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Origin and history

The Fenwick Hotel is a Bordeaux mansion built between 1793 and 1800 by architect Jean-Baptiste Dufart for Joseph Fenwick, the first consul of the United States appointed by George Washington in 1790. Located in the Chartrons district, at the time the commercial heart of Bordeaux, this building featured both a family residence, a place of commerce (with warehouses and shops on the ground floor), and the seat of the American consulate. Its architecture blends colonial influences — like the shutters to Persians — and maritime symbols, with two ships carved above the entrance, added around 1870 by Charles Durand.

Joseph Fenwick (1762–49), a merchant between France and the United States, married Catherine Eléonore Ménoire in 1792, daughter of a director of the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce. Their son, Franck Columbus Fenwick, later became consul at Nantes. The hotel, designed to reflect their social status, included private apartments on the second floor and attices reserved for servants. The Louis XVI staircase, classified as a historical monument in 1935, illustrates this hierarchy: its steps narrow on each floor, symbolizing the social ascent.

In the 19th century, the hotel retained its residential function, but after World War I it was acquired by the General Transatlantic Company, which made it its Aquitaine agency for sixty years. Since 2013, it has hosted the headquarters of ConcoursMania, a digital company. The facade, inspired by American colonial houses, and the interior details — like the thirteen-point golden sun representing the first American states — bear witness to its diplomatic and architectural heritage.

Ranked in the inventory of Historic Monuments since 1935, the Fenwick Hotel embodies the golden age of Bordeaux trade, marked by the influence of foreign traders before the French Revolution. Its history also reflects the early links between France and the United States, through figures such as Fenwick, a key player in transatlantic trade at the turn of the 19th century.

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