Posted 8:49 am Monday, April 04, 2011
Tylerites Recount Memories Of Carlton Hotel
TylerPaper.com photo slideshow
By DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
Hunter Brush still can vividly recall his wedding reception, held on the roof of the former Carlton Hotel around the swimming pool, in Tyler in the summer of 1963.
Staff Writer
Hunter Brush still can vividly recall his wedding reception, held on the roof of the former Carlton Hotel around the swimming pool, in Tyler in the summer of 1963.
"It was a fabulous atmosphere -- we had stars for our ceiling, and people sat at different tables around the pool," he said.
Brush's wife, Lynn Loftin, died in October. But the former Smith County District Attorney, who is now 76, said he frequented the hotel for lunch when he served as the District Attorney, first from 1967 to 1970, and then again from 1979 to 1982.
"We had various meetings there, and it was nice and handy to the courthouse. We all enjoyed the services and hated to see it disappear," Brush said.
The Carlton Hotel closed its doors in November 1971 after operating for 17 years. Tyler architect Ron Mabry recently agreed to purchase the property from Smith County within two years for $305,000.
He has renovation plans that would turn it into an upscale hotel.
But back when the hotel opened on Nov. 20, 1954, news accounts in The Tyler Morning Telegraph described three days of open house festivities and a floor show featuring film star Gloria de Haven. Part of the show was broadcast statewide, including KTBB in Tyler, according to the article.
The article stated that approximately 4,000 persons visited the 15 story, $1.8 million structure during the opening weekend. The hotel boasted a coffee shop which would seat 120 people, a ballroom, a main dining room and three private dining rooms, according to The Dallas Morning News.
"Each guest room has a five-channel radio and a television outlet. Television receivers will be installed permanently in each of the 38 corner suites," the Nov. 3, 1954 Morning News article stated.
And many Tylerites recalled the hotel's swimming pool, which was added to the roof in about 1955 or 1956. Frank Payne, 68, was a lifeguard there from 1959 to 1961, and his mother, Zelma Payne managed the Carlton for "many years," he said.
"The pool was made of steel and was very unique," the 1960 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School said.
Payne said the pool was only open to hotel guests and members of the Tyler Petroleum Club, which was located inside of the Carlton on the second floor at that time. He said he remembers a circle of about 10 cabana rooms on one side of the pool where frequent parties were held.
Payne remembered, with humor, one incident which could have resulted in someone being injured, but was fortunately discovered in time. "There was a shuffleboard court next to the pool and someone waxed it," he said, laughing.
"Luckily, no one fell, but they had to scrape the wax off," Payne said.
Henry Bell, the chief operating officer of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce has memories of the spiral staircase that led from the Carlton lobby to the ballroom on the second floor. "I went to a wedding reception there with my parents in the '60's -- that staircase was an unusual one for Tyler," Bell, 57, said.
Sam Kidd, treasurer and office manager at the Smith County Historical Society, was a lifeguard at the Carlton pool during the summers of 1961 and 1962. "I remember the people who stayed at the hotel after Hurricane Carla hit in September of '61," Kidd, 67, said.
The hotel was a popular place with the downtown Tyler business crowd when he worked there. "They would come for lunch, change into their swimsuits and swim a few laps, then eat a club sandwich and go back to work," Kidd said.
