Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-02-08

When, on Thanksgiving day, 1907,
the Gadsden hotel Which was de-
stroyed yesterday by fire, was opened
to the public for business, it furnished
to Douglas one of the finest hostleries
in tho part of the southwest The
hotel ideas of that day had been SO
severely modified in the intervening
years that when the hotel was bought
some seven months ago by Mr.. and
Mrs. F. o. Mackey their first move
was to make it once again a modern
hotel to take its place among the good
hotels of the southwest. They had
just about achieved their purpose when
flames swept the hotel out of existence.
The Gadsden hotel was erected by
group of local people who formed
what was known as the Gadsden COM
pany for the purpose of erecting a
hotel to meet the need Of the city of
that time When it came TO deciding
upon what should be the name of tho
company whose purposes indicated
that the name would also be applied
to the resulting hotel "a contest for d
prize was arranged and the word
~iadsden won. 1t will be recalled that
this is section of the original G3dS-
den purchase and that made the name
seem to the committee fitting for the
use to which it was to be put,
Tom Jones Opened Gadsden
The hotel took about one year 20
complete and the opening was made
large community event 1t at once
took leading place among the hotels
of the state and attracted the atten-
ton of the travelling public.
The first manager of the hotel
business was Thomas Jones. Then
came Thomas Law and w: H. Min
shall among half q dozen in order be-
tween the opening and 1912 when the
property was absorbed by the Douglas
Investment company at the January
meeting of the company. Mfnshall
was then in charge as manager and
continued to manage the hotel until
June of that year when D. G. O'Nelu,
now proprietor of the Motor Transit
company, took the reigns of manage
ment For the next six years, until
June 1918, the hotel Gadsden was an
active social center There was a
large dining room that was widely
known and popular and it was no url-
lA111lS W oGC q AOAAS AAAAN -
people waiting to have service. Then,
too the lobby, which was one OF the
attractive hotel lobbies of the south
west, was a center for the business
men and the political leaders who hap
pened to be in the city to congregate
and make medicine" for the candi-
dates.
Mackeys Buy Hotel
The hotel was continued after
aONeill left the managerial post by
Frank Langan, Walter Ratliffe and
Jack Faulkner up to the sale to Mr..
and Mrs Mackey
The plans for the Gadsden hotel as
originally built, were made by frost
and frost of Ell .Paso and the con-
Struction contract was carried out by
Otto Kreuger, also of El Paso. 1t was
constructed of brick with interior OF
frame, that being prior to the time
when towns the size of the then city
of Douglas exacted of the building
proprietors what are known. now as
fireproof structures
One of the facts recalled by one OF
the men familiar with the history OF
the hotel was that when the fire eS-
c2pes were placed on the original
building they were at the south end,
not far from where the elevator and
the Stairways all were located. This
matter struck O'Neill when he took
charge, as unwise and unsafe and he
called into council some of the men
whose money was invested in it.
Among them was James S. Douglas
When he had shown them the situa-
ton, they saw at once that if fire
started at a point that blocked the
egreSs to the stairway and elevator
then the hope of reaching the fire
escape was gone, also, and that those
in the wings to the north would be
doomed. 1t took Mr.. Douglas just a