Description: In this view from East Mountain along NE 2nd Street toward West mountain, the West Ward School, Mineral Wells "Old" High School, and the "Little Rock School" are all visible in the upper middle of the picture on this side of the gap between West Mountain and South Mountain. The rebuilt Crazy Hotel is seen in the right middle of the photograph, and construction of the Nazareth Hospital to the northwest of the Hotel is underway at the right of and behind the hotel. Nazareth Hospital was built by the Crazy Hotel as a clinic, but was later sold to a catholic order of nurses and operated as a hospital. (In the early 1960s, two floors of the Crazy Hotel were used as a hospital while the new Palo Pinto General Hospital was being built.) Dr. A.W. Thompson's home(1896)is in the middle foreground of the picture and the Mineral Wells Sanitarium is beyond it. The Cliff House Hotel occupied this site initially, but it burned, and was replaced by the Plateau Hotel. The Plateau Hotel's name was later changed to the Exchange Hotel, and still later it was converted into the Mineral wells Sanitarium, also known as the Hospital. Next ...

Description: Excavation work and clearing of the two blocks in downtown Mineral Wells for the Baker Hotel is shown here. In the background is the Dr. Thompson home, the old First Methodist church and parsonage. The parsonage was moved to the corner of SE 3rd Street & SE 5th Avenue. The filling station in the foreground was located where Murray's Grill parking lot once was [ca. 1950]. The Piedmont Hotel was across the street (NE 1st Avenue.) where the Baker Hotel garage building is now [2009]located. The work has just begun clearing the lots. The tower on top of East Mountain is barely visible above the welcome sign that was erected there in 1925. This photograph comes from the Young collection.

Description: A view of the Crazy Flats and first Crazy Hotel, as seen from East Mountain. Crazy Flats, at the right middle of the picture, was the second Crazy Drinking Pavilion--also with Rooms for Rent--was built in 1909. One feature of the Flats was "Peacock Alley", where the men gathered on Sundays to watch the ladies parade and show off the latest fashions in female gear. The first Crazy Hotel is to the left rear of the Flats; the first section of the Hotel, on the right, was built in 1912, and the second section, on the left, to its left, was built in 1914 and connected to the first with a common lobby. The Crazy Bath house adjoined Crazy Flats on the left, and a drugstore was located in the left corner of the Bath house building. A fire, starting in the drugstore on March 15, 1925, burned the entire block, sparing only the small building housing the first Crazy Pavilion (the right rear of the Flats.) The current (second) Crazy Hotel opened in 1927, and replaced all of the former businesses in this block.

Description: This picture, showing the concert band of the Mineral Wells High School Marching Band (standing on the steps of the school) was taken around 1922. James Walker Calvert is on the top row at the far right. Mr. Brunswick, the bandleader, is on the front row at the far left. Ellis White is the trombone player on the left. See also "Mineral Wells High School Marching Band."

Description: This photograph illustrates the "New" Crazy Hotel on North Oak Avenue, which opened in 1927 after the earlier hotel burned March 15, 1925. Many automobiles typical of the period can be seen on the street. Note the following businesses: Tom Moore, Barber Shop, Cafe, Young's Studio, Bath House, Crazy Drug.