Houser Bros. --Houser Hotel -- The Houser Brothers are believed to have built this Hotel in 1901. They ran the hotel off and on and leased it at various times until they sold it in 1906 to C. A. Burcham one of the owners of the Yellow Aster Hotel. The Yellow Aster Mining & Milling Co., had previously leased the hotel. The Houser Hotel burnt down in the 1929 fire. Zachery Taylor Lillard -- Houser Hotel During 1904 Mr. Lillard who started in the area in Garlock as a hotel keeper w leased the Houser Hotel. In October of 1904 he gave up his lease and Mrs. Clark took over. Mrs. Clark -- Houser Hotel Mrs. Clark took over the Houser Hotel in October 1904 from Mr. Lillard and ran it until Mr. Burcham purchased it from the Houser brothers in 1906. 21 Yellow Aster Mining & Milling Co. -- Houser Hotel The Yellow Asters involvement with the Houser Hotel can be traced backed to 1904 when they leased it under the management of Zachary Lillard. They lost their lease for a year from October of 1904 to October of 1905 when Mrs. Clark was leasing the hotel. However in October of 1905 they again took over the lease and retained Mrs. Clark to manage the hotel. The leases appear to have run for a year. In November of 1906 it was reported that C. A. Burcham, one of the owners of the Yellow Aster, had purchased the hotel. When the Yellow Aster leased the hotel in 1905 it was required that all single men working for the company should board there. A Yellow Aster paycheck in the collection of the author has a slip glued on the back listing the deductions taken before the check is issued. There are preprinted lines for the Houser Hotel and the Rand Mercantile Co. as well as the hospital. The check was issued in November of 1910. T. A. Lloyd, who had previously been in business in Randsburg, returned from Tonopah, Nevada in 1907 and took over the management of the Hotel for the Yellow Aster. In April of 1909 a liquor license was issued to C. A. Burcham for the operation of the bar at the hotel. In 1910 it was reported that A. B. Elder had his license transferred from the Mountain View Saloon to the Houser Hotel. Albert G. Boles -- Houser Hotel The 1910 Census shows Albert Gallatin Boles as the hotel keeper at the Houser Hotel. It appears that Mr. Boles who is shown as the Proprietor in the below picture was leasing the hotel from Mr. Burcham at this time. Baker & Thomson -- Houser Hotel The photo below shows the Houser Hotel when G. C. Baker and D. E. Thomson were proprietors. The author always believed that this photo had been taken just after the 1903 fire. This assumption was based on the fact that there are vacant lots to the left of the A.O.O.U.W. hall. This is the center of the business district and these lots would not be vacant unless there had been a recent fire. Additionally the construction material piled up across the street indicates that construction is taking place on the South side of Butte, which also burnt in the 1903 fire. However G. C. Baker is only found in the 1912 great register of voters, where he is listed as a hotelkeeper. Therefore, as G. C. Baker is not found in 1914 Great Register of Voters and the fact that no power lines or poles from are shown leads the author to believe that this photograph was taken in either 1911 or early 1912. This further reinforced by an article in the March 25, 1911 Randsburg Miner newspaper that states that: “Baker & Thomson are making a large excavation in the rear of the stone building on Butte Ave. This work has been in progress for several weeks and is being done for enlargement of the building. A new roof is being put on the old structure and general repairs are being made. The new addition like the original, will be two stories high. The upper stories will be divided into rooms which will be furnished as a rooming house. The front portion of the ground floor is occupied by Wells Fargo, and a restaurant will occupy the ground floor of the new structure.” The construction of an addition to the stone building which stood just across the street and to the left of the Houser Hotel as shown in the 1910 photo would account for the construction debris in the 1911 photo of the Houser Hotel. Dave E. Thomson -- Houser Hotel J. H. Arnold appointed D. E. Thomson, who first came to Randsburg around 1900, deputy Constable in March of 1906. When J. H. Arnold was shot and killed in January of 1907 he became the Constable and served in that capacity until he resigned in 1913. A man by the name of Louis Vasquez either did not know that Dave had been the constable or just wasnt thinking when he decided to break into the Houser Hotel in November of 1915. Dave and his wife were aroused by the sound of breaking glass. When Dave went to investigate and found Louis with several boxes of cigars. He ordered him to throw up his hands which he did for several seconds and then rushed Thomson and then slipped out of the building. Dave ordered him to halt and fired a warning shot near him. When this failed to stop Mr. Vasquez, Dave fired again and felled the man. Louis Vasquez, who had recently been employed at Trona, was 32 years old and left a widow and two small children. The Coroners Jury found a verdict of death at the hands of D. E. Thomson while in the act of burglary. From 1914 through 1918 Mr. Thomson is shown in the Great Register of Voters as a hotelkeeper. In October of 1919 Dave sold the hotel to a man by the name of William J. Quackenbush. The first photo is from the Illingworth Family Collection donated to the Rand Desert Museum by Mike and Bob Woods. The second photo is courtesy of the California State Library. The third photo is from the Parker Family Collection donated by Bart Parker. The fourth photo is of a key tag found by Mark Parker in the area of Rand St. Donated by the Parker Family.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 01:50:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015