Last known as Hotel Stephens, the Jefferson Hotel once stood on the southwest corner of what are now West First Street and South Madison Avenue until it was destroyed by fire in October, 1998. Before it burned, the hotel underwent many transformations during its 90 year life.
The hotel's origins can be traced back to the early 1900s, when the original building used to construct it was built as what is thought to be Mt. Pleasant's first hospital. At one time, it had a reputation as one of the finest hotels between Dallas and Texarkana. The Jefferson, by then known as the Pleasant Hotel, and later the McDonald Hotel and finally Hotel Stephens, was headquarters for wheeler-dealers during the 1936 oil boom, and throughout its life was the setting of some of Titus County's finest social events.
Here is the colorful history of the Jefferson Hotel as we know it:
J. William Withee sold a large lot on the Southwest corner of West First Street (then named Rusk Street) and Madison Avenue (then named Kaufmann) to Dr. W. H. Blythe in 1879 for $15.00. Dr. Blythe built a combination residence and office on the corner and sold the west part of the lot to J. B. Rose. Later, Dr. Blythe built a two story brick sanitarium on the lot, which was thought to be Mt. Pleasant's first hospital. According to Traylor Russell, the sanitarium was constructed in 1902. The original sanitarium building was much smaller than the later hotel and was only two stories high. Dr. Blythe owned the building until approximately 1916. In 1916 he sold the property to A. P. ("Bud") Williams for $4,500. After he sold the sanitarium, Dr. Blythe retired and Dr. Grissom moved his office over the Ellis-Kelly Drug Store on the corner of West Third and North Jefferson.
In March, 1918 Mr. Williams hired C. W. Vaughn to add a partial third floor to the building and remodel its interior. Because of World War I, Mr. Vaughan had trouble hiring enough experienced craftsmen for the project and had to do much of the work himself. In September, 1918, Mr. Vaughn and Robert Wallace, one of his carpenters, hung from a scaffold high over the front of the hotel using acid to clean the brick. The acid ate through the rope holding the scaffold, and Mr. Vaughan fell to the paved sidewalk below. He died a short time after the fall.
The building was finished and Mr. Williams re-opened it as the Jefferson Hotel in 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Williams ran the hotel a while, but there were several different operators through the years. A few were G. C. Greever, a man named Shook, J. S. Hood and J. A. England leased the hotel from Mr. Williams and operated it at various times. Mr. England operated the hotel from about 1923 until 1930.
Times were changing, and as time progressed the Jefferson Hotel became inadequate to serve Mt. Pleasant's needs. In November, 1926, a group of local businessmen began meeting with the goal of building a new $100,000 fire-proof hotel in Mt. Pleasant. This was a HUGE sum in 1926, equal to several million dollars in today's money. Construction of the new hotel was to be funded by donations raised from the community.
On December 7, 1926, James Trostle of Dallas, representing one of the nation's largest hotel finance companies, met with the Mt. Pleasant Rotary Club to describe the evolution that had recently taken place in the hotel industry. He said that the necessity for larger hotels had arisen as a result of prohibition, World War I, and the advent of automobiles and good roads. Prohibition removed the bar room and made hotels give up the sale of liquor as a method of profit, which forced the owners to provide patrons with better service. The war made many travelers out of people who had never before left home, and therefore increased the demand for hotel facilities, and the automobile and good roads had increased travel from town to town immensely. He said that motorists judged a town by its hotel more than anything else. He said that a hotel's success depended on four fundamental things: Operation, design, location, and finance, and went into detail, about the necessity of each.
A fund drive and other preparations to obtain a new hotel gained momentum throughout Mt. Pleasant and continued through April, 1927. Work was actively being done to finance and construct a first-class community-funded hotel. Apparently this movement caused local hotel owners to quickly improve their establishments before another hotel was built that would out shine theirs. The Smith Hotel underwent considerable repairs, replaced the roof, and made several changes to upgrade its appearance in early August, 1927.
On August 24, 1927, Williams hired O. L. Crigler to completely remodel and enlarge the Jefferson Hotel to make it one of the finest in this area. For the princely sum of $25,000, a full third floor was added. The number of guest rooms was increased to 60, and 24 of them had bathrooms. All guest rooms had hot and cold running water connections and telephones connected to a private switchboard. New Simmons beds and Haynes mattresses graced each room, which were well furnished with lamps, fans, and rugs.
The lobby was enlarged and received a new terrazzo floor. New windows were added in the lobby for more light. An arch connected the lobby with the stairway entrance. Two oak-floored dining rooms were added; one public and one private to be used for banquets and club meetings. The entire interior was completely refurnished. Steam heat was added to the building. The exterior was finished in Spanish architecture.
The remodeled Jefferson Hotel re-opened for business on January 27, 1928 and its deluxe accommodations immediately attracted patrons. The dining room, which took longer to complete, opened to guests on February 2. Now hotel patrons could register for rooms alone or could have a la carte meals, too.
Already the new hotel quickly began filling to capacity, showing that travelers were looking for convenience without regard to price. Guests who formerly stayed in Mt. Pleasant only one night were arranging their schedules so they could spend more time here.
The Jefferson was the finest hotel within a radius of over 50 miles and offered commercial travelers with modern conveniences that were not available in other nearby towns. By February 10, the Jefferson was filled to capacity on many nights and had to turn customers away. A. P. Williams and his son Cap announced plans to add an annex to the Jefferson and went to Dallas to obtain financing.
Charles H. McDonald moved to Mt. Pleasant from Camden, Arkansas in early 1930. In early April, 1930, Mr. McDonald bought a 60 x 100 foot lot from Mrs. Sara Porter that contained a steam laundry operated by C. E. Cawthorne and joined the hotel's south property line.
The Jefferson Hotel Corporation, owned by Charles H. McDonald, purchased the Jefferson Hotel building from A.P. Williams on April 25, 1930. He also purchased the lease of J. A. England, who had managed the hotel for the last eight years. Mr. McDonald managed the hotel, and brought in G. O. Kelley of Oklahoma City as his assistant manager.
A service station leased to S. H. Spurger was attached to the hotel's west wall. A representative of Witt, Seibert & Halsey, Architects of Texarkana came to Mt. Pleasant the next day to begin drawing plans to enlarge the hotel. The laundry building was demolished to make room for a new hotel annex.
P. T. Wray was awarded a contract to build a new three-story hotel annex with eighteen more rooms onto the south portion of the east wing of the hotel. Mr. McDonald had the existing building completely refurnished and every guest room redecorated and repapered. The lobby and dining room were changed to improve their appearance and the entire hotel was touched up and modernized.
Outdoors, Mr. McDonald spent several thousand dollars to erect a miniature golf course, named the Wild Goose Golf Course, south of the hotel. The miniature golf course was scientifically laid out and largely made of concrete with specially prepared greens. The golf course was equipped as a park with plenty of shade and lights and was intended to beautify the grounds. The Wild Goose Golf Course opened to the public on July 16, 1930. According to newspaper accounts of the day, Mr. McDonald transformed an unsightly lot into a beautiful park that was a credit to the city. The Mt. Pleasant band furnished music for the occasion and the public was allowed to play free until nine o'clock.
The new annex was completed and formally opened to the public on Friday, November 7, 1930. To celebrate, Mr. McDonald held a reception, followed by a gala dance from 8:30 pm to midnight in the main dining room. A large crowd showed up for the occasion and during the reception visitors were given a tour of the new hotel annex. Following the reception, doors to the main dining room were opened where a dance with music provided by Eddie and Surgarlou and the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Band under the direction of Carol Munden was held. The Mt. Pleasant Municipal Band was funded by local businessmen's donations and continually had problems raising funds throughout its existence. A fee was charged for the dance, and all proceeds were donated to the band's instrument fund.
The Jefferson's dining room was leased to Mr. Whitley of Dallas in early April, 1931. In addition, small windows on the dining room's north front were replaced by a large plate glass window to provide much more light. Double doors with an awning above were installed for the dining room entrance.
Tragedy struck the McDonald family on May 30, 1933. Twenty-three year old Charles McDonald, Jr. was employed by the hotel and lived in a room there. He had lived in Mt. Pleasant for about three years. Relatives heard a shot about 3:00 p.m. and rushed to Charles' room, where they found the young man gravely wounded by a self-inflicted bullet wound over the heart. A single pistol shot entered his above his heart and exited at the inner edge of the shoulder blade.
They rushed him to a local doctor's office, where he was given first aid and later transferred to a Texarkana hospital by Masters & Thomas ambulance for an operation, accompanied by Dr. S. C. Broadstreet and others. McDonald died the next day about six o'clock.
Relatives could not account for the shooting, and did not know whether it was accidental or suicidal. His body was returned to Mt. Pleasant for burial. He was survived by a wife, four uncles and numerous other relatives.
Mr. McDonald continued to improve the Jefferson's building and customer service. The Jefferson again made Mt. Pleasant history in 1934 when he installed the first electric elevator in Mt. Pleasant.
The Talco oil field was discovered in February, 1936, and Mt. Pleasant and the rest of Titus County was flooded with newcomers who came to take part in the oil boom. The Jefferson was the oil men's unofficial headquarters, and was full almost every night.
Mr. McDonald, like many others who saw the results of the Peveto well at Talco, was certain that a producing oil field would be brought in soon and was preparing for the expected increase in business. Even if the Peveto well did not prove to be a producer, there many other tests would be drilled in the north part Titus County, and oil operations were expected to continue for a long time.
In February, 1936, Mr. McDonald again contracted with P. T. Wray to add 30 rooms to the south side of the Jefferson Hotel. The rooms would be similar to the Jefferson's other rooms, and would each have private baths and modern furnishings. The 46 new rooms increased the Jefferson's capacity to 100 guest rooms, making it the largest and most complete small town hotel in Northeast Texas.
In May, 1936, Mr. McDonald hired R. C. Poole, who installed the cooling system for the new Texan Theatre, to air condition the entire Jefferson Hotel. Air conditioning was an advanced luxury in 1936, and insure a pleasant atmosphere in each of the hotel's guest rooms even during the hottest weather. Mr. McDonald said that he would not let anyone get ahead of him in offering the best service that could be given in a hotel. The new air conditioner used a water tower located on the hotel's roof to cool the Freon lines.
The new annex opened in mid-November, 1936. The lower floor had apartments for family use, while the two upper stories were composed of guest rooms. The upper floors were connected with the main structure by passageways at the halls. All rooms in the annex were individually air cooled for the summer months.
Mt. Pleasant's city water supply left a lot to be desired in the 1930s. It often smelled, sometimes was discolored, and from time to time even had "wigglers" in it.
In August, 1936, the Jefferson installed a water complete filtration plant in its water system. All water coming into the hotel then passed through a double filter which removed foreign substances to provide much cleaner water.
Even though the new annex's paint was barely dry, by February, 1937, the Jefferson was still crowded almost to capacity every night, and on several occasions guests hade to be turned away for lack of rooms. Mr. McDonald expected that if the city continued to grow, there would be still more demand for accommodations, which would necessitate his building still more rooms.
Mr. McDonald recognized another problem in Mt. Pleasant. The only auditoriums of any kind were in the churches. There was no large private dining room and banquet hall that was always available where meetings or conventions and other public gatherings could be held. That kind of place was badly needed in Mt. Pleasant.
Mr. McDonald was seriously considering building another annex to the present structure, and planned to build a large private dining and banquet hall when he did.
It didn't take him long to make up his mind. He again hired P. T. Wray to add twenty rooms to the hotel, and by June 18 the brick work was complete, most of the roof was finished, and additions to the air conditioning system were under way. In addition to guest rooms, the new annex had five apartments and quarters for the hotel management and employees.
The Jefferson installed a large neon sign on the north side of the hotel in September.
The grand opening for the new annex and banquet rooms was held October 1, 1937, with a large crowd in attendance.
Always on the cutting edge, the Jefferson's new annex and dining room was only the third hotel of any size in the entire United States to be decorated exclusively with tubular neon lighting.
Circular neon lights were used in the regular dining room, a novel arrangement of neon was used in the small connecting addition between the dining room and the banquet room. The banquet room ceiling had a red star in a circular setting of blue and green, with the corners of the ceiling decorated with angular strips of blue, red and green.
The floor was highly-polished maple, and made a good dance floor.
The main feature of the grand opening program was a semi-formal ball in the main dining room, with music furnished by Texarkana's Club Lido orchestra. The dance began at nine o'clock and lasted until about two o'clock in the morning.
Charles McDonald changed the Jefferson Hotel's name to the McDonald Hotel some time between 1937 and 1940.
One of the hotel's big drawing cards was its claim of being "the only 100% fire proof hotel in Texas." While it was true that the hotel was much more fire resistant than wood frame hotels that were common in the early 1930s, and precautions had been taken to reduce the chance of fire, it was far from "100% fire proof."
The McDonald Hotel had a close call late in the night of Tuesday, June 25, 1940, when someone noticed flames coming from the hotel's roof. A large fire had started in the air conditioning system's motor room on the roof. The hotel had many guests that night, but the desk clerk and porters promptly notified them in time for the rooms to be cleared before the fire reached them.
Members of the Mt. Pleasant fire department fought the blaze from about 11:00 o'clock Tuesday night until about 3:00 o'clock Wednesday morning. This was a very difficult fire for the fire department to extinguish. The 1936 Ford-Boyer truck was the City's lead truck. It had a 500 GPM pump (1200 GPM and up are now common), and the small wooden ladder it carried could not nearly reach the three-story roof from the outside. The City's only other truck was the 1926 Seagraves. The Talco Asphalt & Refining Company fire brigade provided mutual aid manpower and fire-fighting chemicals (foam) used at the refinery to the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department.
Flames ate through the roof and spread down the cooling shaft, making it difficult for firemen to reach the blaze with streams of water. All of the lobby and coffee shop fixtures were moved into the street along with furnishings from the several apartments in the new annex, but other furnishings received heavy smoke and water damage. The hotel was heavily damaged, but not destroyed.
Total monetary damages were not known the next day, but were expected to be thousands of dollars. Mr. McDonald said the loss was insured and he expected rebuilding the damaged structure to begin in a few days.
To Be Continued...
