SAN ANGELO, TX — The Roosevelt Hotel’s rehabilitation has been a long arduous task, full of starts and stops, asbestos, and attempting to force its identity into San Angelo’s downtown resurgence over the past several years.
Located at 50 N. Chadbourne, just below where the old train depot is (now the San Angelo MPO and bus station), the old Roosevelt is a quintessential 1920s monument to a long ago heyday of wealth, prosperity, and architectural adornments of that time.
Above: The sign atop the old Roosevelt Hotel in San Angelo, TX. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
Many buildings designed in this timeframe featured Art Deco, such as the adornments of the nearby Cactus Hotel. But the Roosevelt didn’t have the same budget as Conrad Hilton’s majestic Cactus. Instead, its architect sketched a simplification of The Alamo as a structural facade. Its design is the equivalent of a between-the-wars Motel 6 to Hilton’s Hilton.
Besides its historic age, the Roosevelt never has mattered much. A search for the Roosevelt Hotel in antique postcards nets nothing. There are plenty of old pictures of the Cactus Hotel, the Tom Green County Courthouse, and views peering down S. Chadbourne St. during various timeframes. There is even a 1970s era postcard of the San Angelo Central Bank, still standing as the Wells Fargo building, an odd contemporary architectural style to be featured on a collectable postcard. Not the Roosevelt, though. It didn’t make a postcard, signifying that its existence has been, and is, just there.
[[{"fid":"25626","view_mode":"preview","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Less architecturally significant buildings like the San Angelo Central National Bank have postcards tributing them, but not the Roosevelt. (Screen grab, postcard on ebay.com)","title":"Less architecturally significant buildings like the San Angelo Central National Bank have postcards tributing them, but not the Roosevelt. (Screen grab, postcard on ebay.com)","class":"media-element file-preview imgbody"}}]]
Above: Less architecturally significant buildings like the San Angelo Central National Bank have postcard tributes to them, but not the Roosevelt. (Screen grab, postcard on ebay.com)
Perhaps it’s the sign—the sign with the words “The Roosevelt Hotel” high atop the three-story (four if counting the elevator housing), 44,000 square-foot hotel building that encourages dreamers to seek the building’s rebirth.
Built in 1929, the building’s original name was The Rainbow Hotel. Just like its big sister on the other side of downtown, The Cactus, the Rainbow was built just in time to endure the Great Depression. The election of Franklin Roosevelt offered promise. In 1933, new owners were found and the building’s refurbishment was hailed for that era’s entrepreneur’s $20,000 investment. They named it “Roosevelt” for its New Deal promise.
[[{"fid":"25628","view_mode":"preview","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Structural facade that represents The Alamo in this circa-1929 building. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)","title":"Structural facade that represents The Alamo in this circa-1929 building. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)","class":"media-element file-preview imgbody"}}]]
Above: A structural facade that represents The Alamo of this circa-1929 Roosevelt Hotel building in downtown San Angelo, TX. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
The Roosevelt’s history may remind you of Sealy Flats, another downtown building whose glory was shunted by the Great Depression. Its modern-day curator, Rod Bridgman, explained that Sealy Flats’ building, around the corner and down Oakes St. from the Roosevelt, was built just in time for the Great Depression, too. Because of that, it never amounted to much in Depression-era San Angelo and beyond except as a flophouse “on Sealy brand mattresses.” Hence, Sealy was its namesake.
[[{"fid":"10342","view_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Sealy Flats is comprised of a bed and breakfast (left) and what founder Rod Bridgeman refers to as the café on the right. (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)","title":"Sealy Flats is comprised of a bed and breakfast (left) and what founder Rod Bridgeman refers to as The Venue on the right. (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)","class":"media-element file-default imgbody"}}]]
Above: Sealy Flats on S. Oakes St. is comprised of a bed and breakfast (left) and what curator Rod Bridgeman referred to as the café on the right. (LIVE! Photo/John Basquez)
The Roosevelt closed in 1994 for good, and though it was locked and boarded-up, the building became a shelter for vagrants.
The Cactus, bigger, taller and grander, never amounted to its potential either. It too was shunted by the Depression and has a history of serial heartbreak for many, written about here.
[[{"fid":"933","view_mode":"default","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"The Cactus Hotel, originally the San Angelo Hilton Hotel, was built in 1929 and still defines the signature skyline of San Angelo, Texas. It has lived through the booms and busts of San Angelo’s economy, and the booms and busts of the people operating it.","title":"The Cactus Hotel, originally the San Angelo Hilton Hotel, was built in 1929 and still defines the signature skyline of San Angelo, Texas. It has lived through the booms and busts of San Angelo’s economy, and the booms and busts of the people operating it.","class":"media-element file-default imgbody"}}]]
Above: The Cactus Hotel, originally the San Angelo Hilton Hotel, was built in 1929 and still defines the signature skyline of San Angelo, Texas. It has lived through the booms and busts of San Angelo’s economy, and the booms and busts of the people operating it. Read about the history of the Cactus Hotel in San Angelo, TX here. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
Downtown San Angelo, Inc. took over the Roosevelt in 2010. The organization leveraged its capabilities as a non-profit to obtain financing to gut it with prison laborers and then cleaned out the asbestos. That was complete in early 2014. By mid-2014, DTSA found a buyer. Hitesh Patel, head of Capital City Hospitality Group, who made a conditional offer to, fittingly, turn the old Roosevelt into a Choice Hotel brand, complete with rooftop bar (that was Part I, read it here).
Then the oil bust happened and the offer went away, unceremoniously.
A second chance may be successful. DTSA announced Wednesday that builder Michael Biggerstaff has partnered with developer Steve Sorrells of Waco to make something swanky out of San Angelo’s unremarkable though historic hotel. Their idea is to develop apartments, or lofts, out of the old structure. How many apartments is to be determined, but they have 44,000 square feet to work with. Around the bottom, there may be opportunities to create small shops.
[[{"fid":"25627","view_mode":"preview","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"The entrance to the old Roosevelt Hotel in San Angelo, TX. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)","title":"The entrance to the old Roosevelt Hotel in San Angelo, TX. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)","class":"media-element file-preview imgbody"}}]]
Above: The entrance to the old Roosevelt Hotel in San Angelo, TX. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)
Biggerstaff and Sorrells formed a partnership called Fireside, LLC to develop the old Roosevelt. They will hold a groundbreaking on Nov. 23.
DTSA Executive Director Del Velasquez is hopeful this will be the group who finally makes something viable out of the old hotel. So far, it looks promising.
Biggerstaff is a reputable general contractor and homebuilder based in San Angelo. The third (and with his son, fourth) generation builder has built over 800 homes around here.
Sorrells is the President and CEO of a Waco-based real estate development and construction company. He has experience reviving old downtown Waco.
“He was one of the first developers to place emphasis on downtown Waco’s renaissance,” Velasquez said.
In the wake of Sorrell’s work emerged Chip and Joanna Gaines, indirectly. With that, Waco’s resurgence was assured. Sorrells also has west Texas roots. He is a graduate of Abilene Christian University.
Velasquez is bullish on the Roosevelt’s prospects.
“It will have a significant contribution to not only downtown, but the entire community,” he said.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Post a comment to this article here: