Beaumont, Texas

Photographs 1997

Beaumont, Texas -- 1930 College Street (U.S. 90)

OPENED

OWNERSHIP

AMENITIES - 1948

STATUS

April 23, 1938

Bill Farner and
Charles Mooney

72 rooms
30 air conditioned
42 with ceiling fans
22 kitchenettes
Simmons furniture
nice eating place connected
beautiful lawn

Open in 2006 as the Deluxe Inn & Suites

William "Bill" Farner and his partner, Charles Hill Mooney, were the first to open an "independent" Alamo Plaza. Although it was not a franchise per se, the two men followed the methods and lead that Torrance's locations employed, and Torrnace himself saw the benefit of expanding the brand and lent approval and support to the new branch.

Prior to opening the Beaumont location, Farner had been in the employ of Torrance at the Waco Alamo Plaza where he had honed his skills as a motelier. Additionally, Farner was a creative, industrious, and innovative entrepreneur, for he devised all manner of ways to efficiently offer excellent service while maintaining a steady profit. He and Mooney continued to expand the brand across the South, ending up with about eight Alamo Plazas by the late 1950s.

Photographs 1999

Rather tired by the late 1990s, Beaumont had at least maintained its Alamo Plaza moniker--even if it had been sloppily painted a putrid hue of green.

Satellite image from Google Earth

Photographs 2006

Nearly to its seventh decade, Beaumont barely hung on. Having had its Alamo-esque facade mutilated it had become the pretentiously named Deluxe Inn and Suites, and was more or less a crumbling ruin by early 2006. Although still open, several of the guest buildings had been boarded up and abandoned. Sadly Beaumont's Alamo Plaza, which had helped to usher in a new era of high expectations in roadside lodging, had reached the final chapter in its life.