A historic, 140-year-old hotel in east Alabama is on track to receive guests once again as part of a $25 million renovation project gets underway.

The Bluff City Inn, located along Highway 431 in downtown Eufaula, is set to become a state-of-the-art Marriott boutique hotel. RAM Hotels Management, based out of Columbus, Ga., is leading the project, according to WVTM. The hotel, which will be named The Former House, will include 85 rooms, a restaurant, bar, pool and meeting spaces.

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While The Former House is expected to open in fall 2026, the project was originally announced in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Renovations, however, are now back on track.

“It’s a blessing for the town for sure,” Eufaula Mayor Jack Tibbs told WVTM. “It’ll be a major anchor for the downtown. It’ll be known in Alabama and across the South.”

Bluff City Inn was built in 1885 and, as one of the few remaining 19th-century hotels remaining in the state, has become an icon of the area, according to the Abbeville Institute. The three-story hotel, with its picturesque verandah, was once home to historian Anne Kendrick Walker as well as the late Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Gorman Houston.