Grand Lobby - a photo on Flickriver

Grand Lobby

View Large On Black

The Baker Hotel Lobby, Mineral Wells, Texas.

The Baker Hotel, an infamous landmark here in Texas, was built in the late 1920's in Mineral Wells, a town of about 30,000 people (at the time) about an hour and a half west of Dallas by hotel magnate T.B. Baker. For a town of this size, the Baker was an absolute mammoth of a Hotel, and completely dominated the skyline at the time, as it does to this very day.

I use the term "infamous" because of all the ghost stories surrounding this hotel. It's widely regarded as the most haunted place in Texas, and one of the most haunted in the country. You can learn more about the Baker's undead residents here.

So why would a modest little Texas town like Mineral Wells suddenly need a massive, 450 room luxury resort hotel in the middle of it? The answer is in the name of the town itself; the mineral wells located there, the water from which was regarded at the time as a cure for a whole range of illnesses, such as rheumatism and epilepsy.

For a time, the Baker became just what it's creators had envisioned; a huge resort hotel and retreat for the health-conscious well-to-do from all over the country. In it's heyday, it hosted such celebrities as Marlene Dietrich, Dorothy Lamour, Will Rodgers, Pat Boone, Tom Mix, Clyde Barrow, Jack Dempsey, Roy Rodgers, and the Three Stooges. Likewise, the Baker attracted some of the most popular musical acts of the day, such as Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo.

Around 1933, Mr. Baker passed ownership of the hotel to his nephew Earl Baker, who operated the hotel for the next 30 years. Earl had always said that when he turned 70, he would close down the Baker, and sure enough that's exactly what he did on April 30th, 1963. In 1967, Earl was found lying on the floor, succumbing to a heart attack.

In 1965, under the guidance of a group of local leaders, the Baker was reopened, but sadly, her time had passed, and she was closed again in 1972, this time for good.

Night, ambient sodium & mercury vapor through front doors, xenon streamlight & red-gelled strobe.

Taken in: United States / Texas / Fort Wolters (show map)

Taken on: March 21, 2008

Tags:

Baker

Hotel

Wells

night

abandoned

haunted

ghosts

Texas « less

Sets appears in: • Night Work • Personal Faves more » • The Baker Hotel • Texas Nights « less

Groups appears in: • Night Images • FlickrCentral more » • Texas • Long Exposure • Abandoned • Urban Decay • Eerie, creepy or spooky places • Haunted Houses, Buildings & Other Creepy Places • After Dark - Night Photography • Historical places • DFW Metro • TexasPhotoForum.com • Decayed yet Hauntingly Beautiful • Abandoned Places • 100 + Viewed Best Architecture Photos (add 1, award 1) « less

Stats: 27,256 views / 58 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder