November 6, 1930
FIRST HOTEL HE OPERATED HAD 5 ROOMS
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History of Today’s Big Organization Like Romance
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There
were two trains a day – or a night, rather, for one arrived at 1 a.m.,
the other at 3 a.m. They didn’t pay much attention to the little town
of San Antonio, N.M.; but, whenever they stopped, Connie N. Hilton was
glad. It probably meant a customer for his little five-room adobe hotel.
C.N. was then a very young man – younger than most hotel keepers, for that was more than 30 years ago.
His father, A.H. Hilton, sturdy pioneer, had forged into the New Mexico country, and at San Antonio, had built the rambling adobe structure which he called the Hilton hotel. One end served as the family home. At the other end was a store, the Hilton Mercantile company. In the middle were the rooms which were the Hilton hotel.
Good for the store were brought in by mule.
Father Had System idea
To the pioneer Hilton and his wife was born the son, Connie, in San Antonio. The elder Hilton, failing to find the gold and silver which had lured him, adventuring, westward in the eighties, did find his niche in the scheme of things westerns as a hotel proprietor and merchant. The idea of owning more than one establishment under the same management – now a common thing all over the land – came to the older Hilton like an inspiration.
He saw the town of Socorro needing a merchant. He moved up there with the family.
But what to do with the hotel at San Antonio?
A.H. Hilton, the father, called in Connie.
“Son” he said, “you’re going to stay here. You are going to be a hotel man and run this hotel.”
That suited the boy.
Every dollar of profit he made was to be his. So, very early, he considered the problems of management, and he learned every angle of the business, for not only was he manager, he was “bell boy” – the “bell” consisting of a customer calling, “Hey!” he was porter, baggage man, superintendent of service, errand boy, Johnny-on-the-spot at the trains, wood cutter, cashier, auditor, purchasing agent and when dusty stages rolled up, doorman!
From Ground Up
He learned the business from the ground up – and the ground was adobe!
In his spare time, he went to school.
What dreams he dreamed! He would be a hotel man, nothing less.
Yet – sometimes – he wondered; sometimes when weighted down with heavy sample cases, he led some weary traveler at 3 a.m. to the equally little establishment which was the Hilton hotel, San Antonio, N.M.
But soon it was necessary that his hotel experience be left behind. His father was a man who appreciated the value of an education. At the proper time he decided the boy should enter St. Michael’s college in Santa Fe to complete his education.
Connie departed, to drop hotel activated for many years – but not to forget them. He had learned one great principle while still a boy:
Give the guest all you can for the least possible cost and the guest will not only come back but will speak well of you to others.
Many a traveling man of the day knew of that little hotel in San Antonio, N.M. run by a hustling kid.”
After completing the course at St. Michael’s college, Connie entered the New Mexico Military academy at Roswell, N.M. and graduated in the class of 1906. He returned to Socorro then to enter business with his father.
A.H. Hilton had by this time reaped the benefits of his vision and foresight. He had become a moderately wealthy man through his investments in mercantile establishment, land and livestock. At one time he was one of the largest buyers of mohair in the United States and he and Connie made trips throughout the whole of New Mexico trading for wool and mohair, pelts and hides.
Connie Starts Early
At the age of 21, Connie was elected a member of the legislature of New Mexico, the youngest man ever to serve as representative in the body.
He shunned politics, however, and though the Republican leaders of the state urged him toward a political career, he decided against it and devoted his entire time to development of his father’s business of which he was, both this time, the general manager.
He was engaged not only in livestock business, but also in banking, coal mining and zinc mining. While still a young man, he was head of several corporations and the acting director of business involving huge sums of money.
Then came the event that changed the lives of so many men – the war. At the first call to colors, Connie Hilton resigned all of his offices, turned over his work to his father and enlisted in the service. He entered the first officers training camp of Presidio, Calif., successfully passed the training there and was commissioned a lieutenant. It was there that he met Wm. R. Irwin, who is now vice president of the corporation, and formed with him a friendship that has lasted to this day.
After Presidio Connie was transferred to Jacksonville, Fla., and then to France, where he served until the signing of the armistice. It was a sad blow to Connie and to his future plans when his father died while he was in France and he returned after the war to find that prospects in New Mexico did not look to good.
His vision had broadened and after a few months at home, he turned toward Texas where the oil booms of 1919 were commencing.
Goes to Cisco
After looking over the different filed in the Texas oil belt, C.N. Hilton finally arrived in Cisco, Texas and there he re-entered the business which he had left some 20 years before.
The Mobeley hotel was doing a land office business. Men were paying any price for just a cot to sleep on; guest were being turned away by the dozens; the town was filled with oil prospectors and everything was booming. In the oil boom of 1919 he must have felt something like his father felt when he joined the gold prospectors of the late seventies.
At any rate, for some reason still unknown to C.N. Hilton, and for some reason which he attributes to fate, the owner of the Mobeley hotel wanted to sell out. Connie had just about decided to move on to another town, but his experience in business told him that here was a good chance for a safe and sane investment and he purchased the Mobeley hotel.
His early experience in the hotel stood him in good state; he had learned his lesson early in life and even to those boom days, his fairness to all and his desire to give everyone the best possible service at the least possible price made for him a reputation throughout the oil fields. So successful was he in his operation of the Mobeley that in 1920 he went to Fort Worth and purchased the Terminal hotel which was operated until 1921 and the Melba hotel.
Later in the year he acquired the Waldorf hotel, of Dallas in 1923 he made the last purchase of his earlier hotel operations when he purchased the Beaton hotel of Corsicana. All of these hotels were successfully operated by the Hilton Hotel company and later sold.
It was in 1923 that C.N. Hilton first developed the idea of the Minimax hotels. He had been making careful observations of hotel facilities throughout the southwest and Texas in particular. He became convinced that the idea he had in mind and which he wanted to sell to the public was something that the hotel world needed. A strictly firstclass chain of hotels; absolutely modern in every way comfortable to the last degree and offering to the public the maximum amount of service and satisfaction for the minimum cost.
With this idea firmly settled in his mind he began in 1924 the building of the first hotel of the Minimax chain, the Hilton hotel of Dallas. The Dallas Hilton was opened in August of 1925. It was successful from the first of operation; so successful in fact that soon C.N. began to continue his survey for another location for a Hilton hotel.
West Texas was booming, Hilton was impressed with the city of Abilene and after a careful study of the situation, that city was selected for the site of the second Hilton of the formulating system. The Hilton of Abilene, another modern hotel of 275 rooms was opened in September, 1927.
Waco Gets Third One
Waco, in the heart of central Texas, was selected as the next city in which a Hilton hotel should be built. The need of the city for modern hotel accommodations was strikingly evident. In July, 1926, the Waco Hilton with 200 rooms was opened another step toward the realization of Hilton’s dream.
In the meantime, Hilton was offered and accepted in March, 1926, a lease upon the Marchamn hotel of Wichita Falls. This is the only hotel in the Hilton chain which does not bear his name, but it is nevertheless Hilton operated, and important and successful unit in the “Minimax” system.
There was now a real system of hotels, not just an idea; not just a dream of accomplishment. Hilton was not content. His judgment and vision had already been vindicated in the successful operation of his group of hotels.
The acceptance of his idea by the public had eclipsed even his fondest dreams, but the was no stopping him, not time to rest on laurels won and in 1928 the building of the San Angelo, Hilton was begun. The San Angelo Hilton was the fifth and was opened only last may.
The Plainview Hilton hotel was the sixth of the Hilton system. It was made possible by the Hearty cooperation of the citizens of Plainview, who donated a bonus of $20,000 which was raised to insure the building there. It is a hotel of 100 rooms and like all Hiltons is modern throughout and well equipped.
Then the Lubbock Hilton, number seven, and now – this week – the greatest of them all, the 350-room El Paso Hilton.
Each successive unit enters the filed of competition just a little bit better equipped to serve the interest of the public. In the building of each hotel smoothing more is learned, something new is added by experience.
Well might the old Hilton hotel at San Antonio, N.M., contemplate with pardonable pride the new hotels which now bear its name; Hilton hotels, have come a long way from the adobe house by the Rio Grande, where the youthful Hilton dreamed and planned.
Thanks for this essay. Many years ago, staying at a Hilton, I opened the drawer where the Bible and restaurant menus are supposed to be and instead found Conrad Hilton's wonderful autobiography, "Be My Guest." I learned a lot from that book.
Posted by: Richard Mattersdorff | August 08, 2008 at 03:02 PM
Great article Trish!
Just curious about the spelling on the Mobeley Hotel, as I've seen it referenced as the Mobley Hotel as well. Any thoughts on why the spelling would be different across reference sources?
Posted by: Leontiev | December 18, 2008 at 04:46 PM
Leontiev, I am not sure. I have seen different spellings even between the Times and the Herald Post.
The man who shot John Wesley Hardin is referred to as both Sellman and Selman in both newspapers.
Posted by: Trish Long | December 29, 2008 at 02:07 PM