Our Past Is Present November 29, 2018

November 29, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            During its years of operation, the Bartell dining room was a meeting place for local business people and many civic clubs and groups including the BPW, the Lions Club and the Rotary Club.  In the 1940’s the hotel was acquired by a new generation of family members, Frank and Margaret Lloyd, who had managed the property since 1939.  The Lloyds sold the aging hotel to the Lamer Hotel chain in 1948 and it operated under that name until it was purchased at auction by Roy and Sheila Fausnett in the late 1970’s.  In 1980 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the Fausnetts, who had plans for renovation. 

            After a ten year battle waged by local preservationists to save the decaying structure, the Bartell was acquired by Tom Bishop and Homestead Affordable Housing and restoration got underway in 2006  In the spring of 2007, the anticipated “Washington Street Grill and Pub” opened on the 6^th Street side of the building and on November 10, 2007, the rehabilitated and restored hotel floors were officially opened as a senior residence facility. 

            Some of the famous people who stayed at the Bartell include: P.T. Barnum, John Phillip Sousa, and his famous band, W.C. Fields, Ann Sheridan, Al Jolson, Lana Turner, Mickey Rooney, Dan Dailey, Gene Tierney and her husband Oleg Cassini.  Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley were billeted at the hotel twice in the early 1900s.

Army generals John “Black Jack” Pershing, Leonard Wood, George Patton, Jonathan Wainwright, Dwight D. Eisenhower and countless others have all dined in the dining room.  If the walls could talk, they would have great stories to share with us on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.