Sunday, May 25, 1997
Fate of Tuscola Hotel is in bank's hands
TUSCOLA - The old Tuscola Hotel was built about 1910 by the
Pecos and North Texas Railroad Company and has stood its ground
ever since.
No longer a hotel and most recently a restaurant and bed and
breakfast, it is a sturdy looking structure of red brick, two
stories tall with a large, roofed front porch.
The building is one of four the railroad built at the time.
Including the hotel, three of the buildings still stand. One building
burned some time ago. Of the three left, the old hotel is the
most attractive.
I do not know what you would call the style of architecture
used in the old hotel's design. I call it West Texas turn of the
century. There is some ornateness in the brick work, especially
up on facade toward the roof. There are some similarities in style,
I think, with the famous Gage Hotel in Marathon.
The old Tuscola Hotel building was recently acquired by the
First State Bank in Tuscola, which is right across the street
from the old hotel.
"We bought it in a courthouse sale on the front steps
of the courthouse," Bill Terry, the bank's president, told
me Thursday. "But we have not taken possession of it yet,
and I don't know when we will."
The purchase has caused at least a couple of local residents
to become a bit nervous over the possibility of losing the historic
structure to demolition.
One of those edgy people is Marceille McIntyre, a lifetime
resident of Tuscola and a member of the Taylor County Historical
Commission.
"If they were going to tear it down, I would chain myself
to the stone," she said Thursday. She was standing in the
Tuscola City Hall. The old hotel building was clearly visible
outside the window.
She said Terry had already asked her what she thought local
sentiment might be if the building were to be demolished.
"I told him that there would be a few old soreheads like
me, then it would be forgotten about. I think that the dollar
will be the bottom line. I worked for that bank for 27 years,
and if there is anything I've learned from that it is that a bank
is not a charitable organization. If you own the street you can
drive down whichever side you want to," McIntyre said.
As outspoken as McIntyre was, Terry, sitting behind his office
desk, was the opposite, reserved and careful in his language.
"We are still studying the situation," he said. "If
the sentiment from the community is that they would like to see
the building stand, we will take that into consideration."
He said the bank needs to build a building or addition that
would provide drive-through services, but the site of the old
hotel was not necessarily the best choice. There were other good
locations he said.
I asked him if the old hotel might make a good bank.
"Well, it may not be large enough, but there might be
some possibilities there. Actually, there are all kinds of things
the building could be used for," Terry said.
As president of the bank and a resident of Tuscola for 17 years,
Terry said he was also sentimentally attached to the old hotel.
"I'd hate to see it come down personally because it is
probably the only restorable building in the community,"
Terry said.
Terry said his wife was a native of Tuscola.
"Would you say she is a preservationist?" I asked.
"I think you could say that," Terry said, smiling
a bit.
"Is marital harmony involved in this decision?" I
asked.
"No," Terry said, laughing. "I don't think so."
I asked him what some of the options for the old building might
be other than a bank building.
Terry said the building might even make a good library for
the community, which, he noted, has no library.
"If you did that and made it into a library, that would
be an act of charity on the part of the bank, wouldn't it?"
I asked.
"Yes, it would," Terry said, and smiled again.
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 673-4271, Ext. 381, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX
79604.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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