"MAIN STREET AND HOTEL CLOVIS"

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THE HOTEL IS BACK!
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"Hopefully the long empty and ill-treated Hotel Clovis will again become alive and reflect positively on Clovis, as it did in years past.  ------Robert Stebbins
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When we "Clovis kids" were teen-agers, Clovis was our whole world. Main Street was our oyster, and I suppose you could say---Hotel Clovis was the PEARL in our oyster.

Most of us never went into it, at least not many times, but the hotel was always there!  When we were "dragging Main," we didn't always "see" it---but we knew it was there---we sensed it.

If you asked a Clovis kid about Hotel Clovis, he would think of Main Street; if you asked him about Main Street, he would think of Hotel Clovis. Either way, other important downtown places--to him--would also enter his mind.

Hotel Clovis opened for business October 20, 1931, about the  time of the beginnings of The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl.  It was said to be the tallest building at that time between Dallas and Albuquerque. It was 119 feet tall, with 10 stories, and contained 114 rooms with baths. In a sense it even had red carpet of sorts out in front: Main Street was paved with RED BRICKS---which have endured for decades!

It was also the tallest building in the hearts of generations of Clovis kids--it was like a player, a character in the story of our lives. I guess we always just took it for granted until the time came when I wondered if it might be demolished. It was an actor in a drama--like the ranch houses in Dallas, Bonanza, Big Valley, High Chapparral---or the British estates in P.D. James' books.

Metaphorically, it stood tall, guarding Main Street, from First to Seventh Streets, overlooking our favorite venues---Busy Bee Cafe, Mesa Theater, Bus Station Cafe, Coney Island, Bowling Alley, Conoco Station, "Monkey" Ward, Woolworths, Barry Hardware, Lyceum Theater, Sunshine Theater, and Standridge Drug!

The hotel during its years served a variety of customers--railroad employees, train passengers, cattle buyers, travelers, and some celebrities. The ballroom was popular and well-known, partly due to famous musicians who appeared there, such as Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Hank Williams. Actor Ronald Reagan is said to have visited the lobby for a place to rest during a train layover.

The lobby contained a ballroom, coffee shop or restaurant, beauty shop, barber shop, curio shop, and KICA Radio studios.The Rotary Club met there on Thursdays at noon.

The hotel changed ownership in 1965, 1976, 1979, and lost its contract with SFRR to provide rooms for employees of the railroad, in 1983, allegedly due to failure to pass safety requirements. My info is that the RR stopped running passenger trains through Clovis also. These things caused the 50-plus year hotel to close.

In 2004, a group of CHS '51 graduates was eating breakfast in Albuquerque, and a knowledgeable member of the class was asked about our old friend--the hotel. He indicated that it had been empty for many years. A private group bought it in 1996 and the City of Clovis assumed ownership in 2004. In earlier years, vandals had covered the walls with graffitti, had broken plumbing fixtures and generally trashed the place; windows were broken, and pigeons had set up residence. Further, "remediating," or cleaning up the hazardous materials (such as asbestos) was estimated to cost up to $800,000. This would not include any remodeling.

I thought about that conversation many times, and I thought--"My, what a daunting problem! If you spend millions to remodel, will the clientele come?" (I didn't think of apartments.) I visualized a hole in the landscape at Second and Main, after they had demolished "our" hotel---like they do in those newscasts, where the buildings just crumble.

A couple of years ago, a private investor purchased the property and set out to remodel the hotel into 31 loft apartments, to be called "the Hotel Clovis Lofts." These would be on floors three to nine of the main building. Also included in the project would be a large number of similar units in adjacent buildings. An additional amount of 8,000 feet of commercial space would be included in the project. It is obvious from this that a number of surrounding buildings would be assimilated into this project.

My information indicates that the project will be accepting clients in 2013. Amenities planned are a day-care center, recreation area, computer room, and a "community room" and kitchen for resident gatherings.

No doubt the two Otis elevators, said to be the only ones in SE New Mexico in 1931, will be modernized and updated. I wonder about an addition of a freight-type elevator for moving large, heavy furniture and appliances. Have seen no word on that.

I suggest my readers Google for more developing news and facts, as this project is completed.

Hotel Clovis was added to the National Register of Historical Places on December 27, 1984.

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BY MIL
1/04/13




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