The American Club, Kohler, Wisconsin

Kitty Bean Yancey of USA Today had this to say about AAA's diamond rating system, back when the 2008 list was announced about a year ago: "The non-profit travel organization... conducts annual unannounced inspections of properties and rates them on a scale of one to five diamonds based on a checklist of hundreds of criteria, including public areas, rooms, amenities and service."

I'm not sure how much stock I should put in lists like these, but I will say this: I thought the only Wisconsin five-diamond property on the list, which is called the American Club, deserved all those diamonds.

Tucked away -- not only away from the Interstate, but away from the state road that branches off the Interstate to get there -- the American Club is in Kohler, Wisconsin, the place founded in the early 20th century by and for the plumbing-fixture giant of the same name, which maintains its headquarters there to this day. Among five-diamond properties, its evolution is probably unique. It was originally Kohler Co. worker housing for single immigrant men, opening in 1918.

Photos and other framed artifacts along one hallway of the American Club illustrate the early years of the establishment. I took a look at some of them as people passed by me in the hall. The American Club wasn't a posh hotel in those days; it wasn't that until its renovation in the far distant future of the 1980s. Still, I got the impression that as 1910s worker housing, it must have been unusually comfortable. Walter Kohler, son of the company founder, probably had a paternalistic streak, but I couldn't shake the notion that by building the club, he also felt he was doing his part to discourage Bolshevism.

These days, it is a posh hotel, with all the tangible ingredients, and as far as I experienced it, the intangibles too. The tangibles included a Tudor exterior wrought mostly in brick and festooned by colorful vines this time of year, interior oak paneling, expensive furniture, and a scattering of tasteful objets d'art, at least in the common areas. Various sedately lit passages lead off in various directions, sometimes to carriage-trade restaurants sporting names like the Immigrant Restaurant and Winery (jacket still required for gentlemen), the Wisconsin Room (regional specialties) and the Horse and Plough (80 bottled beers, plus a dozen Wisconsin beers on tap).

Toward the back of the property is a lush courtyard. As of last weekend, the first frost apparently hadn't visited this part of Wisconsin, so a lot of the flowers, bushes, vines and trees were still displaying their foliage. This was the only place I managed to take photos while at the American Club.

The American Club was my conference hotel, not where I spent the night, so I didn't see any of the room interiors. I repaired to the Sheboygan La Quinta for sleep, because I'm a cut-price person in a low-budget land, which is increasingly fitting for the times. The Texas-based La Quinta, actually structured as a hotel REIT, is part of the limited-service segment of the hospitality industry. That sounds like something I might write professionally, but in any case it has no diamonds. No diamond dust even, though it was quiet, clean and pleasant. Maybe four zircons.