Oil Boom Town Hotels
The Mobley Hotel, Cisco, TX
Hilton had some experience in hospitality helping at his parents store/boarding house. He was a realist about what he was buying apparently referring to the Mobley Hotel as “a cross between a flophouse and a goldmine”. This simple two-story brick building is not particularly distinguished. Constructed in 1916 the Hotel is of common vernacular commercial style with a flat roof, parapeted walls of brick with stucco trim finishes and sash windows and a covered wood frame porch. It's an example of the railroad commercial style.
The appearance of two different brick types on sections of the exterior walls may indicate that construction was done in two phases, The hotel was situated near the railroad station which was important because traveling salesmen called “drummers” were the primary customers for hotels like this. Besides offering cheap rooms the Hotel also had a cafe and a “drummer's room,” or showroom, where area merchants could browse a display of drummer's wares.
The important change for the Mobley Hotel and what made it attractive to Conrad Hilton was the discovery of the nearby Ranger Oil Field and the boom economy that discovery created. By the early 1920’s the boom economy began to fade and Hilton sold the Mobley Hotel in 1929. The building eventually ceased to be use as a hotel and for a number of years was abandoned. In 1979 when the University of Houston and Hilton Foundations tool possession of the old hotel the interior had deteriorated to the point that it was uninhabitable. A new structure was built inside the remaining exterior walls and repurposed. Today the Mobley Hotel is the Conrad Hilton Memorial Park and Community Center housing Hilton memorabilia.
The Laguna Hotel, Cisco, TX
As the lead to this article says, the boom and bust cycle happened over an over and hotels were built and abandoned. There are many more of these interesting Hotels that you can read about in the chapter about Boom Town Hotels in the epublished book Western Hospitality in the eREADS page of Places and Spaces.
Across the street from the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, TX the Laguna Hotel opened for business in 1929. Designed by Dallas architects Thomson & Swain, the Laguna is a good example of the hotels constructed in this boomtown era. The eight-story structure brought a more sophisticated design and construction to Cisco. The Hotel is an example of the Commercial style or “Chicago School” style with the frame and veneer wall exterior reflected in the gridded fenestration pattern. The building is articulated as three parts vertically with a base with pilasters and tall windows for commercial spaces at street level. The unadorned brick walls and renamed windows of the main part of the building is topped by a villa-style penthouse with clay tile roof and rooftop terrace. The brick exterior has a decorative band at the parapet and terra cotta ornamentation.
The original Hotel had 110 rooms, a cafe, meeting rooms, 16 apartments, and the Greyhound Bus Station. The tallest building in this small town with its grand Lobby the Hotel was a huge upgrade for the community, but the timing wasn’t the best. As with many other towns, the oil fields didn’t bring the community any lasting wealth. By the 1960’s there was no business for a Hotel of this kind. In 2016 after being empty for at least 30 years the building was converted to apartments. The good thing is that exterior and parts of the Interior were restored to approximately original appearance.
