The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-17
BIG HOTEL IN Topeka.
Wiley L. Bracket of Peoria, Looks
Over Ground.

The hotel committee of the Com
mercial club has been holding a num-
Der of meetings recently with a view
to getting the big hotel project in to
some definite shape.
Sometime ago Mr.. George H. Bad
ders, secretary of the Commercial
club, attended convention of COM
mercial clubs at Rochester, N. Y,
stopping while there at the Seneca
hotel.
This is one of a chain of hotels con-
structed and operated by Frank A.
Dudley of Niagara Falls and his as
sociates, among whom are some of the
big hotel men and capitalists of the
country.
Mr.. Badders took up the matter
with Mr.. Dudley, who in turn con-
ferred with one of his associates in
the hotel enterprises, Mr.. Wiley L,
Bracket of Peoria, ILL.,. who is in
charge of the construction of the big
Hotel Jefferson there.
Mr.. Bracket spent three days in To-
peka last week in conference with the
committee upon its request and look
ed over the ground.
These people now have hotel at
Springfield, Mass; one at Syracuse, N.
Y: one building at Utica, N. Y.;-one
under way at Akron o., Champaign,
I'LL. and Peoria, Ill. The latter is the
under construction.
Mr.. Bracket is inclined to look
with favor upon Topeka as a good,
natural location for high grade hotel
He will confer with his associates upon
the matter and possibly present some
sort of a definite proposition.
He believes the site should be some
where between Seventh and Tenth and
Quincy and Jackson, and desires that
options be secured on a rather large
number of sites with view to secur-
ing a good one for a reasonable sum.
Mr.. Brackets idea, as it is that Of
the committee In general, is that the
hotel, if one be constructed, should be
so large and of such a high grade that
1t will not be a competitor with our
other hotels but attract all manner of
conventions to Topeka. With a great
hotel for headquarters these meetings
will be attracted in such a manner
that all of the hotels of the city will be
well patronized by the visitors.
1t is believed by many people that
''with fine hotel here and adequate ef-
forts that Topeka should average at
least one big convention week.
Mr.. Bracket says that first class
hotel brings travel to a city and
creates patronage that would never
otherwise come.
If Mr.. Wiley and Mr.. Dudley take
hold of this matter they will come here
themselves and undertake to raise
probably two-f1fths of the necessary
money. Their plan is to provide a
lessee, manager who will keep the
hotel on a high standard and on a par
with the others in which they are in
terested.
Where their plan is followed out, 9TH
er hotel men of the cities are among
the most enthusiastic apprehension It
creates business for the city that gives
all the hotels big patronage.
The hotel committee of the CONNER
cial club is thoroughly convinced that
the capital city is in need of a well
equipped hotel and believes that not
only would it pay but it would also
increase the business of the hotels at
present in operation.
The Commercial club intends to
make big thing of conventions in To-
peka so that the city can live up to its
reputation of being the convention city
of the state. 1t intends to- secure a
convention fund of SIS, 900 or $4,000
in order that more and larger conven-
lions may be secured and the guests
of the city entertained in fitting
manner. In this connection it is the
opinion of the club members that To-
peka should have a hotel where the
celebrities could be entertained
royalty.
There have been just a few knock
ers on the hotel proposition-men who
believe that it will be impossible to
launch such a scheme-but they dc
not stop to think that It is only
through effort that any city advances
its interests through the erection OF
buildings and in other ways. Kansas
City has had for years an ambition to
have a magnificent union depot, and
after an untiring amount of work
such a station is an assured thing.
The people of Topeka are getting
the spirit through the live Commercial
club that accomplishes things. They
want a thoroughly modern hotel and
It looks as though they would get it.
Mrs. Holt Sues for Divorce.
Jennie Holt has fled petition for