Last week I, along with a couple of thousand other locals, had a chance to tour the newly renovated Alex Johnson Hotel in downtown Rapid City. The citywide open house was a mob scene. People were streaming through the front door. They packed the lobby, the second-floor ballroom, the new coffee shop, the tavern and the hallways. They waited in line to tour the upper floor rooms. There were so many people, in fact, that I never made it upstairs.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by the crowd. Even though the hotel has had a number of owners since 1928 — including the Didier family for the past two decades — we in Rapid City have always seen “The Alex” as our own.

That includes me. In 1990 when I arrived in town to interview for a job at the Rapid City Journal, I stayed on the eighth floor. I remember looking out at downtown Rapid City, hoping I’d get the job and hoping I could make this city my home. (I did.) Years later, I spent several summer evenings on the roof with a pair of binoculars and a notebook, helping out with a project to fledge a brood of young peregrine falcons. (Great view, by the way.) When my sister was married, she chose to have the wedding reception in the Alex Johnson ballroom. And over the years I’ve had a few beers in Paddy O’Neils.

I think we were all a bit relieved to see that the new owners, Isis Hospitality of Rapid City, did a great job of updating what needed to be updated — and leaving the Alex Johnson’s historic character intact.

The lobby, with its high ceiling, looked brand new with a fresh coat of paint. The coffee shop, while not historic, is an improvement over the oddly 1970s-looking Landmark Restaurant. The grand ballroom has been opened up, natural light pouring in through the tall windows. (They also got rid of the corner of mirrors behind the speaker’s podium, which drove photographers crazy when shooting pictures of guest speakers, politicians and celebrities. No matter what angle, the mirrors would blindingly reflect your strobe back at you.)

The  left-handed swastikas, a Native American symbol long before Hitler, are still embedded in the floors.  And other historic touches are still there as well. In fact, what amazes me about the Alex Johnson Hotel is that after eight decades it still looks almost identical to the hotel in the vintage picture postcards hanging on the walls in the lobby.

I think Alex Johnson would be happy to see his “new” hotel.