|
|
ROOMS
WITH A PAST - TEXAS HOTELS BUILT BEFORE 1950:
by John Troesser
|
|
|
The
Blazilmar (c. 1943)
TE Postcard Archives |
|
The card is
unused, but the print reads:
Here you will find: Good Beds - Fine Food - Friendly Hospitality
in a truly great Community that you will want to visit again and
again.
Our Coffee Shop
is Always Comfortably Cool
|
|
|
The
Blazilmar
TE
Photo, October 2000 |
|
The
vaguely Arab-South American sounding name is actually an amalgam
of three family names. They were investors/owners Howard Bla
(nd), A. J. Zil (ker), and T. W. Mar (se). We are
happy to report that the building is still standing in Taylor, and
has recently been sold.
If you can read
the front window in the postcard, the Blazilmar also served as the
Greyhound Bus Station for Taylor. Las Lomas Hotel
in Junction also served as the town's bus station, and you'll have
to admit, it was a pretty practical arrangement. The arrival of
a late night bus would keep the night staff alert in anticipation
of the midnight coach from Brady (of course it did) and the weary
bus traveler merely had to walk from the bus seat to the front desk.
The impressive
(for the time) four-story hotel was fireproof, had steam heat and
ceiling fans in each of its 90 rooms. The rooms were furnished with
"sanidown" mattresses, a company whose name said it all in the trade-name
idiom of the day. Taylor used a lot of the area's cotton in making
mattresses for the military during WW II. The mill in El Dorado,
Texas provided blankets. When we find out who made the pillows,
we'll let you know.
A ballroom
on the second floor of the Blazilmar was used for social gatherings,
the kind they rarely have today. It was the site of dinners, dances,
receptions, and reunions. Being a bus station as well, there was
always the possibility of a young drifter getting off the bus and
meeting a debutante whose "daddy grew cotton." This was the kind
of plot that they made movies about in the 30s and 40s, but might've
actually happened in Taylor, Texas.
In 1920, The St. Louis Browns wintered in Taylor. They roomed
at the Blazilmar Hotel and practiced on what is now Memorial Football
Field. It was an era when a wintering Yankee baseball player could
fall in love with a southern debutante that had just broken her
engagement (see last paragraph) to a drifter who had just gotten
off the night bus from Brady. We believe Randolph Scott and Hedy
Lamar were in that one.
Many Northern teams took advantage of the mild winters by staying
in Southern Hotels. Waxahachie's Rogers Hotel was one of these,
as well as the Aumont
in Seguin.
The Blazilmar
is keeping its secrets well. We tried to uncover stories of ghosts,
murders, suicides, unrequited love, former employees that became
war heroes or even people who skipped out without paying their bill,
but we came up with nothing.
© John Troesser
January 2001
See Taylor,
Texas
Book Your Hotel Here and Save:
Taylor Hotels
|
Our
special thanks to Taylor Librarian Bonnie Brooks who researched the
Blazilmar for our readers and included in her email that her information
came from the following sources:
The Taylor Daily Press newspaper dated 6/30/38, and
information from Our Town.
Forum
Subject:
Blazilmar
Hotel Story
Dear TE, My grandparents (Paul and Eureka Ferguson) managed the
Blazilmar hotel in Taylor,
Texas,
in the late 1950s and I spent several summers there. I well remember
James the elevator man and even helped as his special assistant
sometimes when he was busy with some chore my grandmother thought
up. He taught me how to ease the lever down to stop exactly even
with the floor so the guest doesn't trip.
Your reminiscence page brought back such a flood of old memories
it makes me eager to write an article for your magazine. Meanwhile,
[here is] my 2004 short story, set in 1958 at the Blazilmar. "Waiting
for Elvis" is fiction, but based on actual events. It won second
place in the Denver Woman's Press Club ---- In-House Writer's Contest
in 2005! - Shere Chamness, August 22, 2007
Subject:
Blazilmar
I grew up in Taylor also and I remember the Blazilmar Hotel very
well. I have a brother that worked across the street at the Blazilmar
garage as a mechanic. I remember coming home from boot camp from
San Diego and arriving on a greyhound bus. - Bennie Mitchell,
Amarillo Texas, March 18, 2006
I RAN ACROSS
A PICTURE SLIDE OF A BILLBOARD FOR THE BLAZILMAR HOTEL. I AM NOT
SURE WHAT ROAD IT WAS ON BUT THESE PHOTO'S ALL DATE BACK TO THE
MID TO LATE 30's. ALSO A BILLBOARD OF STAR TIRES IN TAYLOR. I HAVE
BEEN SEARCHING FOR THE TOWNS ALL MY SLIDES CAME FROM, I BET THEY
ARE FROM TAYLOR. MAYBE I WILL GET A CHANCE TO GO TO TAYLOR. - TIM,
September 30, 2004
I grew up in
Taylor and us kids would go to the hotel to play pinball on those
old nickel machines. I also remember that there was a cranky old
man named James who was the elevator operator who would run us off
if he thought we had been playing pinball too long. Also for the
longest time the coffee shop was the only place to get something
to eat after 9pm and they had a great bowl of chili. - Lee Crowell,
Taylor Duck Class of 1971, May 11, 2002
Reference to
Lee Crowell' s letter concerning "james"..
I ran across the poor man while working in law enforcement. "James'
was sick and living out of a car. I found him one cold winter night
sleeping in a car on West Second street in Taylor. He was having
chest pains. I called EMS and they took him to the hospital. A few
years later I came across this man in a rest home in Taylor. I too,
like Lee, remember him ("James") when I was a kid. I played a few
games of pinball there myself ! I also remember that the railroad
housed their people there and one night there was a rail strike
and there was concern of hostilities in the rail yard across the
street from the Hotel. Thank God nothing developed from that. Late
nights, the Blasilmar was the only place to get pretty good food
too! There where a few fights in the bar that was on the south end
of the building toward the rail yard where the rail personnel and
the general citizenry would mingel. - James Rowland/Taylor Duck
class of 1971 July 14, 2005
Readers who have any stories relating to the Blazilmar that they
would like to share with our readers please contact
us.
More Rooms
with a Past
See Taylor, Texas
Book Your Hotel Here and Save:
Taylor Hotels
|
|
|
