Discover the Historic Rathskeller Room at Louisville’s Seelbach Hotel
In 1903, two Bavarian brothers named Otto and Louis Seelbach decided to open a grand hotel replete with ornate old-world craftsmanship in Louisville, Kentucky. The Seelbach Hotel was so wildly popular when it opened its doors in 1905 that the Seelbach brothers immediately started on an expansion that included an ornate Rathskeller Room—basement barroom—that featured ceramic pelicans crafted by Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, leather ceilings, and handcrafted clay tiles with intricate designs.
Al Capone, probably the most legendary gangster of the 1920s, used to visit The Seelbach frequently for blackjack, poker and bootlegging. Today, you can dine in a small alcove in The Oakroom where Capone would play cards… Capone’s favorite room also has two hidden doors behind special panels, leading to secret passageways.
Photo by Flickr
The Rathskeller Room was modeled after Germany’s “council’s cellars,” which are basement bars and restaurants located in or near a city hall where officials can have important discussions over food and drink. The Seelbach’s ornate Rathskeller Room attracted luminaries such as writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who based some of the opulent ballrooms featured in his classic novel *The Great Gatsby* on the Rathskeller Room. Notorious mobster Al Capone was also a Rathskeller Room regular. Capone allegedly used hidden passageways in the Seelbach Hotel to smuggle booze and evade law enforcement during the Prohibition era.
Today, the Rathskeller Room is used for special events such as conferences and weddings. The Rathskeller Room is generally closed to the general public, but if you’re a courteous, well-behaved guest, Seelbach Hotel staff members will sometimes allow you to view the space. The lavish Rathskeller Room is slightly eerie when no one else is around. Seelbach Hotel staff and guests have reported spooky happenings in the Rathskeller Room, including the sound of footsteps when the room was empty, unexplained cold spots, and apparitions appearing in the corner of the room.
The Rathskeller Room in the Seelbach Hotel is one of the finest examples of ornate old-world architecture in North America. If you’re an architecture lover, a trip to Louisville to walk beneath the exquisite vaulted ceilings of the Rathskeller Room is an absolute must.
Address:
500 S 4th St
Louisville, Kentucky
United States
UnusualPlaces Field Notes
- Location
- The Seelbach Hilton, 500 South Fourth Street, Louisville, Kentucky, USA (hotel reference for the Rathskeller)
- Coordinates
- 38.2508, -85.75802
- Access
- The Rathskeller is a private-event room inside the Seelbach Hilton, not a daily walk-in attraction. Louisville Tourism lists selected free hotel-history tours that start in the lobby; an earlier tourism article says the Rathskeller was included, but the current event listing does not promise room access on every date. Call the hotel at (502) 585-3200 to confirm the date, itinerary, and room access.
- Admission
- The listed hotel-history tour is free and requires no reservation. This applies to the scheduled tour, not independent entry to the Rathskeller; the hotel also uses the room for private events.
- Time needed
- Allow about one hour for the full Seelbach hotel-history tour. No separate duration is published for the Rathskeller room itself.
- Best season
- No preferred season is published. Louisville Tourism lists selected tour dates during the year; room access depends on the current itinerary and private-event use.
- Opening hours
- The Rathskeller has no published daily public hours. The current tourism event listing shows selected tour dates but no start time. Confirm the time and whether the room is included with the hotel at (502) 585-3200; do not rely on older tour times.
- Location checked
- 2026-11-02
- Facts checked
- 2026-11-02
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