Hotel Wooten

The Hotel Wooten is located in downtown Abilene, Texas at 1102 North 3rd Street.

The building's grand lobby

This graceful 16-story tower was built at the corner of North 3rd and Cypress Street in 1930 by local business man H.O. Wooten legendarily paid for in cash in the midst of the Great Depression. With its massive red neon sign atop its roof, the hotel was visible miles on the flat Texas plains, particularly at night. Legend has it that every few years, half the sign would need replacing, and in the meantime, would occasionally read "HOT WOO," which tickled or offended all equally. Additionally, the soaring tower creating a wind current at 3rd and Cypress that would raise skirts on blustery days, attracting crowds of young male onlookers. In response to the growing indecency of the Wooten corner, the Abilene city council resurrected an antique city ordinance forbidding the ogling of unescorted ladies.

A portrait of Mr. Wooten hanging in the Paramount Theater, which he also built.

Indeed, the Wooten was very much at the center of the Abilene social scene for much of the middle part of the twentieth century. By the 1970s, however, commerce had shifted south as Abilene burgeoning population spread ever outward. The hotel, along with much of downtown Abilene, would fall into a state of disgrace and disrepair. For several years, the Wooten was rechristened "The Abilene Towers Apartments." It became notorious for the chunks of masonry and debris that would often rain down on unsuspecting pedestrians below as it crumbled beneath the west Texas sun. Finally, as it seem inevitably doomed to slip beyond the reach of the possibility of restoration, the Wooten was swept up in the revitalization that had already consumed much of downtown, starting with Wooten's neighbor, The Paramount Theater. The tower underwent a complete overhaul in 2005 and is now home to the most expensive apartments, per square foot, in the city.

References

Coordinates: 32°27′06″N 99°44′04″W / 32.4518°N 99.7344°W / 32.4518; -99.7344