Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-07-10
CAPITAL HOTEL SOLD F0R S|50,000 Deal Was Closed by Attor- ney for Owners and Max well Coffin as Agent for Purchasers.
A CASH TRANSACTION
To Be European HOtel-Later Will Be Demolished and Big Office Building Erected on Site-Employes Are Out.

The Capital hotel, once Arkan- sas' leading hostelry and the head quarters of state politicians for 35 years, was sold yesterday to Chris Lerwidge and a number of associates who are supposed to be local capi7' talists, says todays' Little Rock Gazette. The historical old struct- ure apparently is doomed, as it is understood that it will~~be con- ducted-as European hotel for three or four years, then torn down to make room for a modern office building.
 Negotiations for the sale of the building, which had been in pro- grass for some time, iculminated yesterday. The deal was closed by Maxwell Coffin of this city as agent for MT. Ledwidge and his associates and Allen c. Orrick, St. Louis attorney representing the owners of the property, Mrs. Maria l.. Turner. of Lexington, Ky, and Mrs. Georgia w. Yeatman and Mrs. Ida w. Shirk of Philadelphia the heirs of Judge George Claiborne Watkins. The. consideration was $150,0O0 in cash.
 The preliminary steps which re- suited in yesterdays sale were. taken at conference between MT .Orrick and MT. Coffin in St. Louis, and the deal was practically closed on Saturday.
 All the present employees or the hotel were notified yestrday that their services would no longer be rquired after July 31.Manager Jos eph Irwin has contract with the present management for year it i understood. After August 1 the hotel will be conducted strictly on the European plan, the dining room will be discarded and the barber shop will be moved to the offices formerly occupied by Cotter and Co.,, brokers The office will be retiled, the rooms repapered and the building probably repainted. The Louisiana street side of the building wlN also be improved. The front of the present barber shop and sample rooms will also be made over.
 Many historical memories cluster about the old building. It was built by w. P. Denckla, financier, who was prominent figure in Arkansas during the reconstruction days. During those days there was scarcely a big deal in which he was not con- cerned. When he begun the erection of the Capital hotel building, and that it would be an iron front building the conservative old citizens of Little Rock gasped with amazement at his daring. Before it's completion it was decided to con- vert it into a hotel The Louisiana street addition was built in 1876, and the two upper stories added in the early'SOs. The present dining room and the east wing were added in 1890.
 MT. Denckla's venture was not successful financially, and in 1878 the property was pur- chased by the late Judge Georg Claiborne Watkins It was first by A. J. De Shon and John D. Adams, Managers followed man. agers one after the other as the years went by, the list comprising, John Calef, John De Shon, Louis Mivelaz. John Dobbs and James ,, Joseph Irwin has man. 1 aged the hotel for the past 12 years i leaving the old Richlieu hotel, now Gleason, which he was managing at the time to take charge of it.
 In it's heydey the Capital was a