This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Baker Hotel | |
---|---|
General information | |
Status | Demolished |
Location | Commerce & Akard Street, Dallas, Texas |
Opened | October 25, 1925; 98 years ago |
Renovated | 1946, 1972 |
Demolished | June 29, 1980; 43 years ago |
Owner | Baker Hotel Company, Cemgil Reality |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 19 |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 600-700 |
The Baker Hotel was a former grand hotel located in the heart of downtown, Dallas, Texas, across the landmark Adolphus Hotel and the Magnolia Hotel. Its interiors were remodeled in 1972 after a fire, and was imploded in 1980 to make way for the Whitacre Tower, which occupies its site today.
T. B. Baker, head of the Baker Hotel Company, built the hotel in 1925. Opening night, October 25, 1925, was marked by a Gala dinner dance. According to a Dallas Morning News report, the keys to the building were officially thrown away at 6:00 Saturday morning, "thus will be symbolized the fact that the portals of the building from hence forward are never to be closed day or right." The opening was also the 30th anniversary of the opening of the old Oriental which has been torn down for the Baker to be built on the same site.
The Baker was the home of WFAA radio, the Peacock Terrace, Crystal Ballroom, and the place to play on Texas-OU weekends. Its ballrooms were used for debutantes, movie stars, and society members. The Peacock Terrace Ballroom opened in 1925, and the big name swing bands of the 20s and 30s played for Dallasites. The Idlewild Ball for Debutantes was held annually in the Crystal Ballroom. The Dallas Petroleum Club met at the Baker. The Mural Room was the main luncheon site for many.
The brownstone building catered to its patrons with style and luxury for 54 years. During that time the building sustained several mishaps.
On June 21, 1946, an explosion ripped through the basement, injuring 3, and 9 died, though later reports say that 11 died.
The Baker's owned the hotel until 1949 when it was sold to Dallas Rupe & Sons, investment bankers. The new management retained the Baker style. In 1970 the building was sold again to Cemgil Reality.
A fire in 1971 destroyed the upper floors, and after the fire, the building was once again remodeled in 1972. Each time these incidents occurred the building was remodeled and always managed to remain elegant. Only age and new ownership finally ended the style of the Baker Hotel.
Seven years later the hotels area was included in a block purchase by Southwestern Bell Telephone.
The new owners decided the 600-700 room hotel could not be economically converted for their needs. A sale of interior goods from chandeliers to doorknobs took place in September 1979. The Baker Hotel, along with two adjacent office buildings and a smokestack were imploded on June 29, 1980, and in seconds the once grand hotel was in complete ruin. The site was cleared and in its place a modern skyscraper known as One Bell Plaza was planned to be built.
Construction on the building began in 1982 and was completed in 1984, with 37 stories. The building is now known as One AT&T Plaza or Whitearce Tower, serving as the main headquarters of AT&T.
The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story, 625 ft (191 m) Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze and Weaver and completed in 1931. The building was the world's tallest hotel until 1957, when it was surpassed by Moscow's Hotel Ukraina. An icon of glamor and luxury, the Waldorf Astoria is one of the world's most prestigious and best-known hotels. Once owned by Conrad Hilton, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, a division of Hilton Hotels, operates under the name of the original hotel in locations around the world. Both the exterior and the interior of the Waldorf Astoria are designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as official landmarks.
The Plaza Hotel is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, and is between 58th Street and Central Park South, at the southeastern corner of Central Park. Its primary address is 768 Fifth Avenue, though the residential entrance is One Central Park South. Since 2018, the hotel has been owned by the Qatari firm Katara Hospitality.
The Main Street District of downtown Dallas, Texas runs along Main Street and is bounded by Elm Street one block north, Commerce St. one block south, N. Lamar St. to the west, and US 75/I-45 (I-345) elevated highway to the east. The district is the spine of downtown Dallas, and connects many of the adjoining business and entertainment districts. It does not include Dealey Plaza or the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial which are a few blocks west in the West End Historic District.
King William Street is the part of a major arterial road that traverses the CBD and centre of Adelaide, continuing as King William Road to the north of North Terrace and south of Greenhill Road; between South Terrace and Greenhill Road it is called Peacock Road. At approximately 40 metres (130 ft) wide, King William Street is the widest main street of all the Australian State capital cities. Named after King William IV in 1837, it is historically considered one of Adelaide's high streets, for its focal point of businesses, shops and other prominent establishments. The Glenelg tram line runs along the middle of the street through the city centre.
Buda Castle, formerly also called the Royal Palace and the Royal Castle, is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest. First completed in 1265, the Baroque palace that occupies most of the site today was built between 1749 and 1769, severely damaged during the Siege of Budapest in World War II, and rebuilt in a simplified Baroque style during the state communist era. Presently, it houses the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Historical Museum, and the National Széchényi Library.
The Windsor Hotel was a hotel located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is often considered to be the first grand hotel in Canada, and for decades billed itself as "the best in all the Dominion".
The Davenport Hotel is a hotel located in Spokane, Washington. Originally a successful high-end restaurant, it is one of the possible places where the first Crab Louis was created and served. The hotel was designed by architect Kirtland Cutter, and built in 1914 for $2 million. It was built with an opulent lobby, and new amenities for the time such as air conditioning, a central vacuum system, pipe organ, and dividing doors in the ballrooms. Commissioned by a group of Spokane businessmen to have a place to host and entertain their guests, the hotel is named after Louis Davenport, an influential businessman, the first proprietor and overseer of the project.
The Rice, formerly the Rice Hotel, is an historic building at 909 Texas Avenue in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The current building is the third to occupy the site. It was completed in 1913 on the site of the former Capitol building of the Republic of Texas, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The old Capitol building was operated as a hotel until it was torn down and replaced by a new hotel around 1881. Jesse H. Jones built a new seventeen-story, double-winged hotel in 1913, also called "The Rice Hotel." This building underwent major expansions: adding a third wing in 1925, adding an eighteenth floor in 1951, and adding a five-story "motor lobby" in 1958. In addition, there were several renovations during its life as a hotel. It continued to operate as a hotel before finally shutting down in 1977. After standing vacant for twenty-one years, The Rice was renovated as apartments and reopened in 1998 as the Post Rice Lofts. It was sold in 2014 and renamed simply The Rice.
Whitacre Tower, also known as One AT&T Plaza, and formerly known as One Bell Plaza, is a 37-story high-rise in Downtown Dallas, built adjacent to the Akard Street Mall in 1984.
The Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa, is a historic hotel in Mobile, Alabama. The current structure was built in 1908 as the Battle House Hotel. It is the second hotel by that name to stand in this location, replacing an earlier Battle House built in 1852, which burned down in 1905. It is one of the earliest steel frame structures in Alabama.
The Alamo Plaza Historic District is an historic district of downtown San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It includes the Alamo, which is a separately listed Registered Historic Place and a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
Phoenix City Square, formerly Kent Plaza and the Rosenzweig Center, is a mixed use high rise complex covering 15 acres at 3800-4000 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix, Arizona. The project was developed by the Del Webb Corporation in 1962. The complex features 3 office towers, a hotel, an open-air retail plaza, and a 1200-car parking garage. City Square was designed by the architectural firm of Flatow, Moore, Bryan, and Fairburn. The towers were constructed in 1962, 1964, and 1971. 3800 Tower is 194,482 square feet (18,068.0 m2); 3838 Tower is 236,094 square feet (21,933.9 m2); and 4000 Tower is 295,797 square feet. There is also a large 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) Fitness Center, known as Sports Club at City Square, that is part of the complex.
Main Street is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California. It serves as the east–west postal divider for the city and the county as well.
The Dallas Hilton, constructed as the Hilton Hotel and today operating as the Hotel Indigo Dallas Downtown, is a historic hotel opened in 1925, located at the corner of Main Street and S. Harwood Street in downtown Dallas, Texas. The hotel is a contributing property in the Harwood Street Historic District and Main Street District. It is also located across the street from Main Street Garden Park.
The Georgian Terrace Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, part of the Fox Theatre Historic District, was designed by architect William Lee Stoddart in a Beaux-Arts style that was intended to evoke the architecture of Paris. Construction commenced on July 21, 1910, and ended on September 8, 1911, and the hotel opened on October 2, 1911. The George C. Fuller Construction Company was contractor, and the developer was Joseph F. Gatins, Jr.
The Chieftain Hotel is a historic former hotel building at 38 Pearl Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States. It opened in 1927, the result of a partnership between the Eppley Hotel Company and local patrons, and was built on the site of the Grand Hotel, which had opened in 1891 and was destroyed by a fire in 1925. The hotel was eight stories tall, and featured 153 guest rooms.
The Southern Cross Hotel was a hotel in Melbourne, Australia. It was opened by the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, on 24 August 1962 as Australia's first modern 'International' hotel, heralding the arrival of American-style glamour, the jet-set and international tourism. It occupied a large site on Bourke Street in central Melbourne, formerly occupied by the grand Eastern Market, and was the premier hotel in the city into the early 1980s. The Southern Cross was the preferred hotel for celebrities in this period, most famously The Beatles in 1964, and the ballroom was the preferred location for locally and nationally important events.
The Deauville Beach Resort at 6701 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33141, was a celebrated beachfront hotel on Miami Beach. Built in the MiMo style in 1957, it was designed by Melvin Grossman.
The late-Victorian-era Downtown of Los Angeles in 1880 was centered at the southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza area, and over the next two decades, it extended south and west along Main Street, Spring Street, and Broadway towards Third Street. Most of the 19th-century buildings no longer exist, surviving only in the Plaza area or south of Second Street. The rest were demolished to make way for the Civic Center district with City Hall, numerous courthouses, and other municipal, county, state and federal buildings, and Times Mirror Square. This article covers that area, between the Plaza, 3rd St., Los Angeles St., and Broadway, during the period 1880 through the period of demolition (1920s–1950s).
The Hotel Adams was a luxury hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. Built in 1896, the hotel burned to the ground in 1910. The blaze left two people dead and the territorial governor of Arizona homeless. The hotel was rebuilt on the same location in 1911 and imploded in 1973 to make way for a third hotel, currently the Renaissance.