[400 N. Queen - Redlands Hotel]

The Redlands Hotel is a Two-Part Vertical Block building at the northeast corner of N. Queen Street and W. Oak Street in Palestine’s historic district. The hotel, which has a U-shaped plan and load-bearing masonry walls, displays architectural elements indicative of the Renaissance Revival style. Noteworthy features include the quoin-like brick in the end bays of the west and south elevations, and the entablature with large brackets. The Redlands Hotel is in good condition and has changed only minimally on the exterior since completion in 1914. During the mid-1910’s, the Young Men’s Business League (which later became the Palestine Chamber of Commerce) recognized the need for a downtown hotel that would attract visitors and businesses to downtown Palestine, as well as confirm the city’s growing status as an important regional center of commerce and transportation. The burning of the tree story Commercial Hotel in 1914 intensified the need for a new hotel. Members of the organization formed the Palestine Hotel Company, a consortium of private citizens and financial institutions, to raise funds, purchase suitable land, and oversee construction of the new building. In 1914, the Palestine Hotel Company purchased three downtown lots facing W. Oak at the corner of N. Queen. The site was three blocks from the railroad depot and two blocks from city hall. The architects selected were Henry T. Phelps, based in San Antonio, and James Firth Brook, a Palestine resident. General contractors were C.D. Hart of Fort Worth and John Hendrix Gaught of Palestine. Construction began in the summer of 1914. The Palestine Hotel Company leased the building to Eugene W. Schubert for the first few years of its operation. A contest was held in April 1914 to name the new hotel; the winner was Miss Ola May Cretsinger, who suggested “The Redlands”. The formal opening on March 18, 1915, was considered “the event of the year” in Palestine. The building has 5 stories and at the time of its opening had 86 guest rooms. The St. Louis Browns, an American League baseball team, relocated their training camp to Palestine and were housed in the Redlands during the spring of both 1916 and 1917. In 1918, however, they moved their training camp elsewhere and no longer used the Redlands. S.A. Rutherford of San Antonio took over management of the hotel in April 1918. At that time the hotel was used frequently for local lunches and parties, and also for regular meetings of the Palestine Rotary Club, but was otherwise not operating even close to capacity. In 1918 the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to relocate immediately its general offices from Houston to Palestine. The decision was the result of a long-standing lawsuit between the City and the I&GN, in which the City claimed that, by offering land and a substantial amount of money to lure the railroad through their city in 1873, the railroad had promised to make Palestine the permanent home of its general offices and shops. In 1918, the only existing facility large enough to house the general offices of the I&GN was the Redlands. The I&GN had another building that was till functional, that had been designed by Nicholas J. Clayton in 1879, but it was too small to accommodate all the offices. It was located near the present-day headquarters of the railroad, just south of the tracks, and continued to be used as office and storage space after the railroad’s 1918 return, but was destroyed by fire in 1922. The railroad signed a lease for the Redlands in February 1919, after which they remodeled the relatively new building for office purposes. J.H. Gaught was again the contractor for the hotel company, and oversaw the renovation to plans drawn by Mr. Shaw, who worked for the railroad. The railroad’s rent was $15,000 per year for the first two years, and $12,000 per year thereafter. In 1924, the I&GN was purchased by the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railway Company, which was acquired by Missouri Pacific in 1925. In 1955 Palestine made a new agreement with the railroad, requiring not that any specific installations be maintained in the town, but rather that a percentage of shops and office employment be maintained there. Soon thereafter, the railroad began construction on a new office building located just south of the railroad tracks, to house the officers and offices of the Gulf Division of Missouri Pacific. The Redlands was abandoned, and remained mostly vacant for the next nineteen years. The Palestine Hotel Company sought new uses for the empty building, but since no viable options were ever proposed, the organization sold the building in 1966 to a holding company for $11,000. Though volunteer groups and social agencies maintained a minimal presence in the building for many years, the massive building remained mostly vacant. Private investors acquired the structure in 1976, and since then have been gradually converting the Redlands into a mixed-use facility of shops, restaurants, office space and apartments.