The Shamrock is a hotel built between 1946 and 1949 by wildcatter Glenn McCarthy in southwest downtown Houston, Texas next to Texas Medical Center. It is the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. The opening of Shamrock is still referred to as one of the largest social events ever held in Houston. Sold to Hilton Hotel in 1955 and operated for more than three decades as Shamrock Hilton , this facility underwent a financial struggle throughout its history. In 1985, Hilton Hotels donated buildings to Texas Medical Center and its structure was demolished on 1 June 1987.
Video Shamrock Hotel
Design and construction
Designed by Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick, eighteen storey buildings with green tiled roofs and 1,100 rooms were conceived by McCarthy as a city-sized hotel for conventions with a resort atmosphere. The hotel is located in a suburban area, three miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Houston on the southwest corner of Acute Main Street and Bellaire Boulevard (West Holcombe Boulevard after 1963). At the time, it was on the outskirts of the countryside and meant to be the first stage of a larger indoor shopping and entertainment complex called the McCarthy Center, anchored next to the planned Texas Medical Center.
On the north side of the hotel there is a five-story building containing a garage of 1,000 cars and an exhibition space of 25,000 square feet (2,300 m).
In the south is a luxurious hotel park designed by Ralph Ellis Gunn, a huge 165 (50m) swimming pool and swimming pool with 142 feet (43 m) depicted as the world's largest outdoor swimming pool, which accommodates water skiing exhibitions and displays 3 high level dive platform with open spiral staircase.
Construction completed approximately $ 21 million (equivalent to over $ 200 million in 2007).
Politicians and businessmen Jesse H. Jones personally warned McCarthy that business travelers would be reluctant to stay at a hotel three miles south of downtown Houston. The hotel industry executives firmly warned McCarthy that the project would not be profitable. He openly replied, "I went into the oil business in 1933 when everyone said I was really stupid, now they say it again about my hotel."
The 5,000-square-foot lobby (460Ã, m 2 ) is paneled in mahogany embedded with extra trim that is heavily influenced by Art Deco, a design movement that has been popular during the 1920s and 30s. McCarthy ordered furniture and decorations in green shades, a nod to his ancestors in Ireland. Hedrick's architectural firm is reported to have become the third largest in the US, but its conservative design for the exterior of the building along with its sumptuous interior by Robert D. Harrell of Los Angeles invites widespread condemnation, especially from Frank Lloyd Wright who is on display. facility before it opened, pointed to the lobby ceiling and said to Fay Jones, "That, young man, is an example of the effects of venereal disease on architecture." Wright also referred to Shamrock as the "artificial Rockefeller Center" (which had been completed ten years earlier). McCarthy claims the decor represents "the best of all periods." Time magazine describes it as "eclectic." The structural design of the building has since been characterized as "stronger and sturdier than sleek and futuristic."
Maps Shamrock Hotel
Historical grand opening
The hotel opened with fireworks display on St. Louis Day. Patrick 1949. Two thousand Houston residents paid $ 42 per person for dinner in a place widely publicized as "Houston's biggest party" which cost about a million dollars. The party was attended by over 150 Hollywood celebrities including Ginger Rogers, Hedda Hopper, Robert Preston and Errol Flynn along with business executives and Los Angeles journalists, some of whom were flown to Houston International Airport with a customized Boeing 307 Stratoliner that McCarthy has only bought a few days earlier from Howard Hughes. Many more were taken by train in Super Santa Fe Head. With a crowd of about 50,000 people gathered outside the hotel, boys wearing black ties distributed a commemorative edition of the Houston Post when the guests arrived that night. The party became very full, with three thousand people milling about in hotel public places, a thousand more than previously thought. The mayor of Houston, Oscar F. Holcombe and his wife sat in the hallway for two hours after his chair was stolen. "This is the worst mafia scene I've ever seen," Holcombe later said. The celebration became so excited that radio broadcasts from the hotel by actress, singer, and girl of World War II Dorothy Lamour were cut off by the network; assuming he was not allowed, NBC's audio engineer Raoul Murphy said a curse that was heard directly in the air and the dead air greeted the audience for a very long twenty seconds. Due to the many difficulties of broadcasting, Lamour was reported to have escaped from the stage while crying.
The Houston Chronicle community editor wrote that the show was "a frenzy in a diamond". Life calls it "... the most fascinating evening dress exhibit and big names ever seen in Texas Everyone should admit that it's a party and quite a hotel." The opening of Shamrock is still referred to as one of the greatest social events in Houston's history.
Operation
Shamrock initially has a staff of 1,200 staffed by George Lindholm, who has been recruited from the socially renowned Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York. There are 23 different employee uniforms. Guests signed the list in green "color-grass" ink and their suitcases were carried by maids dressed in emerald green uniforms, lemons trimmed through McCarthy portraits in the elevator lobby to air-conditioned, green rooms with each with art large framed abstracts. on the walls, push-button radio (including recordings of music from elaborate home systems where operators play long phonographic recordings) and televisions, all the facilities that were somewhat rare for hotels at the time. Over a third of the rooms have a kitchenette. Celebrity singers (including Lamour) perform at the hotel's nightclub, called the Emerald Room. From 1949 to 1953 Shamrock organized a network radio program called Saturday in Shamrock by the American Broadcasting Company, then the only nationally televised broadcast program produced outside New York or Los Angeles.
But Shamrock soon began to experience persistent problems with occupancy levels and rarely if ever full. McCarthy spends a lot of money, then borrows a lot of money on his assets (including hotels) to capitalize on a series of risky investments and his cash reserves are quickly reduced. Within a year Lindholm quietly resigned. In 1952 McCarthy failed the loan and the hotel was acquired by the Institute of Fair Debt Guarantees. That same year, author Edna Ferber described Shamrock as "Conquistador" in his novel Giant (and then briefly featured in a 1956 film adaptation directed by George Stevens). Although Shamrock's financial problems such as resorts with restaurants, bars and swank shops have become popular gathering places for local people and characterized as "Houston's Riviera" during the early 1950s. Shamrock's private and slim Cork Club was listed as the site of many oil deals (and reportedly, boxing fights), along with performances by singer Frank Sinatra. In 1953, singer Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters launched her short solo career at the modern-day Emerald room nightclub.
Shamrock Hilton
In 1954, Hilton Hotels Corporation assumed hotel management and purchased property at a discounted price from its construction costs in 1955 but also struggled to find a favorable model for the large facility, later proven to be isolated from downtown Houston and its growth system. from the highway. In addition, Shamrock is overwhelmed by competition from many much smaller, cheaper, and car-friendly motels. A low level two-floor "lanai" wing in the form of a motel was added next to the pool in 1957. Meanwhile suburban house buyers on the outskirts of the area and planned shopping and entertainment centers were never built (although the McCarthy concept affected the success of the Houston Galleria that opened at near the intersection of the highway on the west side of the city in 1970). In about 1965, Texas's first Trader Vic restaurant was launched in Shamrock, where the business operated until after 1985. The hotel remained popular for Houston's social events such as debutante balls, barbecue and business meetings, continuing operations as Hilton Shamrock until 1986, at that time even its local reputation has long since faded.
Demolition
During a severe local recession in 1985, the 36-year-old hotel was still the second largest in Houston but at that time needed extensive repairs and repairs, basically donated to Texas Medical Center. In March 1986, rallies were held by historic preservationists including McCarthy and the hotel opened the last annual St. Patrick's Day party to the public. That night, some people who attended the opening night party in 1949 reportedly attended a semi-formal event in the Emerald hotel room. Some employees have been in the hotel since the first year of operation. The building was destroyed June 1, 1987 (McCarthy died 18 months later) and the land was paved as a surface parking lot. Institute of Bioscience and Technology, a component of the Texas A & amp; M has been built on this site and, along with a fountain and several landscaping in the northeast courtyard, the hotel's multi-storey parking garage is maintained.
Citizen
- Maxine Mesinger and his family
Programs/Menu
See also
- History of Houston
- Houston Architecture
References
Burrough, Bryan. "The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Largest Texas Oil Wealth Penguin Press, New York, 2009.
Further reading
- Callahan, Michael. "Grand Hotel Shamrock Opening - A Forgotten Day in Houston" (Archive). Houston Chronicle . March 16, 2015. Alternate version (Archive).
- Gonzales, J.R. "The Shamrock Hotel (Part 1 of 5)." Houston Chronicle . March 17, 2008.
- Hlavaty, Craig (2017-03-16). "Shamrock Hotel in Houston: Looking back at its luxurious opening". Houston Chronicle .
- Perera, John Henry (compiler). "Photos of the historic Shamrock hotel in Houston." Houston Chronicle . March 17, 2015.
- Sanders, Diana. "The Destruction of Hotel Hilton Shamrock: Motivation for Cultural Preservation" (Archive). History of Houston . January 2011. Vol. 6, No 2-Preservation.
External links
- The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History,
(photo) - Shamrock Hotel, Houston Deco, 1940s
- Dozens of photos were taken at the hotel's workplace in 1949
- Remembering Shamrock
- An antique postcard from Shamrock Hotel
- The Shamrock Hotel Collection at the University of Houston Digital Library
- Quotes from HoustonPBS documentary In Search of Houston History, Oct 18, 2008
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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