Henderson history: A historic city hotel bit the dust in 1973
The Kingdon Hotel had been falling apart for years but at the end of March 1973 a contractor started hurrying the process along. By mid-April the bulk of the building was down.
Many of you probably remember the large building that once occupied 231 Second St. but now is home to The Perch pocket park. It was erected in 1890-91 by Louis P. and Charles F. Kleiderer and the original name was the Hotel Henderson. It was leased and operated by W.W. Herndon.
Before the hotel was built that area between the Presbyterian Church (the one that predated the Washington and Main location) and the existing building at Second and Elm was occupied by a single large house. It had two ice houses at the rear. Construction of the hotel caused one to be razed; the other disappeared sometime between 1901 and 1906, according to the Sanborn insurance maps.
The Kleiderers fell on hard times and in 1902 sold the hotel to Charles F. King of Corydon. About 1905 King decided to make some much-needed improvements, according to Francele Armstrong’s Gleaner column of Sept. 21, 1947.
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Originally, the hotel’s 100 rooms each had an individual coal grate for warmth and the only bath facilities were at the hallway ends of the second and third floors. “King equipped all rooms with hot and cold running water and installed private baths in 10 of them. Steam heat was installed in the building.” King also re-worked the lobby and moved the bar and the billiard room toward the front of the building.
All that work prompted him to raise the lease amount from $375 to $550 per month. That was too rich for Herndon’s blood and he refused to renew the lease.
The new lessees, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 16, 1907, were Miles Barrows and J. Louis Gaebel, who wanted to change the name. King agreed – provided they paid all the costs. They came up with the name Kingdon to honor the owner and because it would be cheap to modify the original name across the top of the building, Armstrong explained.
“The first ‘E’ was made into a ‘K’ and the second was trimmed into an ‘I.’ The ‘G’ was made up by remodeling the ‘R’ and ‘S’; and the new ‘N’s’ and the ‘O’ were retained.”
The Kingdon was Henderson’s finest hotel between 1891 and 1924, when the Soaper Hotel opened. Many famous people stayed there over the years. Heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in 1936, comes to mind, as does James Cox, Democratic presidential candidate in 1920. And its walls housed significant events, such as the creation of the Henderson Rotary Club in 1917, which is Henderson’s oldest civic club.
But the years took their toll. Toward the end of its life, it had assumed a decidedly seedy aspect. The Henderson city directory’s last listing for the Kingdon Hotel was in 1963, when Albert E. and Gladys H. Wood were proprietors. It apparently no longer functioned as a hotel after that.
City Codes Administrator Donald Wood condemned it, according to The Gleaner of May 18, 1972, as well as other downtown buildings. It housed only a few offices by that time.
But the Kingdon, according to Wood, was “one of the worst buildings in the downtown area.” Wood cited the owner – Transylvania Land Corp. – for 40 violations. Wood said it would take “an astronomical sum” to bring the building up to code.
The Transylvania Land Corp. hired Donan Engineering Inc. of Madisonville to also take a look. Its report largely agreed with Wood. The top two floors were in advanced stages of deterioration and parts of the second floor had begun to sag.
Wood said he would consider “any reasonable request concerning the condemnation, including a possible razing of only the upper two floors, if the bottom two floors could be brought into conformance with the code,” according to The Gleaner.
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The Transylvania Land Corp. appealed Wood’s order in the summer of 1972 and the company kept missing deadlines set by the city to make the building safe. By February 1973 the Kingdon Hotel’s fate appeared sealed.
The caption of a photograph in The Gleaner of March 27 said demolition work had begun the previous day. The Gleaner of April 13 carried another photo showing the bulk of the building down by that point. Work was beginning to raze the rear portion of the building.
The razing of the old hotel was one of several major stories in Henderson during the last week of March 1973.The March 27 edition said Henderson finally had a new city manager – and the vote was unanimous to accept him.
But John Hefner served only 1973 to 1975. Hefner, 29, had been the administrator of Dane County, Wisconsin.
Arthur “Newt” Beauchamp had been fired on a 3-2 vote the previous December. But there was some controversy in getting a replacement. The first choice, Thomas R. Blankenship of Norman, Oklahoma, had been offered the job by ultimately rejected it because of “political uncertainties” in Henderson.
Henderson’s first city manager, James Robey, had sought the job, as did another unnamed applicant, but both were opposed by some members of the commission, which led to their rejection.
Hefner was the first Henderson city manager to voluntarily leave the post. Mayor William Newman and members of the city commission praised Hefner for his accomplishments and expressed faith in the future of the city manager form of government here.
On July 25, 1975, the city commission announced the hiring of Dick Brown, 32, of Mercedes, Texas, as Henderson’s fifth city manager.
The March 28, 1973, Gleaner reported Henderson County Health Care Corp. was getting ready to open its new multi-level facility on Kimsey Lane. It replaced the Walker Rest Home, which the county closed July 1, 1970.
The 140-bed health care facility was named Redbanks, according to the Feb. 16 Gleaner, which also noted Georgene Fraley had been hired as its first administrator.
Henderson Fiscal Court – led by Judge John Stanley Hoffman – created the corporation on May 23, 1972, and it leased the building from the county. The six-story Redbanks Towers was added in 1980.
On March 29, 1973, The Gleaner reported a 16-man crew was busy stringing wires for Henderson’s first cable television system, which was provided by Telesis Corp. of Evansville.
The contract for the wires was with the Jerrold Corp. for $700,000.
Henderson's first cable television system held an open house in late November in preparation to hooking up customers. Efforts for local cable service had begun as early as 1965, but this was the first to achieve success.
The new system began operations Dec. 1 offering nine channels. Live coverage of city commission meetings began Oct. 22, 1974.
100 YEARS AGO
The Florida Short Route Ferry Co. filed articles of incorporation to begin service across the Ohio River at the site of the current Twin Bridges, according to The Gleaner of March 27, 1923.
Up to that point, the only ferry at that site was operated by the interurban trolley that ran between Henderson and Evansville.
Lee Baskett held 240 of the 500 shares of stock, making him the largest stockholder by far. He was also a major investor in the creation of what is now Ellis Park. The failure of the racetrack in its early years probably is linked to the ferry being sold to a group of Louisville bankers in 1924.
75 YEARS AGO
The Gleaner of March 31, 1948, reported the Anderson Box & Basket Co. was the first factory in the community to install automatic fire alarms.
“The alarms, which work on a thermostat principle, will automatically turn in an alarm whenever a fire starts in the plant,” the story said.
Fire Chief Letcher Martin said he expected a reduction in fire insurance premiums would pay for the system within a few years.
“I hope other Henderson industries will consider the idea,” the fire chief said. “It will help us immeasurably to protect Henderson’s industrial property.”
25 YEARS AGO
The Gleaner of March 28, 1998, carried the annual Progress Edition, which usually carried articles about advances in local industries and overviews of the community.
The 1998 edition was different, however, in that it focused on the role non-profit entities play in the community. “People helping people” was the title.
The lead story outlined finances, using data obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and the property valuation administrator’s office.
“People helping people constitutes a multi-million-dollar industry in Henderson County,” the first sentence read.
The latest annual reports filed with the IRS showed non-profits in Henderson County had realized $82.8 million.
Some of those individual agency reports, however, were several years old, so the true picture was probably larger.
The IRS also showed local non-profits had total assets of more than $68.8 million.
The PVA’s list of about 75 exempt properties owned by non-profit organizations, meanwhile, had a value of about $19.4 million.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Henderson history: A historic city hotel bit the dust in 1973
