Arizona republican., 1902-02-04
IN A MODERN OIL TOWN
Growth of Beaumont, Texas, Since the
First Well Came in.

Beaumont has grown SO rapidly and
steadily within the past few months
that the stages of that growth have al
most escaped public notice. The pres
ent boom is not like that which oc-
CURED when oil was first discovered.
1t is not a boom of speculation but
boom which has material evidences be-
hind it to vouch for its strength and
reality.
To properly understand the growth
which Beaumont has attained at the
present time it is necessary to revert to
its condition at the time oil was first
discovered and during the few months
when things were in such confusion
that man turned not his attention to
practical upbuilding.
| AT the time oil was struck Beaumont
was thriving lumber town, being the
center also of a large rice district. 1t
had few hotels of very moderate ca
pacity, a barn of an opera house, in
which the science of acoustics had not
i been applied. and a goodly scattering of
| stores and dwellings. During the spec
ulative BOOM a few more ex tempore
saloons were erected, but the large in
flux of strangers had to content them
/ selves mainly with the existing facili-
| ties, as buildings could not be erected
! in day; and, therefore, hotels, board
ing houses and dwellings We're crowded
to bursting, and bare fields under the
sky became dotted with white tents.
| beneath which cots rented for dollar
a night.
! At that tempestuous time, when
even Spindle Top Heights was a barren
| plain, relieved only by a few derricks.
men We're too busy calculating upon
ever changing values to think about
providing the practical facilities for
handling oil or erecting permanent
homes for themselves.
But today Spindle Top Heights and
the city of Beaumont are on a more
solid basis. At both places 1T is evil
dent that things have settled down and
that the progress is now strong and
conservative.
Spindle Top Heights is little city in
itself. During the daytime it swarms
with workmen and at night its bright
lights may be seen a mile away. The
tanks. pipe lines, pumping stations and
| loading racks that have been laid and
erected there in themselves have
meant the expenditure of vast sums OF
money, an enormous increase of rail-
road receipts and the giving of employ
ment to many hundreds of men. These
men. together with the drillers and
those engaged in moving the oil, bunk
out, many of them, on the field; and as
restaurants and eating houses have
been put up there, they find nearly all
the facilities for living in the immedi-
ate vicinity of their working place.
In Beaumont itself the crowded con-
dition as to hotels, dwelling houses and
office quarters has been relieved within
the past three months. The time when
a man was glad to pay a big price for
desk room under the trees has passed
The Threadneedle building, in Pearl
street, is modelled after it's namesake in
London, and though not as large, is
a very capacious Office building. and is
occupied by railroad men, oil men. law
yers and doctors.
The large modern brick building in
which the opera house is domiciled will
be rented out to Beaumont's Social club
and other firms and persons desiring
, offices. The opera house portion was
, finished first. but the rest OF il is now
, about ready for occupancy. One of the
, old hotels has just about completed a
, large extension, and a new hotel has
been completed in Calder avenue An
other one is being built in that portion
of the town near the Neches river