Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1912 — NOTED HOTEL ENDS [ARTICLE]

NOTED HOTEL ENDS

St. Louis Loses Landmark in Passing of the Southern. Hostelry That Wae Built Just After the Civil War and Has Housed Most Famous of Nation Goes Out of Business. St. Louis, Mo. —The Southern hotel, the oldest place of its kind in SL Louis, and one of the beat known in America, is no more. The hotel has remained true to the tradition of its founders. It was designed as a hostelry of the first class and it has never been anything else. The history of the Southern hotel is closely interwoven with that of SL, Louis. Its fame is not confined to itsS rown city, state and nation. j Its spacious lobby, its wide cor- ! ridors, its commodious rooms, its luxurious furnishings and its air of aristocracy have been enjoyed and commented on by men and women from all nations. The Southern hotel was rebuilt on the site of the original Southern hotel, erected in 1865. Before the old building was destroyed by fife the night of April 11, 1877, it was the most pretentious caravansary here. It sheltered many notables. It was there, in the early ’7os, that the Grand Duke Alexis was entertained when he visited America as the royal represntative of the Russian government While the Southern was sheltering the grand duke it was also affording a temporary home for Lydia Thompson and a bevy of her famed English blondes, who had created a sensation in America after making a conquest of the old world. Lydia and her cohorts were disporting themselves at the Olympic, then, as now, just across the street A grand banquet was spread by the grand duke’s orders, and after feeding the blondes Alexis decorated the fair Lydia with a regal bracelet that was the talk of the town. All St. Louis eyes were centered on the Southern on the occasion of the flVst visit to this city of Lily Langtry, whoge beauty had captivated the Prince of Wales, afterward Edward VII. No sooner had the luggage of the Jersey Lily been deposited in her palatial suite than there appeared on

register another name, that of Freddie Gebhard, the rich American, who heeded not the jibes of the newspapers, but persistently followed the professional beauty from one engagement to another and sought to win her. It was only a few years later that the hotel burned with a frightful loss of life. Outwardly the original Southern hotel presented the same appearance as the present structure. But when it caught fire it burned like tinder. Phelim O’Toole and Mike Hester were the heroes of that fire. They rescued dozens of guests who were caught on upper floors. The new building was completed in 1880, and from the opening It was one of the most fashionable hotels In the West. The lesson learned from the burning of the old building and the large loss of life attending It resulted In the new building being absolutely fireproof. It was subjected to the most drastic tests and withstood them all.