The Alcalde Hotel in Gonzales, Texas. (original) (raw)

Gonzales will soon boast another hotel, final papers having been signed late Thursday afternoon that insure for the city a new and thoroughly up to date hostelry of three stories, and containing no less than forty bed rooms.

This achievement is the result of B.B. Hoskins, Jr., who is the recognized business manager of the project.

"Cap" Smith has the contract for the erection of the building, which will be located on the lot recently purchased by Mrs. H. Droupy, and which adjoins the Hoskins Mercantile building on the north. The lot faces west on St. Paul street, and is a desirable location for a hotel, being as it is about midway between the court house and the railway depot, on a good thoroughfare.

The site of the proposed building has long been occupied by a large sheet iron building occupied by a blacksmith shop, and this will be torn down immediately in order that work may begin on the new structure. The contract calls for active work to begin on the building within fourteen days after the signing of the contract.

The building has been leased for a period of ten years to Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Hood, who come highly recommended both as citizens and as experienced hotel people, who are now temporarily located in San Antonio, but who expect to have their household effects shipped to this city as soon as possible.

They have opened and successfully conducted hotels in different parts of the country. After traveling over this section of Texas they came to the conclusion that Gonzales was a good place in which to locate, with the result that Gonzales' ambition for a new, modern hotel will soon be a reality.

Plans for the building have already been drawn, and as soon as the lot can be cleared, active work will start. The building with furnishings, will cost about $40,000, and while no special line of architecture will be followed, the building will be modern in every detail and a credit to the city.

It will have a frontage of 44 feet on St. Paul Street, running back for a distance of 108 feet. The first or ground floor, will have a plate glass front, and will consist of a vestibule in the center, 27x7 feet, leading into the lobby, which will be 32x32 feet with an additional entrance on the south side of the building.

The coffee room, 10x33 feet in size, will adjoin the lobby on the south, while a barber shop 10x15 feet, will be a feature on the north side front. A 6 foot hallway will extend from the lobby, and on the south side of this hallway will be located the dining room, 20x42 feet in size. The kitchen will adjoin the dining room on the east.

To the rear of the lobby, and north of the hallway, will be a 14x20 foot sample room. A well-appointed wash room and a storeroom will adjoin this. There will be two large bedrooms on the east end of the first floor.

On the second and third floors will be located 38 bedrooms, 19 on each floor, and each room will have outside exposure, with mullion windows. There will be three hallways on each of the two upper floors, one 10x80 feet, extending from east to west, while two halls will extend from north to south.

There will be 17 bathrooms in the building, as well as many other modern conveniences. There will be no elevator service in the building, as in a structure of but three stories it would entail much unnecessary overhead expense.

However, the walls are to be built strong enough to support one or two additional stories should the building prove too small, and in that event elevators would no doubt be added.

A large cash fund was deposited in a local bank Friday morning by Mr. and Mrs. Hood as a guarantee of good faith, and the work of giving Gonzales another first-class and much needed hotel will go forward rapidly.

To Mr. Baker Hoskins, Jr. belongs most of the credit for the new enterprise, for he has worked untiringly and in the face of many difficulties, to bring the matter to a successful culmination.