1853: Sold to the baron Roger du Nord, banker of Swiss origin, whose daughter married Alphonse Régnier, duke of Massa, grandson of Claude Régnier, minister of justice for Napoleon I of France. The duke and his successors inhabited the hotel as of 1857.
In 1870, the duke of Massa, watching the Prussian troops march on the Champs-Elysées, closed the hotel's blinds and swore not to reopen them before the day of revenge: it would be his grandson's privilege to reopen them on July 14, 1918, ironically one day before the second Battle of the Marne began near the River Marne with a German attack. The hotel, which was shut down immediately by the confrontation, remained closed and uninhabited until 1926.
The relocation
In 1927, the hotel was threatened with demolition. Two businessmen, Théophile Bader, then president of the Galeries Lafayette, and André Lévy, who managed building operations, purchased the building but, not wanting to live in the hôtel, opted for relocation. Planning to construct on the now-fashionable Champs-Elysées a commercial shopping and office complex designed by André Arfvidson for the National City Bank of America, Lévy worked closely with his friend Édouard Herriot, national minister of education, to organize and finance the relocation of the hôtel. The building was donated to the state in 1928 on condition that it be destined to the Société des gens de lettres, then led by Édouard Estaunié, to which it was leased for the symbolic price of 1 franc. The SGDL had until then been deprived of an adequate head office, having been housed first at 14, Cité de Trévise and then at the hôtel at 10, Cité Rougement. The state, in the person of Édouard Herriot, then minister of public instruction and fine arts, offered a portion of the garden of the Observatory of Paris upon which the hotel would be relocated. The building was moved stone by stone under the supervision of André Ventre. The Art Deco furniture ordered on this occasion by the management of the Galeries Lafayette was made up of a unique set of 110 pieces. The interior was itself designated a Monument historique —an historical monument— in 1984. The SGDL brought to this location memorabilia of varied origin and pedigree representing almost 170 years of literature. Befittingly, the hotel now sits steps away from where Honoré de Balzac wrote Les Chouans, Histoire des Treize, La Femme de trente ans and the start of his la Comédie humaine. It was at his instigation, in 1838, following his celebrated Lettre aux écrivains français du XIXe siècle, that the SGDL now housed in the hotel was founded.
