The American Club in Wisconsin has long been a favorite of Andrew Harper members. The 241-room hotel has an improbable history, having opened in 1981 in a red-brick building that decades before had served as a dormitory for single male immigrant employees of Kohler Co.

The idea at the time was to provide Kohler workers with clean and comfortable quarters as well as a place for them to learn how to speak English proficiently and prepare for the American citizenship exams company leaders encouraged them to take. “A worker deserves not only wages but roses as well,” said Walter Kohler, the then-CEO at the dedication of the building when it opened in 1918. And it was his nephew Herbert V. Kohler Jr., the current executive chairman of the company, who endowed the inn with its name, to reflect its original raison d’etre.

Today, the property’s accommodations are outfitted with showers, tubs, sinks and faucets by the famous Kohler brand. Apparently, it is not unknown for guests to change rooms during their stay so they can sample different models and combinations of fixtures.