Boyce Ditto Public Library - 3 Matching Results
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- [The Hexagon Hotel]
- A color photograph of the Hexagon Hotel is shown here. Please note the Convention Hall to the right (north) of the Hotel. The Convention Hall was built in 1925 to accommodate the West Texas Chamber of Commerce Convention, and was built over a portion of the foundation of the electric power plant of the hotel. In 1897 Galbraith was granted, by city ordinance, a 50-year franchise to illuminate the city. The Hexagon Hotel was torn down in 1959. Ira Tarwater (who had been contracted to do the work) remarked that "[I]t was the most novel building I have to tear down." He later said that he regretted doing it. The Convention Center was demolished in 1977.
- [The Hexagon Hotel], Southside
- This photograph is a cleaned-up version, by A.F. Weaver, of the Hexagon Hotel, at approximately the time of its completion. (The site has been cleaned, and the trash removed.) Construction of the Hexagon Hotel started in 1895, and it opened for business in 1897, to ameliorate Mineral Wells' torrid summertime heat years before air-conditioning became available, its design was such that it could catch every vagrant breeze, and cool the hotel. A DC generating plant (seen behind and to the left of the hotel) furnished power to an electric light in each room. It was the first electrically-lighted hotel in Mineral Wells. the plant was operational when the hotel opened. There was also a steam laundry and an ice house, as well. The ice house produced its first block of ice in 1903. The builder/owner, Mr. David G. Galbraith (along with five other men) held the patent for acetate. Mr. Galbraith was a prominent cattleman from Colorado City, Texas. He came to Mineral Wells in hopes of curing a sever attack of rheumatism. He took the baths, and found that they helped him, so he decided to remain in Mineral Wells, and open a hotel. The original photograph, included in the A.F. Weaver collection, shows evidence of construction-related activity and debris along NW Holland Street (now [2007]: NE 6th Street).
- Mineral Wells Graphic. (Mineral Wells, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, January 8, 1897
- Weekly newspaper from Mineral Wells, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.