February 24, 1952
Bob Chapman
Story of Hotel Angelus, 403 North Mesa Avenue, opened 52 years ago, is linked with pioneer theater builders and producers. It also is the saga of Harry H. Bailey of Radium Springs, N.M., who will be 84 on July.12.The Bailey Hotel Co., which built the Angelus, received a Texas charter from Austin April 11, 1901. The capital stock was $25,000. Incorporators were Bailey and his two brothers L.W. of Los Angeles and C.E. Bailey of El Paso.
There are old-timers who remember the natatorium, first portion of the hotel to be built. A soft light glows in the eyes of these early settlers when they recall the times, as youths, they spent in and around that indoor swimming pool – marvel of marvels in those early days. Softer still grows the light in their eyes when they remember the last romances kindled beside that pool.
Otis C. Coles, realtor, remembered the time he and the late Winchester (Ted) Cooley who became one of El Paso’s leading financiers and real estate dealer, rescued Mrs. Cooley who at that time was Miss Marian Beatty.
COLES COOLEY TO RESUE – Miss Beatty couldn’t swim, but that didn’t keep her from jumping off the springboard into 9 feet of water Coles and Cooley pulled her out. About a year later she became Mrs. Cooley, now living in the Lower Valley.
Harry Bailey said he drove into El Paso in a covered wagon and parked it and the team of horses in a corral that was on the present site of the County Courthouse.
Bailey said the proprietor asked him if he wanted the animals fed grain or mesquite beans, the price being the same for both.
Bailey supervised the construction of the natatorium, which started in 1898. It was a three-story affair. The pool, 100 by 48 feet, was on the ground floor. He mentioned that, for the pool, the citizens witnessed the arrival of the very first carload of cement uploaded here. This was shipped from Atlas, N.Y.
On the second floor of the natatorium structure was an array of Turkish baths. The combined ballroom and skating rink was on the third floor.
READY FOR CONVENTION – Bailey said the hotel part, which he also supervised was finished in time for El Paso convention of the Texas State Teachers Association.
“All rooms were taken” Bailey said. To accommodate the over-flow visitors, 50 mattresses were put down in the ballroom.”
There was a time along about 1902, when Bailey made $20,000 in a silver mine near Ahumada, Chihuahua, and lost it in a gold mine in California. He also was a Pullman conductor on the old Mexican Central, running from Juarez to Torreon. He knew well C.A. Kline another pioneer, who also was a Pullman conductor on the same road, and M.A. Warner, who was the “butcher boy” on the same railway, Warner, before his death, was a prominent owner and operator of drug stores. The one on Mills Street, opposite the post office still bears his same name.
Bailey bought 2,200 brush-covered acres in the Upper Valley for $10 an acre and sold most of it for $200 an acre. He said he lost $17,000 one year, trying to grow sugar beets.
Meanwhile, C.P. (Chet) Crawford and O.T. Crawford, an early El Paso theater man, had been playing shows around 1887 in the old Myar Opera House. El Paso’s first real theater. It was on the ground floor of a building on South El Paso Street, just beyond Overland Street.
STAGED TENT SHOW – The first company the Crawford brothers had in the Myar Opera House was the California Opera Co.
One year, Chet bought in the “Hottest Coon in Dixie Co.,” and staged the show in a tent on the current site of Hotel St. Regis.
Chet was finally successful in persuading his father, back in Wichita, Kan., that El Paso a good show town.
The elder Crawford entered the local theater field in 1896. He leased the Myar Opera House and his first production there was Primrose and West Minstrels. Crawford still had the theater under lease when it burned in 1903. He had booked Richard Mansfield, rated then and perhaps now, as the greatest American actor, for a one-night stand.
Crawford had to look for another theater. He found a store building on South Mesa Avenue, built a stage and put in chairs.
It rained hard and heavy that night. Streets were seas of mud. Hacks drove up to the improvised theater. Women in evening gowns and man in full dress including tails and high opera hats, got out and rushed inside the building (“They don’t dress the way they did in those days,” an old-timer remarked.)
MANSFIELD SURPRISES – Mansfield was noted for his temperamental flurries. Crawford was considerably surprised when he apologized for the place and Mansfield replied it was perfectly all right; he knew that everything that could be done under the circumstances had been carried out.
Crawford’s second theater was the remodeled frame Episcopal Church on the east side of Mesa Avenue between Texas and Mills Streets. The list of celebrities who played there included: May Robson, Jane Cowl, George M. Cohan, Fay Templeton, Eddie Foy and Corinne Kimball.
In 1906, L.M. Crawford purchased the west portion of the Angelus from the Bailey Hotel Co. May 23 of that year, the roof garden of the Angelus was demolished to make room for the new opera house. The old swimming pool was drained and a concrete floor-laid over it. Theater seats were installed and that is where they are today. The original name, “Crawford Theater,” has remained intact all these years. Only the main entrance has been changed. This used to be on the Main Street side of the hotel. It also was the main entrance to the hotel. Now hotel and theater main entrances are on the Mesa Avenue side.
Old-timers still talk about the big stage shows before movies came along. They remember particularly the “leg” shows.
Both the hotel and theater have undergone major modern improvement treatments. Also, ownership of the property has changed several times.
The late L. M. Crawford, who already owned the Crawford Theater, in 1929, acquired the hotel for $102,-$300. The entire property is now owned by C.C. Dues, another pioneer El Paso theater man. He held the property under a 99-year lease. Eight years ago he bought it from the Crawford estate for approximately $116,000. He leased it to Leon Theaters of Dallas. J.W. Davis and Jack Osborne are now operating the hotel under a lease from the theater company.
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