Why Project A-kon? Simply, it is America’s longest running anime conventions. It’s the closest one to me and it was my first anime convention in 1995.
I don’t recall when the original idea pop into my head but at some point I said wouldn’t it be grand to visit the original hotels of 1990s anime conventions and imagine how some 30 years ago, early anime fandom gathered.
Figured I might as well try it out so I started with AnimeCons.com that listed the original hotel as Richardson Hilton. Google search came up as 701 E. Campbell and I gave them a call only to find out the hotel had recently changed to a Hilton a few years earlier. I assumed the original was torn down. It had been 35 years by now but thanks to Azure Props who fell down the rabbit hole and found some convention reviews from old fanzines and figured out it might be the hotel on 1981 N. Central Expway that was a Hilton, then Clarion then Radisson before reverting to Doubletree by Hilton today.
Leave a Reply