The Alaska daily empire., 1922-12-28
HISTORIC HOTEL
TO PASS AWAY
Planters Hotel in St. Louis to
Be Torn Down-Ofice
Building on Site.

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 2S.-(By the As
sociated resS.)-Closing of the
| Planters Hotel here January l will
mark the passing OF a hosiery re-
plete with tradition of the Middle
West, and particularly the southland
The odd Planters House." in which
history has been made, will be con
verified into an office building.
Typewriters will click in rooms
where Presidents slept, office boys
will hustle across floors once strobe
by stately banqueters, and business
men will plan battles of dollars in
rooms in which political battles have
been won and lost, and in which the
capture of Camp Jackson was
planned in 1861.
The Planters, one OF the best
known hotels in the South and Mid
die West, was built by Evarist Maury
in 1917. 1t then was two-story
frame structure, and it early acquired
reputation Off the fine "oats and
hay" given guests horses. The name
was changed to THE Planters
House" in 1S41, when a four-story
structure was built at a cost of
$1ySO00O0 under it's original name,
planters Hotel"
Center Of Social Life
In the 40's and SOS the hostelry
was the center of social life of this
section. Planters of the North and
South brought their families here
for the winter months to taste the
joys of the hotels hospitality. The
women, with their hoop skirts, gath
cred in circles in the parlors to quilt
and embroider
After supper the tables were
cleared, the carpets folded, the gas
jets in their huge glass chandeliers
lighted, and the grace and beauty
Of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and
Alabama assembled for the minuet
and the Virginia reel. There were
Northerners, too, but not in proper.
tion to the number of Southern
guests.
Stirring moments were brought to
the Planters by the Civil War. Here
Frank p. Blair and Nathaniel Lyon
conferred preceding the capture of
Camp Jackson, May 10, 1851. On
June IL, 1861, the conference which
resulted in the fight of brother
against brother" In Missouri was
held at the Planters. when Lyon
dramatically declared his loyalty to
the North, and departed to enlist
Missourians in the Federal Army
Political battle-ground
The Planters became political
battle-ground with the reconstruc.
ton days, and the hosiery has had
a generous share in every political
campaign since 1870
Old records show that such per
sonages as the following signed the
register of the hotel: Presidents
Lincoln, Grant, Cleveland, Roosevelt
and Taft, Martin Van Buren,, King
Edward VII, then Prince of Wales,
Charles Dickens. Jay Gould and Will
liam F. Cody
Writing OF the hotel in his Ameri-
can Notes. Mr.. Dickens said:
1--WE went to a large hotel called
The Planters with long passages and
skylights above the room doors for
the free circulation of air. There
were a great many boarders in it,
and as many lights sparkled and
glistcned from the windows down
into the street below when we drove
up as if it had been illuminated on
some occasion of rejoicing. 1t is
an excellent house, and the proprie
tors have most bountfful notions OF
providing the creature with com
forts. Dining alone with my wife in
our room one day, | counted IA
dishes on the table at once"
AS one enters the Planters now
he sees a large key above the marble
desk. 1t is Az feet long, and tradi
ton says it was used to open the
first door of the Planters. 1t will
be used in ceremony, in closing the
hotel at midnight, December 81. Be
low the key is a gilded horseshoe
welded by Bob Fitzsimmons. the
fighter. as a token of good luck Il
the hotel.
A number of the present employees
have been with the hostelry for 2;
and 80 years