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UER Forum > Archived US: South > Baker to be refurbished. Really. Yes, *really*. (Viewed 216 times)
RobertB 


Location: Skeeterville, TX
Gender: Male


Maybe I shouldn't be using my real name...

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Baker to be refurbished. Really. Yes, *really*.
< on 8/17/2010 10:52 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
The Baker is like a roller coaster, with all its ups and downs. It's currently in an "up" phase as far as public attention (which, of course, causes a "down" phase in non-key-bearing accessibility).

According to the Dallas Observer, the man (and money) behind the long-term, large-scale renovation of the Stoneleigh Hotel in Uptown Dallas has set his sights on a real challenge: the Baker Hotel, closed for almost 40 years.

Man Behind Stoneleigh Redo Pulls the Trigger on Resurrecting Mineral Wells's Baker Hotel

And that blog post generated another one -- about an upcoming *movie* (well, video, whatever) to document the genteel but decrepit old lady's pre-revival charm.

Ballad of the Baker (bakerhotelmovie.com)

The DO staffer who mentioned the movie wanted to check out the joint before gentrification takes over -- he's quoted as saying "I haven't broken in there ... yet." Our kinda folks, except that he has a business card that says "Reporter". Which got *him* access to get in, lucky bastard. All we get is his 10-minute video, which I haven't watched yet but will soon, titled "The Baker Hotel - 11.10.09 - Preliminary Restoration Walk Through". Video and sneak preview of the movie in this blog post:

A Doc-in-Progress About the Life and Death and Rebirth of Mineral Wells's Baker Hotel

I guess all these developments go a ways towards explaining why the place has become off-limits. I never got in myself, but I walked around the outside, imagined dying in the green pool, peeked in the decaying basement... I'd love to go there and actually stay in a room, with maid service and everything.

J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte.
La voici: "Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules!"
Dieu m'a exaucé.
Barry Kooda 


Location: The Cliff
Gender: Male


Trees

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Re: Baker to be refurbished. Really. Yes, *really*.
<Reply # 1 on 8/18/2010 8:32 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Yeah,
Robert (W) snagged that from the Austin Statesman reporter. Looks legit. I just hope it works.
http://www.statesm...ineral-862888.html

I'm a blatant waste of time and resources.
Liquorhead 


Location: Sherman,Tx
Gender: Male




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Re: Baker to be refurbished. Really. Yes, *really*.
<Reply # 2 on 8/18/2010 11:32 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
This is off topic, but I found it really interesting, and when I saw this thread I thought some of you might too.

My wife works at a car dealership, and an old man came in yesterday with his granddaughter or great granddaughter to help her buy a car. The old man sat down in my wife's office to get out of the heat and let his granddaughter look around. Somehow the topic of conversation got on hotels, and eventually to the Baker.

Turns out the man grew up in the Mineral Wells area and knew Mr. Baker personally. My wife said the old man talked about how one of the greatest days of his life was when his parents first let him attend one of the Baker's celebrations. He talked about how glorious the hotel was on New Year's Eve, and how Mr. Baker had a fondness for Christmas lights and would decorate the hotel elaborately. All of the celebrity birthday parties held there, the political conventions, and how the entire town revolved around the hotel... and how proud of it Mr. Baker was.

The old man talked about how it was the only hotel around with full air conditioning and the only one with a swimming pool. He said you could use room service all day long for $5, and the food was "unlike all of the crap the serve today." He said the appetizers were 50 cents each.

I didn't know this, but the old man started talking about Mr. Baker's other hotel in Galveston. My wife asked him which one, and he said Hotel Galvez, which is where I asked my wife to marry me at (small world). The old man said everyone called Mr. Baker crazy for building a hotel right there by the water after the hurricane destroyed Galveston in 1901. But he built it, and even though he started building the Baker Hotel first, the swimming pool gave him "lots of problems and worries", so he went to Galveston and finished the Galvez first. According to him, Mr. Galvez was a Colombian friend of Mr. Baker, and before construction of the hotel he told him he would name the hotel after him, and he did. I knew Mr. Baker had other hotels that weren't in Texas, but according to the old man he had quite a few in Texas too. I have no idea if any of this is true or not, but it made for a great story.

On the way out, the old man said "When you're as old as me, you have lots of stories." My wife asked him how old he was and he said 98.

Anyway... I enjoyed it when my wife told it to me, hopefully it didn't lose too much in translation.

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Happiedaze 


Location: Galveston Area, TX
Gender: Female




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Re: Baker to be refurbished. Really. Yes, *really*.
<Reply # 3 on 8/20/2010 5:13 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Liquorhead
This is off topic, but I found it really interesting, and when I saw this thread I thought some of you might too.

My wife works at a car dealership, and an old man came in yesterday with his granddaughter or great granddaughter to help her buy a car. The old man sat down in my wife's office to get out of the heat and let his granddaughter look around. Somehow the topic of conversation got on hotels, and eventually to the Baker.

Turns out the man grew up in the Mineral Wells area and knew Mr. Baker personally. My wife said the old man talked about how one of the greatest days of his life was when his parents first let him attend one of the Baker's celebrations. He talked about how glorious the hotel was on New Year's Eve, and how Mr. Baker had a fondness for Christmas lights and would decorate the hotel elaborately. All of the celebrity birthday parties held there, the political conventions, and how the entire town revolved around the hotel... and how proud of it Mr. Baker was.

The old man talked about how it was the only hotel around with full air conditioning and the only one with a swimming pool. He said you could use room service all day long for $5, and the food was "unlike all of the crap the serve today." He said the appetizers were 50 cents each.

I didn't know this, but the old man started talking about Mr. Baker's other hotel in Galveston. My wife asked him which one, and he said Hotel Galvez, which is where I asked my wife to marry me at (small world). The old man said everyone called Mr. Baker crazy for building a hotel right there by the water after the hurricane destroyed Galveston in 1901. But he built it, and even though he started building the Baker Hotel first, the swimming pool gave him "lots of problems and worries", so he went to Galveston and finished the Galvez first. According to him, Mr. Galvez was a Colombian friend of Mr. Baker, and before construction of the hotel he told him he would name the hotel after him, and he did. I knew Mr. Baker had other hotels that weren't in Texas, but according to the old man he had quite a few in Texas too. I have no idea if any of this is true or not, but it made for a great story.

On the way out, the old man said "When you're as old as me, you have lots of stories." My wife asked him how old he was and he said 98.

Anyway... I enjoyed it when my wife told it to me, hopefully it didn't lose too much in translation.


that is so awesome!! I love hearing stories like this about a location! And I especially LOVE the Baker! Thanks for sharing this.

'Our plans are all laid out,
take all these unmarked roads,
we blaze the trails to places no one goes, yeah!' -Rise Against
UER Forum > Archived US: South > Baker to be refurbished. Really. Yes, *really*. (Viewed 216 times)



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