The historic Will Rogers Hotel on Lynn Riggs Boulevard (aka Route 66) in Claremore, Okla., is celebrating its 10th year Friday since reopening as a home for businesses and long-term residents, reports the Claremore Progress.
The hotel opened in 1930 and was there to take advantage of the area’s natural mineral water springs, which was considered to be a health booster. The hotel was decorated to resemble Will Rogers’ home in Santa Monica, Calif.
The hotel closed in 1991. The Rogers County Historical Society bought it for $1. A partnership with two other groups began rehabbing it.
Rehabilitation of the Will Rogers Hotel began in February 1997 at a cost of more than $2.5 million. The grand re-opening was on Nov. 15, 1997.
“The renovation itself was massive,” Sallee said. “We (saved) as much of the original hotel as we could — the exterior, the lobbies, the hallways — but we made renovations to upgrade and update the rest of the hotel.
“It’s funny, when I first got involved with the renovation, it was because of the building itself and its historic significance,” she said, “but now, it’s the residents that are most important to me — they’re my family — I just love them.”
Today, the hotel stays full with 38 tenants living on site.