quote:

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NEW LIFE FOR FAMED BAKER
MINERAL WELLS (Austin American-Statesman) – A North Texas resort and spa that was once frequented by the likes of Clark Gable, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich but that hasn't welcomed a guest in 38 years is about to be restored.
Austin-based La Corsha Hospitality will renovate and operate the 79-year-old Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, about 50 miles west of Fort Worth.
The City of Mineral Wells will buy the hotel for $2.2 million from the Arizona owner and put about $52 million more into restoring it.
Austin-based HHCC is the contractor on the restoration, while Southlake-based Thiel and Thiel is architect and interior designer.
The 14-story Baker was built in 1929 and lured celebrities wanting to bathe in the area's lithium-rich "crazy water."
The hotel is expected to create more than 400 jobs.

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lobby

Cool, but $54,000,000!!!!!!!!

Be a great resort complex if they could find a rundown building to tear down and replace with a parking lot.

They do need to do something about their damn street names though. There is a North 1st Street, South First Street, East First Street and West First Street. All different streets. And the numbers are the same for second, third, etc. It is confusing as hell when you get an address at 300 first street and then realize that there are 8 possible locations for that address.

Awesome!! This is going to be great!

http://www.statesman.com/business/real-estate/austin-hotelier-trigger-to-lead-restoration-of-mineral-862888.html

[This message has been edited by chick79 (edited 8/19/2010 3:01p).]

I love the idea. Been through there many times and love the old hotel.

But this is an albatross. As much as I hate to say it.

MW is an ugly run down place with nothing to do and no where to eat.

probably true, but it's a shame to just let it crumble...

btw, howdy, killerK

Mineral Wells is close enough to Possum Kingdom to make this a nice weekend retreat.... go boating on the lake and pamper yourself at the Baker Hotel!

I'd like to see it redone...my grandparents had their honeymoon there back in '53

Great Tom Russell song about the Baker Hotel:

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She was living in a Cadillac bedded down in the back seat
On a back street of the Hollywood hills
With a scrap book museum a memory
Old photo's and telephone bills
She'd been a great actress
In two dozen movies
Played Shakespeare on the great London stage
Before the three husbands six kids and bad breaks
At sixty eight odd years of age
Well him they called fat boy
Wore a grey overall
And he clocked in at four hundred pounds
With a passion for food and film magazines
He'd been a great critic down town
But he'd seen all her movies
He worshipped her face
Stories by bitter end
Though she bore no resemblance to the star he adored
The films over boys real life begins
But she told him of a fountain of youth
in the hot Texas earth
It'll heal and renew us
It's somewhere west of Fort Worth
She'd met her old flame in the Crazy Water Hotel
And they danced down the street there
In the moonlight of Old Mineral Wells
So they boarded a greyhound in search of the fountain
Fat Boy and the aging film queen
Through the great painted desert
And on across Texas
Amarillo Plain View Abilene
Well they stopped off at Fort Worth for a fresh cup of coffee
Come the local to old Mineral Wells
And he dropped her in front of
That boarded old castle
The Crazy Water Hotel
Disllusioned they found a cheap room off the highway
Drank vodka from a styrofoam cup
There'd be no healing return to the past
'Cos the fountain of youth had dried up
So the critic and the film star
Held hands and drank vodka
As the great Texas earth was unveiled
And drunk but still dreaming
Theey waltzed down the street
'Neath the moonlight of old Mineral Wells
But she told him of a fountain of youth
in the hot Texas earth
It'll heal and renew us
It's somewhere west of Fort Worth
She'd met her old flame in the Crazy Water Hotel
And they danced down the street there
In the moonlight of Old Mineral Wells
And they danced down the street there
In the moonlight of Old Mineral Wells

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The famous crazy water from Mineral Wells. Lived there in the early sixties and can state the Baker was a grand hotel. The lower sections contained small shops and were usually bustling. We attended the Methodist Church next door and went to the Baker quite often to eat, get a haircut, etc..Of course Mineral Wells took a hit when Ft Wolters diminished in helicopter trainng and eventually closed.

My dad was born and raised in Mineral Wells, and he was there when Camp Wolters was a bustling WWII infantry replacement training facility.

Part of the old Camp was in ruins as the facility was greatly enlarged for the helicopter school. The area that was used for grenade training was part of our camping area, so we could find shrapnel fairly easy.

we find grenades, M1 shells, rifle grenades, etc on my grandparents place all the time.

That property is NW of the main Camp up on 281

This is awesome. One of the more out of place buildings Ive ever seen. I walked around it and took pictures one time. Someone sells the Crazy Water at Central Market as drinking water now, I bought a couple bottles.

I agree it's a shame such a great property is in such poor condition but as pointed out above Mineral Wells isn't a destination.

There's no way it will generate the $$$ to cover the cost of renovation and employing hundreds of people.

talk out of Mineral Wells is that the Baker could be utilized as a casino as well as hotel.

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They do need to do something about their damn street names though. There is a North 1st Street, South First Street, East First Street and West First Street. All different streets. And the numbers are the same for second, third, etc. It is confusing as hell when you get an address at 300 first street and then realize that there are 8 possible locations for that address.

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I'm guessing you've never been to Tulsa or SLC.

Okies can't figure better names and the mormons... we'll just leave them alone. This is Texas, by God, and we should know better!

my husband was born and raised there and his mom was assistant principal of the highschool for 20 years, she is a very active member of the community and she i always talk about the damage Ft wolters did when it closed up shop in MW, having the Baker restored should be top priority for that town, we are very excited it is starting to happen

I'll second that Tulsa comment.

I was wondering when someone was going to take that thing over.

Finally!

But I've seen this kind of thing before. I'll believe it when I see it.

A couple of years ago they opened it for tours one Saturday. It was a pretty cool thing to see, but to restore it is going to be a huge undertaking. And plus, it's in Miserable Wells...uggh.

I drove right by it this past Saturday evening, 9/25/2010, and it looked just like it always has, vacant, empty and spooky.

I didn't read any of the links in the previous posts, but what is the timeline for restoring it?

Cool pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nkerns/sets/72157604246613706/show/

Why does The Overlook come to mind? Those photographs were spectacular.

Incredible pics. I love that place.

I drove by it many times on my way back to Aggieland. I have always been interested in it.

If our legislature would pass the casino thing in MW. I think it has a chance. If not, it will be torn down.

Sad days.

If nothing else, Hollywood could use this as a setting for future horror movies!

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talk out of Mineral Wells is that the Baker could be utilized as a casino as well as hotel.

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Casino won't happen. Gambling, if it passes, will go on a narrow vote. To win people over, they'll go for a low footprint. That means, outside of the Indians, only a handful of casinos. I doubt Mineral Wells would make the cut.

The people who had the pleasure/experience to see this grand hotel in its better days,can attest to its beauty and elegance. The location today hinders most opportunities to ever be restored and used as in the past. Can you imagine its worth if located in a metropolis?

Where in the hell is Mineral Wells going to come up with 54 million dollars.

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The location today hinders most opportunities to ever be restored and used as in the past.

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Funny that it hit its glory days back when travel was much slower and more difficult.

Thanks for the pictures. I wonder how much asbestos and lead paint is in that building? Also plaster and tile back then were filled with asbestos. Yummy.