Month: December 2022

The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas, is undergoing a restoration.

• Ongoing Restoration
• History of The Baker Hotel
• In Its Heyday
• Decline and Rebirth

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Since opening its doors in 1929, The Baker Hotel, southeast of Possum Kingdom Lake, has been the “ grand old lady”  of Mineral Wells, TX — and she’s about to get a facelift. The hotel has long been a symbol of status and wealth but has remained dormant since the 1970s; however, after a 2014 governmental measure, up to $4 million from tax revenue for Mineral Wells will go towards the $65 million project of restoring The Baker Hotel. 

The project involves Mineral Wells citizens and several investors, including Lair Fairchild of Dallas-Fort Worth. Much of the building’s original design and architecture is to be maintained and updated, such as the luxury mineral spa. In addition, the hotel’s original 450 rooms will be reduced to 165 but with enlarged space.

Project manager Mark Rawlings oversees the hotel’s restoration and reports that the changes are quite noticeable. The hotel expects to reopen its doors in 2024 after more than 50 years. A journey through these hallways, steam rooms, and ballrooms enchants and entices visitors from the past and present, and the future of The Baker Hotel never looked brighter.

The Hope of Mineral Wells

In 1922, citizens of Mineral Wells worried that outside powers and individuals were profiting and exploiting the town’s famed mineral waters and collected $150,000 to construct a grand hotel. The idea was that the residents of Mineral Wells should be the primary beneficiaries of the town’s resources instead of corporations. 

Their appeals found their way to Theodore Brasher Baker, a prominent hotelier in Dallas and Fort Worth, and for whom the hotel would ultimately be named.

The Baker’s architect, Wyatt C. Hedrick, took inspiration from hotels in Hot Springs, Arkansas — another city famed for its waters — when developing the lavish resort. Construction on the property began in 1926 but halted abruptly after a business trip to California, where he saw, for the first time, a hotel with a swimming pool. Instantly, the plans for The Baker Hotel changed dramatically. As a result, the finished property received honorable recognition as the first hotel in Texas with a swimming pool. An unparalleled extravagance, the Olympic-sized pool sparkled with the healing mineral waters for which the area is known.

With 14 stories, 450 rooms, several ballrooms, a gym, a salon, a spa, and even a bowling alley, the hotel opened in 1929. The 180-foot behemoth quickly became the town’s iconic landmark and is still the tallest building in Mineral Wells today.

Celebrity Endorsement

In the 1930s, The Baker Hotel was a wildly lucrative hotbed for the famous, infamous, wealthy, and powerful. The hotel boasted numerous one-of-a-kind amenities such as on-demand ice water, doors that control room electronics, and valet laundry services that allowed guests to drop off dirty linens in privacy. Not only was The Baker Hotel the first in Texas with a pool, but by the 1940s, it would become the first Texas hotel with air conditioning.

Many celebrities and politicians frequented The Baker Hotel, including “King of Hollywood” Clark Gable, musician Lawrence Welk, actress and singer Judy Garland, and even President Lyndon B. Johnson. Rumor has it that the infamous duo Bonnie and Clyde stayed a few nights at the hotel.

Just before World War II, Camp Wolters opened northeast of Mineral Wells and was, at one point, the United States’ largest infantry replacement training center. The base provided the hotel with another boom in business. Mineral Wells’ population wavered around 30,000—measured between the lines of permanent and temporary—with many calling The Baker home.

Decline and Rebirth

With the advent of new medicinal avenues, such as antibiotics like penicillin, the hotel’s popularity began to decline. Camp Wolters ceased operations in 1946, but the camp renewed in the form of Fort Wolters in 1951 as a training base for helicopters. It would go on to host conventions for the Texas Republican Party and Texas Democratic Party but paled in comparison to the glory of its heyday. The doors of the historic Baker Hotel shut in 1963, saw a brief renaissance in 1965, but closed again in 1972. The building remained abandoned — and the subject of much paranormal investigating — until 2019.

There’s still a long way to go until The Baker Hotel emerges from its facelift cocoon, but many have waited and invested patiently for this butterfly to take flight once again.