Around 20 people from different organizations toured the old Morris/Youree Hotel in the downtown area to see the progression of the recent renovation project on Thursday morning.
Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Siloam Springs, the city museum, and local government employees toured the building with property owner and project designer Bruce Williams. The guided visit went through the upstairs area for proposed apartments, the first floor for commercial or residential space, and the recently unearthed basement level.
The building was constructed in 1899 and operated as The Morris Hotel and later as a bank until it changed owners after 1910 and became the Youree Hotel, which was in business until a fire in 1970. Before that fire the building was three stories, and it was the only three storied building in the downtown Siloam Springs area, said Don Warden, director of the Siloam Springs Museum.
"Well it's groundbreaking and they are exposing some things that have not been seen in a long time so it is a great contribution in that regard," Warden said. "It is just a great building. It was the largest hotel in its day and was seen as the best hotel in town in its time as the Morris Hotel, and it is in an important location for various businesses in town... It is just part of the town's history. It has been through a lot of changes in its time."
Two people who took the tour actually witnessed the fire from the 1970s, although one was close to a year old and has no recollection of it.
"I lived above Sager Creek and we could see the flames so we walked down across the creek bridge to it to get a closer look and we just stood there and cried," said Suellen Coleman Chase, board member of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Industrial Development Committee.
She said she was in her 20s and she had her one-year-old daughter with her at the time of the fire.
"By the time we got there it was very engulfed and it had been going on for a good while," she said. "The fire department was there and managing it and finally got it out. We drove back down the next day to see the rubble and it was just devastating."
Chase added that the restoration efforts delight her and that Williams should be thanked for his work which is happening. Williams said that everyday people walk by the work site and thank him and the other workers for what they are doing. Williams also said he and his family are pleased with the project and are glad to be doing it.
Williams said that the structural repairs to the building have been the most costly because many of the repairs should have happened a long time ago. He also said that the renovation in some ways is uncovering lost history, or is changing the way we view the history of the building now.
"We know that Morris is given credit for having put together the Morris Hotel and pictures of that are common," Williams said. "What I know now to be true is that this is a combination of buildings and Morris, I believe, was the mastermind behind that, or he hired the architects to put together that series of building which ultimately created the Morris Hotel, but this was not built at one time and we know that. That is what is missing, that page from history is missing."
Williams cited evidence for this in the different styles of brick and lumber found throughout the building, the doors and windows that sometimes lead to nowhere, and how the general design does not match the known history of the building.
Jokingly he said that the original space was a series of separate buildings that were combined, or the designer went on from this to construct the famous Winchester House. The Winchester mansion is in San Jose, Calif., and has a maze-like design with originally more than 500 rooms, but because of a fire and age only 160 remain, according to the house's official website. It is now a tourist attraction for ghost and architecture enthusiasts.
Williams started the project almost 20 years ago, he said. One of his ideas for the title upon completion is the Courtyard Suites, because of the 750 feet of courtyard space in the building.
"The city has needed this for a long time," Williams said. "We have taken a building that was covered up for the most part, and it has been modified over the years, and we are going to put it back. I believe the city deserves that. Frankly, downtown needs to have its buildings back."
General News on 08/30/2015