SALISBURY — The revitalization of the Empire Hotel is officially underway, as the developers and city officials held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday announcing the beginning of the Empire Row Homes portion of the project.
“Famous actors and travelers, well-known people have all come and seen this amazing space and have lived and worked out of the Empire. It has not happened for decades, and we’re taking a huge step today to seeing it happen again,” said Downtown Salisbury Inc. President Tonyan Schofield.
The hotel is located on Main Street directly opposite City Hall and has stood unused since it closed in 1963, over 100 years after the building first opened in the 1850s as the Boyden House. In between the years 1850 and 2024, the Boyden House was renovated into the Empire Hotel and served as the center of high society in Salisbury, apartments and temporary housing and finally the subject of countless redevelopment discussions and hopes under the ownership of DSI, who purchased the building in 2007…