Maple Avenue-facing king for natural light during day work; switch to an internal room if you are sleeping through morning calls.
A solo two-night stay at The Stoneleigh resembles a stay in a residential club more than a hotel. The lobby is calm at almost all hours, Otto's bar is comfortable for a single diner, and the McKinney trolley three blocks away makes the city walkable without a car. Pair it with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center, both a short ride south. The Penthouse is overkill for one; a Deluxe King on a high floor, with the city below and the trolley bell at the edge of hearing, is the right scale.
Rates checked May 2026. Price may vary by date.
The Stoneleigh's Penthouse Suite — once Mary Kay Ash's residence — is one of Texas's most under-the-radar milestone rooms. Start with the right hotel, then let Uptown do the rest.
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