An African American-owned hotel during the period of segregation and Jim Crow laws, the College View Court-Hotel provided respite for black travelers on the road.
The College View Court-Hotel offered guests modern comfort with its thirty-five air-conditioned rooms and tiled bathrooms. Owned by Dr. J. W. Yancy II, president of Paul Quinn College from 1939 to 1942, the hotel operated throughout the 1950s and continued well into the late 1970s during a time of dramatic expansion in highway travel. Automobile ownership boomed in the post-World War II period. Advances in technology made cars increasingly reliable for long distance travel as well as more affordable to larger portions of society, including the emerging black middle class.
African Americans saw the mobility and freedom that highway travel offered as especially attractive. Despite the opportunities opened up by new technology and expanded infrastructure, travel still required extensive planning since many businesses refused to serve non-white citizens. The emergence of motels such as the College View Court-Hotel in the mid-twentieth century provided some relief. The College View offered convenient and affordable lodging to African Americans on the road. The amenities at motor lodges such as this one—such as the way rooms opened into the parking lot, or the offering of separate cabins for each family—made travel more accessible.
The Negro Motorist Green Book served as a vital guidebook for African American travelers. The College View Court-Hotel first appeared in the Green Book publication in 1951 and continued to appear in the updated edition throughout the 1950s and 1960s. It was The Green Book’s mission to “give the Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties, embarrassments and to make his trips more enjoyable,” in spite of harsh Jim Crow laws. It was an essential tool for the black traveler facing strict segregation.
The College View Court-Hotel stood as a symbol of the black middle class in Waco, serving African Americans who embraced travel throughout the country in spite of its difficulties. Yancy owned the hotel until it eventually closed and was razed in the 1970s. It is likely that decreased business following integration contributed to the motel’s closure. Today, visitors can still see the center steps and concrete landscape walls of the hotel at the business’s former address, 1129 Elm Avenue in Waco.
]]>As Americans took to the road in an age of expanded highway systems and ease of travel, the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel pioneered the field of luxury motels. From a small but luxurious beginning in Waco, the company grew into a nationwide chain known for its safety, comfort, and distinct style in the mid-twentieth century.
Alamo Plaza founder Edgar Lee Torrence, born in 1893 and raised in McLennan County, grew up in Waco at a time when the city’s business culture began to develop. Architecture, such as the Amicable and Praetorian buildings, and the wealth of higher-education opportunities, found at institutions like Baylor University, Paul Quinn College, and Texas Christian University, reflected this changing atmosphere. The climate agreed with Torrence, who received a degree from Toby’s Business College after high school. After working as a bookkeeper, the young entrepreneur set out upon his own, opening a used car business just as the automobile industry began to take off throughout the nation around 1918.
The expanding US highway system in the 1920s struck Torrence as a unique opportunity. Though tourist cabins – typically known for convenience as opposed to comfort and cleanliness – dotted the highways, few respectable options existed for economical travelers. Torrence sought to fill this gap through a partnership with Waco Judge D. W. Bartlett. Altering their original plans to build an apartment, the pair laid plans for the construction of a luxury motel in the bustling city.
The Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments—later renamed the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel—opened on the 900 block of Elm Avenue in 1929 with a façade mirrored after a striking symbol used throughout the state to garner Texas pride. An open house featured the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps, and local newspapers touted the complex as “Waco’s finest tourist apartments” offering travelers every modern comfort. This would come to be the model upon which Torrence operated the Alamo Plaza business.
Adamant that Alamo Plaza remain distinct in every way, Torrence avoided the U-shape design prevalent among tourist cabins at that time. In an interview in 1953, he dismissed that model as “fit only for a barn,” instead utilizing the façade of the Alamo in San Antonio to frame the front and rear entrances to the motel, connected by a single story of tourist apartments on each side.
Despite the onset of the Great Depression shortly after construction, Alamo Plaza saw success in Waco, prompting Torrence to open a second location in Tyler, Texas, in 1931. He continued to expand the business into one of the first national motel chains, placing Alamo Plazas in multiple southern states. He sometimes partnered with family members or friends to open new locations. At other times, enterprising businessmen copied his luxury motel model and utilized the complex name, often without his permission.
As early as 1931, newspaper advertisements described Alamo Plaza motels as among the nation’s finest. The basis for similar motels in over twenty cities throughout the nation, the Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel in Waco became known for safe, comfortable, and innovative accommodations. In 1936, Alamo Plaza motels became some of the first in the nation to place telephones in individual rooms. Just over a decade later, the chain once again became a pioneer in the field, placing a television set in each room.
Though Waco’s Alamo Plaza Courts Hotel closed in the mid-1950s, the model the business established continued on throughout the nation for many years.
]]>Believed to have curative qualities, water from Waco’s artesian wells were popular during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Locals considered the discovery of the artesian water in 1889 one of the most important events in Waco up to that time. Local businessmen took advantage of this new industry and constructed natatoriums for Waco residents and visitors to immerse themselves in the fresh waters.
Robert B. Parrott built the Waco Natatorium, also known as the Natatorio-Sanitorium, or Natatorium Hotel, on the corner of Fourth Street and Mary Avenue in 1892. Parrott was a Confederate Army veteran and eager to develop a natatorium with his team of investors. He chose the location of Fourth and Mary because it was right in the center of the city and close to the Cotton Belt depot. Citizens and passengers could visit the natatorium and soak in a thermal bath while waiting on their train rides. It was also only one block from the Provident Building, post office, and Pacific Hotel.
The Waco Natatorium opened in the summer of 1892 but fire engulfed the structure on March 20, 1894. Construction for a new building by the Waco Natatorium Company began shortly thereafter. Developers constructed the new Waco Natatorium on a much larger scale, four stories and a rooftop garden. The building featured Spanish-style architecture that fit the style and climate conditions of the state of Texas. To tap into the thermal waters, builders drilled wells as deep as 1,850 feet.
The natatorium was equipped with departments for both ladies and gentlemen to have Turkish and Russian baths, individual baths, tubs, vapor rooms, sweat and resting rooms, furnished rooms, a café, offices, and parlors. The natatorium also had one of the largest indoor swimming pools in the South.
It was popularly believed that the waters heated deep underground contained minerals that had medicinal qualities producing positive results when people sick with illness or disease bathed in it. Treatment usually consisted of five to fifteen minutes in a tub bath and an additional vapor bath from three to five minutes. However, locals believed it was disastrous for people affected by heart disease or lung problems. One room of the building was known to have dozens of pairs of crutches left behind by people who came to the natatorium needing the walking aids when they came in, but no longer needed them after soaking in the baths.
The Waco Natatorium hosted events such as Ladies Night every Monday when the swimming pool was opened exclusively to females. Women wore striped bathing suits that went down below their knees; anything else would have been immodest. In 1913, after the natatorium had been in business for a number of years, fifty new hotel rooms were added. Guests could rent rooms starting at one dollar a night.
In August 1893, Parrott’s establishment suffered its first fatality when twelve-year-old Tyler resident Jacob Baruch drowned in the pool while playing with other children during a ladies’ session when Baruch’s mother was taking a Turkish bath. When doctors arrived on the scene, it was too late. Baruch’s father sued the Waco Natatorium for $10,000 alleging negligent supervision of bathers. However, the defense argument was that management was only following the wishes of its female customers in ushering out the men during Ladies Night, even going so far as to prohibit male spectators in the pool room.
The Waco Natatorium served as a center of activity in Waco and a downtown attraction for almost forty years. In the 1920s, Waco’s artesian water supply began to run dry because of population growth and high demand for the water. As a result, the wells could no longer provide a constant supply of water for many businesses. The natatorium closed in December of 1926, and burned down on Saturday, January 1, 1927 after it sat empty. Only bare walls marked the spot where the building stood. The natatorium was never rebuilt a third time.
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