Monday, August 15, 2011

These Walls: Hotel Maire in Bartlesville, Oklahoma


In Oklahoma's territorial formation, virtually every community had one hotel spring up around the railroad depot to become the centerpiece of commerce and culture. That's where people went to impress and pamper clients and guests, to propose marriage or consummate the wedding, to toast the new year or simply dance the night away.


As for the church's chandelier, it will have to be lowered and rested for the first time since it was installed in 1897, Risley said. Typically, when the church has the chandelier cleaned, it takes an hour to lower it to pew level. Risley said church officials are considering taking off each of the hundreds of crystal prisms and numbering them until they can be put back on after the race."This was the place our business leaders would go to make deals," said Joan Singleton, director of the Bartlesville Area History Museum, the Bartlesville Public Library and the White Rose Cemetery. "When this hotel was in its heyday, this was a place where Frank Phillips would bring people in from New York to show them that we were not so backwards. It was a nice hotel."Pretty Ballerinas has been making the finest fashion-forward ballerinas since 1918. Their products are still hand-made on the Mediterranean island of Menorca and are available at US stores and online at www.prettyballerinas.us.Pretty Ballerinas joins other neighbourhood staples including the Jose Eber Salon and Beverly Hills Housewife Lisa Vanderpump's renowned restaurant, Villa Blanca.The panes of the church's windows would also be an expensive repair. A single pane is worth $2,500 because the glass isn't manufactured anymore, Risley said. Only about 10 panes have been replaced with regular glass since the church was built."We wouldn't want it to come down and shatter everything below it," she said.But race organizers and city officials say they aren't too worried. They conducted a sound test in the city when the race was first announced to see how strong the vibrations would be.The white walls contain about 20 windows dating from 1785, and each window has 40 individual panes from the church's original construction. On the second level of the church is a pipe organ from the 1890s that reaches high to the ceiling."The vibrations caused by a typical 18-wheel truck that rolls through Baltimore happen more on a weekend and are stronger than a race car," said Lonnie Fisher, special projects manager for Baltimore Racing Development LLC.

"Sometimes being on the fifth floor is a little isolated," she said. "You don't get as much walk-in traffic. Other than that, with the renovation they did it served our purposes very well."




Author: Kirby Lee Davis


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