DE LEON HANDBOOK

    A year into the oil boom, local citizens determined that De Leon needed a first class hotel.  They formed a stock corporation and began construction of the Travelers Hotel in 1919. The concrete and brick structure was completed in 1920.  It had 54 rooms, with modern furniture and a bath between each pair of rooms.  A couple of years later, gas stoves were provided each room.  The large lobby was considered one of the finest in the area with tile floors and marble fixtures.  The $130,000 cost was an enormous sum of money in those days. 

    My memory of the lobby was as a child.  As you came in the east entrance, the counter was to the right.  It was probably marble.  Chairs were scattered throughout the central part of the lobby and in coves adjacent to the south entrance (with the curved windows) were large writing desk. 

    The hotel was first managed by H.F. Pegram.  On March 1, 1921 the Comanche Chief announced that the hotel had been leased to J.C. Lambert a former De Leon Postmaster and owner of the Lambert Hotel.  By that time the oil boom had run its course and demand for hotel rooms probably fell dramatically.

    At some point in the 1920’s W.C. Streety became the owner of the hotel.  It is probable that the hotel could not carry its debt and Streety was forced to take it over or lose his investment, but that is speculation.

    For a period of time the hotel was operated by Mr. and Mrs. V.V. Bell.  At some later date the hotel was apparently purchased by a Mr. Howerton and a Mr. Ermisk who defaulted on their note to Mr. Streety.  Mr. Streety died on August 27, 1928 and by the time of his death the family had been seeking buyers for the hotel.  During some of that period Mrs. B.J. Pittman leased the hotel.

      By early 1929, Streety’s daughter May Streety Whaley regularly recorded the woes of hotel ownership in her diary.  A deal was put together that was to have closed on January 7, 1929 but it fell through when title could not be cleared up by the courts in time.  On January 28, the buyer, a Mr. Jamison demanded release from the trade and the return of his $500 forfeit money or he would sue.  Ironically, that same evening Mrs. Valenta, Mrs. Miller and Mr. Vie from San Antonio came by for a visit that would ultimately solve the problem.

      On February 5, May wrote, “It (the hotel) is like a festering boil about to come to a head.”  Fred Jaye, the Streety attorney confirmed that “things are looking gloomy,” two days later.  On March 18, she wrote, “We are hoping and praying that Mr. Burns (the agent) can sell him (a new buyer named Dr. Arndt).  We’ll be ruined financially if we can’t dispose of it.”  She wrote in June that the past due city and school taxes in the amount of $2,970 and insurance in the amount of $73.20 had to be paid and that $752.23 was owed for county and state taxes.  “It is more than I can bear,” she said.

      On a brighter note, May indicated that Mrs. Pittman was doing well in the hotel having cleared $107 in January and $140.66 in February and by the end of the month Jaye had gotten the court to award Mrs. Streety a judgement against Howerton and Ermisk in the amount of $26,500 and give the estate clear title to the hotel.

     On Sunday May 26, 1929, Dr. Arndt and his daughter arrived in De Leon supposedly to close the deal but someone offered him the Gorman Hotel and the next day they left De Leon and the deal was dead.  Again, irony stepped in for on Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Valenta made an offer to buy the hotel. 

     The process had its ups and downs but in the end, she put up $5,000, an $11,000 note at 8% and her home in San Antonio.    On Thursday June 11, she and her daughter Laura Miller arrived in De Leon to finalize the agreement and then returned to close the sale on July 15, 1929.  May indicated that they sold at a great sacrifice but considered it wise to do so.  Mrs. Valenta took over on August 1, 1929.  Less than 90 days later the stock market crashed and the Depression began.

      After the death of Mrs. Valenta her daughter continued to operate the hotel until the late 1969.  At that time it was converted into apartments.

     Mrs. Valenta had been widowed at the age of 24 and left with four children.  That same year her sister-in-law died and three more children joined the family.  She reared and educated all the children.

       She herself was one of ten children and developed into an astute business woman.  She ran a boarding house in Smithville that was noted, as would be the Travelers Hotel, for its fine food.  Smithville at the time was a major center for the MKT Railroad.  She moved to San Antonio after the children graduated and began building homes and commercial properties in what became known as Alamo Heights.  In her spare time she became a grain broker traveling by train to west Texas to purchase grain. 

     Her daughter Laura Miller was stricken with polio when she was 16 and spent nine months in the hospital in a coma.  When she regained consciousness she learned to walk again and completed high school before attending school and becoming an interior decorator.  She worked for several large furniture stores before coming to De Leon.

     The dining room of the hotel was exceptional and known statewide.  Tradition says that Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd dined there during the Depression but knowing whether that is a fact or an urban (or should we say rural) legend is impossible to say. 

      Numerous dignitaries are known to have stayed there. Perhaps the most well documented was Sid Richardson, ultimately an oil magnate and benefactor to many colleges and universities in Texas.  But when the oil boom played out in 1920, he was stuck in De Leon with no money to even pay his hotel bill.  One of the local citizens who had become his friend, paid the bill.  Sid Richardson Hall built with funds from his foundation is part of President Lyndon Baines Johnson  Library complex on the campus of the University of Texas. 

         While this incident predates Mrs. Valenta’s ownership of the hotel the generosity of the two Lauras was equally impressive if not as well known as their food.  They often supplied needy with meals and even rooms at no charge.  One individual lived in the hotel for twelve years and was provided meals because he had no ability to provide for himself.  They also provided rooms for visiting duchesses during the festival.

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Page last updated March 7, 2008