Haunting Photos of
the Baker Hotel

Mineral Wells, Texas

by John Troesser

Photos courtesy Jason Grant and The Nostalgic Glass

Mineral Wells Hotels > Mineral Wells Hotels

The bridge from the hotel to the pool

It has never been adequately explained how buildings - especially vacant or abandoned buildings - affect us. But they do. The word nostalgia comes from two Greek words: nostos - meaning to return home - and algos - denoting pain. But even foreign buildings or buildings we've never seen can cast a spell on us - sometimes from just seeing a photo or examining an engraving. While it cannot technically be "homesickness" - for those of us who experience it - it's the next closest thing.

Baker Hotel bridge and entrance, Mineral Wells, Texas

Close up of bridge and entrance

The Baker Hotel distant view

Jason Grant is a Dallas based photographer who captures images of historic ruins. These include some of the more inaccessible buildings and structures in Texas - and many more in the former Soviet Union.

Hallway accessing spiral staircase leading to bell tower

Grant is a realist and doesn't entertain false hope or dreams that these structures will all be restored. He sees their decay as a natural, inevitable process and feels that "these palaces give a much more tangible sense of history in their vacant, neglected state than if they were meticulously restored museums."

A visit to Jason Grant's site: www.nostalgicglass.org will bring you to these places seldom seen. You can take a tour of fortresses, castles and estates in Russia - or visit the interiors of the Nueces County Courthouse or the Baker Hotel as well as a WWII airfield and the Matagorda lighthouse.

The rich photography is accompanied by brief but explanatory captions. The section marked History will say a few words on the photographer's philosophy toward these buildings and structures.

In Mr. Grant's own words: "I hope that my project will give some of these estates a chance to say a few last words about themselves before they slip away, to be remembered as the grand structures they’ve always seen themselves as."

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