Staying Power: Follow the Leaders

OTHER FAMOUS SLEEPERS: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Jesse Owens and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

INFO: 212-355-3000, http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/waldorf; from $299.

Congress Plaza Hotel (Chicago)

HISTORY 101: The Congress Plaza was built in 1893 to accommodate visitors to the Chicago World's Fair. In the 1930s, its Joseph Urban Room nightclub headquartered Benny Goodman's NBC Radio shows. During World War II, the government bought the hotel to station U.S. Army officers. In 1945, a group of Chicagoans purchased and reopened the hotel.

PILLOW TALK: Grover Cleveland, McKinley, Taft, Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Coolidge and both Roosevelts stayed at the "Home of Presidents."

OTHER FAMOUS SLEEPERS: Al Capone reportedly used the hotel for his criminal headquarters; his ghost has not yet checked out.

INFO: 312-427-3800, http://www.congressplazahotel.com; from $89.

Brown Palace Hotel (Denver)

HISTORY 101: Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter-turned-real-estate-entrepreneur from Ohio, constructed the hotel in 1892 to bring some opulence to the rough town. The triangular building was designed in the Italian Renaissance style and features Colorado red granite, Arizona sandstone and 26 carved stone medallions depicting Rocky Mountain animals.

PILLOW TALK: Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, were frequent guests. In the Eisenhower Suite, Ike dented the fireplace molding with a golf ball while practicing his swing.

OTHER FAMOUS SLEEPERS: "Buffalo Bill" Cody and the Beatles. Each year, the winning steers of the National Western Stock Show are led down a red carpet and displayed in the lobby.

INFO: 303-297-3111, http://www.brownpalace.com; from $249.

Mission Inn Hotel & Spa (Riverside, Calif.)

HISTORY 101: The inn, opened in 1876 by 22-year-old Frank Miller, began as an adobe boardinghouse. The decor shows off the eclectic styles Miller favored: The Court of the Orient holds a collection of Asian art, and the St. Francis chapel features an 18th-century Mexican altar and Tiffany windows from a razed New York church. Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis liked the chapel so much, each was married there.

PILLOW TALK: In 1903, Teddy Roosevelt planted an orange tree in the courtyard. When Taft visited in 1909 for a banquet, Miller commissioned a special chair to accommodate the 335-pound president; the chair now is on display.

OTHER FAMOUS SLEEPERS: Andrew Carnegie, Harry Houdini, Helen Keller, Henry Ford and Amelia Earhart.

INFO: 951-784-0300, http://www.missioninn.com; from $215.