Hotels Closed In The Late 1980s - Where Are They Now

[IronTiger]

I know I should probably space out these "historical" articles a bit more but I figure I can do it now. This one describes hotels in the late 1980s and the number that closed up shop due to lack of business.

 

http://i.imgur.com/gpaJwRt.jpg

 

The newspaper tried to list the bright spots, including the Remington Hotel that was under consideration by buying bought by Ritz-Carlton or a famous New York real estate developer (I don't think I need to tell you who). According to what I could find, it was ultimately Ritz-Carlton that won out. So, I tried finding out more information on these hotels and what became of them. It looks like of the 11 there were, I could find information on 8 of them, and of those 8, only 3 reopened as hotels soon after, with the Savoy ultimately reopening as well. And of the three reopening as hotels and not stalling for several decades, only one of those, the former Preference Inn, still operates as a hotel.

 

Rodeway Inn Towers, Texas Medical Center - Unknown.
Holiday Inn Central, 4660 S. Main - Later a Days Inn but disabled veteran housing since 2003
Shamrock Hilton, Main at Holcombe - Demolished soon after closure
Sheraton Downtown, 777 Polk - Despite attempts at a renovation, the hotel never reopened and was demolished in 2011
Holiday Inn, Memorial Drive - Appears to be 2100 Memorial, and is now senior housing. It reopened in the late 1990s, despite an attempt in the late 1980s for the city to do the same thing.
Preference Inn, Intercontinental Airport - The hotel at 702 East North Belt Road (North Sam Houston Parkway East today) reopened as a Holiday Inn Express in 1991 and is now Americas Best Value Inn & Suites - Bush Int'l Airport West.
Radisson Inn, U.S. 59 near Sharpstown Mall - Possibly Allen Samuels Chevrolet. There was a hotel there that had some castle theme, like it was Royal Crown Inn or something. Was it bought by Radisson?!
Best Western Savoy, Downtown - Reopened as a Holiday Inn...but only in 2016. It's been abandoned all this time...?
Guest Quarters East, Post Oak at W. Alabama - Converted in the mid-1980s to "The Hampton at Post Oak" (now just Brookdale Senior Living Solutions), makes sense. "Guest Quarters East" suggests there was another Guest Quarters hotel further west (the hotel merged with Doubletree in 1993, but there are no DoubleTree hotels out beyond Galleria)
Americana Inn, Greenway Area - Unknown.
Greenway Inn, U.S. 59 at Kirby Drive - Later reopened and lived on another two decades before it was closed and demolished for an Olive Garden (and space for another restaurant!)

 

[IronTiger]

Further research says that the name of Americana Inn was the Americana Motor Inn, but I still can't information on it.

Rodeway Inn Towers was at 2130 W. Holcombe and closed in May 1987 for a home for the elderly run by Waterford Group to open in 1988. That never happened apparently and by 2003 it was an eyesore that had been abandoned since the 1980s.

 

Still looking for information on Radisson Southwest's location. It was a Radisson INN not a Radisson Hotel. I looked at a few candidates, but can't find one with 555 rooms.

 

If only @Purpledevilcame back again, he'd probably have a lot more details on the ill-fated hotels.

 

EDIT: Found it!!!! It appears that it is the Conquistador High Rise at 7575 Bellaire.

 

EDIT 2: The Americana Motor Inn was at 3300 Southwest Freeway, which it looks like it was part of 3200 Southwest Freeway (plausible). 

 

So, of our 11 hotels, we have the following information:

- Three were reopened as hotels when the economy got better (though just one is still operating nowadays as a hotel--that would be the former Preference Inn, the other two bit the dust as Greenway is gone and the HI on Southwest Freeway is now low-income housing for veterans after the Days Inn that replaced it closed).

- Two were converted to senior living (Guest Quarters and the Holiday Inn on Memorial).

- Three remained abandoned for a number of years (though one was rescued, that was the Savoy, Sheraton and Rodeway not so much).

- Three were demolished soon after  (the Shamrock, everyone knows that, the former Royal Coach, and finally the Americana).

 

EDIT 3: Wait, so the Conquistador wasn't a hotel after all, and reading more thoroughly reveals that it was at 7000 Southwest Freeway...the same as Royal Coach Motor Inn! So, that changes my list (not "one was converted to apartments"). I read on the Chronicle that it was torn down (or at least bought) by Venture to build a discount department store there...I don't think it ever opened, but the building on the property looks like it might've been built as a discount store. Maybe they only built out the shell.

 

EDIT 4: Fixed the fate of the hotels. Also, the AMI was at 3301 Southwest Freeway (the source was wrong, but it's been deleted anyway). AMI was razed. So of the 11 hotels, only 2 operate as hotels today.

[Purpledevil]

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 0:20 PM, IronTiger said:

If only @Purpledevilcame back again, he'd probably have a lot more details on the ill-fated hotels.

 

If only....

 

I can offer up nothing helpful, Tiger. Not to sound stuffy, but I've never worked in, nor know any history about the Motor Inns of Houston.

[intencity77]

On 6/5/2017 at 0:20 PM, IronTiger said:

EDIT 3: Wait, so the Conquistador wasn't a hotel after all, and reading more thoroughly reveals that it was at 7000 Southwest Freeway...the same as Royal Coach Motor Inn! So, that changes my list (not "one was converted to apartments"). I read on the Chronicle that it was torn down (or at least bought) by Venture to build a discount department store there...I don't think it ever opened, but the building on the property looks like it might've been built as a discount store. Maybe they only built out the shell.

 

Looking at historicaerials.com, 7000 Southwest Freeway definitely had a large, sprawling hotel/motel like building starting from 1968 into the 80's. Once you get to 1995, the hotel looks demolished and the lot is completely overgrown. In the early 2000's, the current car dealership shows up. 

 

PS. Always check back with historical imagery (Google Map historical imagery or historicaerials.com) when reasearching former properties. It's a must. 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

that was the Royal Coach Inn

[IronTiger]

On 7/17/2017 at 4:18 PM, Purpledevil said:

 

If only....

 

I can offer up nothing helpful, Tiger. Not to sound stuffy, but I've never worked in, nor know any history about the Motor Inns of Houston.

Too bad! A few years ago you always seemed to know EVERYTHING about I might have had questions in, including hotels (fantastic stuff with the Hilton near the airport, I still remember that).

 

As an aside, I did find out a bit later that the Preference Inn didn't even open as Preference Inn, it was opened as "Icom", a French-styled hotel (built at the same time as Sofitel/Hyatt Regency but more budget-oriented).

 

On 7/17/2017 at 5:41 PM, intencity77 said:

 

Looking at historicaerials.com, 7000 Southwest Freeway definitely had a large, sprawling hotel/motel like building starting from 1968 into the 80's. Once you get to 1995, the hotel looks demolished and the lot is completely overgrown. In the early 2000's, the current car dealership shows up. 

 

PS. Always check back with historical imagery (Google Map historical imagery or historicaerials.com) when reasearching former properties. It's a must. 

Yeah, I was a bit thrown off at first, but my second post found that the Royal Coach Inn and the "Radisson Inn" were one and the same. (Also, Venture didn't even build out anything, that was all the dealership's doing)

[Houston19514]

On 6/2/2017 at 10:52 PM, IronTiger said:

I know I should probably space out these "historical" articles a bit more but I figure I can do it now. This one describes hotels in the late 1980s and the number that closed up shop due to lack of business.

 

 

The newspaper tried to list the bright spots, including the Remington Hotel that was under consideration by buying bought by Ritz-Carlton or a famous New York real estate developer (I don't think I need to tell you who). According to what I could find, it was ultimately Ritz-Carlton that won out. So, I tried finding out more information on these hotels and what became of them. It looks like of the 11 there were, I could find information on 8 of them, and of those 8, only 3 reopened as hotels soon after, with the Savoy ultimately reopening as well. And of the three reopening as hotels and not stalling for several decades, only one of those, the former Preference Inn, still operates as a hotel.

 

Rodeway Inn Towers, Texas Medical Center - Unknown.
Holiday Inn Central, 4660 S. Main - Later a Days Inn but disabled veteran housing since 2003
Shamrock Hilton, Main at Holcombe - Demolished soon after closure
Sheraton Downtown, 777 Polk - Despite attempts at a renovation, the hotel never reopened and was demolished in 2011
Holiday Inn, Memorial Drive - Appears to be 2100 Memorial, and is now senior housing. It reopened in the late 1990s, despite an attempt in the late 1980s for the city to do the same thing.
Preference Inn, Intercontinental Airport - The hotel at 702 East North Belt Road (North Sam Houston Parkway East today) reopened as a Holiday Inn Express in 1991 and is now Americas Best Value Inn & Suites - Bush Int'l Airport West.
Radisson Inn, U.S. 59 near Sharpstown Mall - Possibly Allen Samuels Chevrolet. There was a hotel there that had some castle theme, like it was Royal Crown Inn or something. Was it bought by Radisson?!
Best Western Savoy, Downtown - Reopened as a Holiday Inn...but only in 2016. It's been abandoned all this time...?
Guest Quarters East, Post Oak at W. Alabama - Converted in the mid-1980s to "The Hampton at Post Oak" (now just Brookdale Senior Living Solutions), makes sense. "Guest Quarters East" suggests there was another Guest Quarters hotel further west (the hotel merged with Doubletree in 1993, but there are no DoubleTree hotels out beyond Galleria)
Americana Inn, Greenway Area - Unknown.
Greenway Inn, U.S. 59 at Kirby Drive - Later reopened and lived on another two decades before it was closed and demolished for an Olive Garden (and space for another restaurant!)

 

 

There is indeed a Doubletree  out beyond the Galleria, just to the west of the Galleria.  The Doubletree Suites Hotel was previously a Guest Quarters (and apparently was at one time known as Guest Quarters West).

[Subdude]

A number of second-tier hotels not listed also went vacant, including I believe Ben Milam, Sam Houston, Whitehall, Texas State, and William Penn.  

[Houston19514]

2 hours ago, Subdude said:

A number of second-tier hotels not listed also went vacant, including I believe Ben Milam, Sam Houston, Whitehall, Texas State, and William Penn.  

 

I don't think most of those even made it into the 1980s.  And the best information I can find says the Whitehall didn't close until 1991.

[IronTiger]

A little further research shows that the Greenway Inn closed in the mid-1980s was not the same as the Greenway Inn that closed in 2014. The "original" Greenway was at 2525 Southwest Freeway at Kirby and Southwest.