|
|
The History of the Greenwood Hotel
"The Grand Princess of the Prairie, Center of Everything"
1882:
In 1882 many of the same influential men who brought the railroad depot
to Eureka determined that the quickly growing city needed a hotel.
A board was developed and they hired Charles W. Squires, an architect
from Emporia
as the architect of the building.
1883:
In October of 1883 the Greenwood Hotel was completed with
43 boarding rooms and 50 beds.
Built by The Eureka Hotel Company, a stock company consisting of
prominent early settlers of the Eureka community the
total cost of construction was $23,000. The hotel was
originally
called "Hotel Greenwood" in honor of the county in which the hotel
resided as well as the namesake of the county, Alfred B. Greenwood, who
was noted for his work in Indian Affairs on reservations
in Nebraska, Kansas and ‘the Indian Territories’ of Oklahoma. Commerce,
horse drawn transportation and railroads were the main reasons the
Eureka Hotel Company was founded. Eureka was a thriving metropolis.
The Greenwood Hotel is one of the oldest landmarks in Greenwood County.
In the Greenwood’s prominent years it is estimated that over
$1,000,000,000 worth of cattle were traded in its lobby. Million
dollar oil deals were completed behind its walls. It served
Eureka, Greenwood County and the Flint Hills as the place to stay for
over three-quarters of a century.
1884:
On March 7, 1884
A grand opening ball was held for the Hotel Greenwood. The St. Louis,
Ft. Scott, and Wichita railroad ran a special train for the ball, and it
was reported…
“Guests began arriving as early as eight o-clock, and at 10:00, when the
ceremonies were begun, the elegant and spacious parlors and corridors
were thronged with the most brilliant gathering ever seen in Eureka...”
1885:
The editor of the American Sheep Breeder issued a Handbook of Greenwood
County. This particular issue contained the following description of the
hotel:
"The Hotel Greenwood is a model of architectural beauty and elegant
finish, without and within, and abounds in fine effects from every point
of view. Fine contrasts of form and color are everywhere visible in the
plans of the architect, and the work of the master builders, both of
which are happily supplemented by the master and mistress, with equally
elegant furnishings, that from office to attic, bring out the best
effects of reflection and refraction.
1872:
Albert Frazier arrived at Eureka in 1872. As one of the pioneers of
this city, he started a transfer business.
1873:
A stage line was in operation by James A. McCoy. A traveler could leave
Eureka at 6:00 a.m. and arrive in Emporia at 5:00 p.m. or might journey
to El Dorado in only six hours.
1879:
The Kansas City, Emporia and Southern Railway (the Santa Fe Railroad),
the first railroad to serve Eureka, was extended south to Howard. The
depot for this rail system is located approximately three blocks east of
the Greenwood Hotel.
1879:
On July 4, 1879 Albert
Frazier, with his "hack" sporting the words "Greenwood Hotel" on the
back, met the first train that ever came into Eureka. He carried
travelers to their destinations in his horse-drawn bus for more than 50
years. Upon his death in 1927, his partner and son, Arthur William
Frazier continued the horse drawn freight delivery and taxi service.
Arthur made the transition from the horse-drawn omnibus to the motorized
version and continued meeting trains, and carrying mail and passengers
to and from the depots until in the 1960s.
1879:
Besides bringing people to the area, the opening of the Santa Fe
railroad in 1879 was crucial to the development of the grazing-leasing
arrangements with Texan cattle owners, and served as the predecessor to
the custom grazing for short season grass, a practice that many area
ranchers continue to exercise.
1882:
In June of 1882 the
St. Louis, Ft. Scott and Wichita Railway (known now by most as the
Missouri Pacific) reached Eureka. The "Mo-Pac" Depot was located on Main
Street exactly 6 blocks to the north of the Greenwood Hotel.
1911:
The Hotel was a gathering place for cattlemen and had a reputation for
being a small livestock exchange. A reporter from the Kansas City Star
observes the following about the prosperous cattle industry in the
county:
“The lobby of Eureka’s largest hotel is a sort of small livestock
exchange. There are the same men with broad-brimmed hats and whips that
the visitor sees in Kansas City’s exchange building in the first floor’s
corridors. Always they are "talking cattle." Ask for proof as to how
powerful they are, and the evidence is that when a petition of the
Eureka cattlemen for a new railway stations went to officials of the
Missouri Pacific, work on that station began in less than two weeks. And
the Missouri Pacific, it is believed, is not a railroad that is building
new depots everywhere that there is a request for one."
1916:
Compared to the livestock industry, crude oil had a slower start in
Greenwood County. However, in 1916, the first significant crude oil
strike in the county happened near the Virgil area. Supplies and
equipment were originally brought to the oil field by mule drawn wagons.
During the earliest years of production, the oil was transported via
railroad to El Dorado to the refineries.
The effects of the boom by 1920 could be evidenced in several officials
of large oil companies filling the hotel lobby. The lobby was a
place where million dollar deals were being made… and the boom was on.
Wildcatters and speculators were keen for leases.
Oil production in the county was more than 4,500 barrels a day. A
test well in Thrall started another stampede to the Flint Hills among
lease buyers, according to historian Henry Bennett. Eureka was
overflowing with oil workers and their families. Hotels and bank
lobbies directly reflected the activity surrounding this newfound
resource.
The County was booming! People were prospering and able to
purchase automobiles. They could drive into town and up highway 54
to the hotel.
Wildcatters, speculators were keen for leases. Oil production in the
county was more than 4,500 barrels a day.
1923:
Former heavyweight boxing champion, Jess Willard, stayed at the
Greenwood Hotel. One of the stories about the Willard visit is about his
appetite. During his stay, he consumed a dozen eggs and two full slices
of ham for one breakfast.
1926:
The most extensive renovation took place at the Greenwood Hotel by H.D.
Hoover, adding twelve rooms on the east side, converting the pool hall
into a café to be managed by H.J. Nickle, and converting the dining room
into a pool hall. A new sign, twelve feet in height, was put into place
on the Main Street front at the third floor level. The exterior of
the building was given a Spanish look with tiled roof and stucco applied
to the exterior walls. The application of the stucco and the tile
represents the Spanish Revitalization that vastly swept our country
during the 1920s. The cost of the remodel was $68,000.
In the Eureka Herald dated September 9, 1926, just before the
opening of the renovated Hotel Greenwood, a reporter wrote:
The management of the New Greenwood Hotel, which has risen from the
former oldest and most widely known hotel in the Flint Hills, has turned
the hotel over for the day and evening as headquarters for the cowmen,
just as the old hotel was headquarters for the Flint Hills country for
more than 40 years. It is estimated that more than
$1,000,000,000 worth of cattle changed hands in the old Greenwood
Hotel in its palmy days. …….
An article in the November 1, 1926 issue of the Eureka Herald
recaps the opening of the newly remodeled Greenwood Hotel:
Harry Hoover issued an invitation to the cattlemen of the Flint
Hills section and others prominent in the cattle industry to attend a
cattlemen’s dinner in Eureka on September 23, 1926.
The Santa Fe Railroad ran a special train from Kansas City for the
event. It arrived at 4:56 and was met by the Eureka Municipal Band
and a parade was formed to town. Many livestock and commission men
had arrived earlier in the day for the big event. A fat grasser steer
was the feature of the evening dinner, served in the Lutheran Church
basement.
The
next year the cattlemen adopted the celebration as their own and so
began the historical Cattlemen’s Day in Greenwood County. In 2002
they celebrated the 75 year tradition of Cattlemen’s Day. H.D.
Hoover served as president of the Cattlemen’s association from 1928
to1934. The Greenwood Hotel served as headquarters for the
Cattlemen’s association for many years.
1936: The
hotel began serving as a bus station for passengers August 1, 1936 and
fulfilled this purpose until the late 1970’s.
1946:
One of the hotel’s most famous boarders was listed on the hotel
register, Roger Babson. Babson established a college here in
Eureka that operated until the early 1970s.
1974:
Owner and manager, Forest Kling, closed the upper rooms of the Greenwood
Hotel for business
but it remained a headquarters for the local cattlemen.
A liquor store was added to the front part under the veranda of the
hotel.
1977:
Forest and Verla Kling sold the hotel upon retirement. Richard and
Becky Potts purchased the hotel after an organization called the
Heritage Development Company, Inc of Wichita failed to remodel the
hotel.
1979:
Owners Richard and Becky Potts sold the Greenwood Hotel at auction to
Mrs. Ralph Marlin, Mrs. T.W. McCarthy and Mrs. George Jackson on
August 11, 1979
for $31,500.
1992:
The hotel was the headquarters for the 125th celebration of
the founding of the City of Eureka.
2002:
The Greenwood Preservation Society (GWPS) was formed and began the
current restoration process. As
part of the 75th anniversary celebration of Cattlemen’s Day,
area historian Jim Hoy, Emporia State University, entertained cattlemen
and townspeople in the lobby of the Greenwood Hotel. Hoy shared
bits of Flint Hills and Greenwood County history in front of a capacity
crowd in the hotel lobby.
2005:
For the 2005 Cattlemen’s Day the hotel lobby was used for storytelling.
Jim Gray and Ladd Lewis gave a presentation on the history of the hotel
and area cattlemen.
2005:
The GWPS secured $9,500 from the National Historic Trust and raised over
$45,000 from private individuals to restore the north wall of the
structure, to maintain the building, to fund a feasibility study and to
pay for preliminary architect plans.
2006:
Greenwood Hotel was placed on the State & National Historic Registries.
2007:
The Greenwood Preservation Society was awarded $311,228 in Community
Service Tax Credits from the Kansas Department of Commerce for 2007 and
2008. The tax credit funds
are being used along with other resources to renovate the 1st
floor as well as future upper floor restoration.
2008:
In June, the Kansas Department of Transportation/Transportation
Enhancement (KDOT/TE) reimbursement program awarded the GWPS $990,000,
which at that agency’s request in August 2009 was converted to an ARRA
grant in the amount of $1.3 million.
The Greenwood Preservation Society acquired complete ownership of the
Greenwood Hotel.
Awarded National Trust for Historic Preservation grant in the amount of
$2000.00.
The Architectural firm of William Morris Associates was hired to draw
the plans and oversee the exterior, basement and 1st floor
renovation.
2009:
Kansas State Historical Society Heritage Trust Fund Grant of $94,000 was
received for the basement renovation. 2010: Renovation of the Greenwood Hotel began on March 8, 2010. Accel Construction LLC of Wichita is the General Contractor. Sources: The Hotel Greenwood- Compiled by Helen Bradford Various Eureka Herald Newspaper Articles from 1883 to 1979 The History of Greenwood County – Volumes I and II Courtesy of Greenwood Preservation Society
|
|
Copyright © 2005-2011 Greenwood Preservation Society. All Rights Reserved. |
|
