|
|
|
The
Blazimar (c. 1943)
TE Postcard Archives |
The
card is unused, but the print reads:
Here you will find: Good Beds - Fine Food - Friendly Hospitality in
a truly great Community that you will want to visit again and again.
Our Coffee Shop is Always Comfortably Cool |
The Blazimar
today
TE Photo, October 2000 |
|
The
vaguely Arab-South American sounding name is actually an amalgam
of three family names. They were investors/owners Howard Bla
(nd), A. J. Zil (ker), and T. W. Mar (se). (Correction:
"Those of us born and raised in Taylor know that the Blazimar
was named after Bland, Zizinia and Marse. We are unsure of
who the Zilkers might be as they or unknown to Taylorites."
- Ella Jez, March 10, 2009) We are happy to report that the
building is still standing in Taylor,
and has recently been sold.
If you can read the front window in the postcard, the Blazimar also
served as the Greyhound Bus Station for Taylor. Las Lomas
Hotel in Junction
also served as the town's bus station, and you'll have to admit,
it was a pretty practical arrangement. The arrival of a late night
bus would keep the night staff alert in anticipation of the midnight
coach from Brady
(of course it did) and the weary bus traveler merely had to walk
from the bus seat to the front desk.
The impressive (for the time) four-story hotel was fireproof, had
steam heat and ceiling fans in each of its 90 rooms. The rooms were
furnished with "sanidown" mattresses, a company whose name said
it all in the trade-name idiom of the day. Taylor
used a lot of the area's cotton
in making mattresses for the military during WW
II. The mill in Eldorado,
Texas provided blankets. When we find out who made the pillows,
we'll let you know.
A ballroom on the second floor of the Blazimar was used for social
gatherings, the kind they rarely have today. It was the site of
dinners, dances, receptions, and reunions. Being a bus station as
well, there was always the possibility of a young drifter getting
off the bus and meeting a debutante whose "daddy grew cotton." This
was the kind of plot that they made movies about in the 30s and
40s, but might've actually happened in Taylor,
Texas.
In 1920, The St. Louis Browns wintered in Taylor.
They roomed at the Blazimar Hotel and practiced on what is now Memorial
Football Field. It was an era when a wintering Yankee baseball player
could fall in love with a southern debutante that had just broken
her engagement (see last paragraph) to a drifter who had just gotten
off the night bus from Brady.
We believe Randolph Scott and Hedy Lamar were in that one.
Many Northern teams took advantage of the mild winters by staying
in Southern Hotels. Waxahachie's
Rogers Hotel was one of these, as well as the Aumont
in Seguin.
The Blazimar is keeping its secrets well. We tried to uncover stories
of ghosts, murders, suicides, unrequited love, former employees
that became war heroes or even people who skipped out without paying
their bill, but we came up with nothing.
© John
Troesser
January 2001
More Rooms
with a Past
|
Our
special thanks to Taylor Librarian Bonnie Brooks who researched the
Blazimar for our readers and included in her email that her information
came from the following sources:
The Taylor Daily Press newspaper dated 6/30/38, and
information from Our Town.
Forum
Subject:
Blazimar Hotel
Those of us born and raised in Taylor know that the Blazimar (spelling
correction) was named after Bland, Zizinia and Marse. We are unsure
of who the Zilkers might be as they or unknown to Taylorites. By
the way, I checked the Taylor Public Library archives to be certain
of my information and the spelling of The Blazimar. Thank you, Ella
Jez, March 10, 2009
Subject:
Blazimar
Hotel Story
Dear TE, My grandparents (Paul and Eureka Ferguson) managed the
Blazimar hotel in Taylor,
Texas, in the late 1950s and I spent several summers there.
I well remember James the elevator man and even helped as his special
assistant sometimes when he was busy with some chore my grandmother
thought up. He taught me how to ease the lever down to stop exactly
even with the floor so the guest doesn't trip.
Your reminiscence page brought back such a flood of old memories
it makes me eager to write an article for your magazine. Meanwhile,
[here is] my 2004 short story, set in 1958 at the Blazimar. "Waiting
for Elvis" is fiction, but based on actual events. It won second
place in the Denver Woman's Press Club ---- In-House Writer's Contest
in 2005! - Shere Chamness, August 22, 2007
Subject:
Blazilmar
I grew up in Taylor also and I remember the Blazimar Hotel very
well. I have a brother that worked across the street at the Blazimar
garage as a mechanic. I remember coming home from boot camp from
San Diego and arriving on a greyhound bus. - Bennie Mitchell, Amarillo
Texas, March 18, 2006
I RAN ACROSS
A PICTURE SLIDE OF A BILLBOARD FOR THE BLAZIMAR HOTEL. I AM NOT
SURE WHAT ROAD IT WAS ON BUT THESE PHOTO'S ALL DATE BACK TO THE
MID TO LATE 30's. ALSO A BILLBOARD OF STAR TIRES IN TAYLOR. I HAVE
BEEN SEARCHING FOR THE TOWNS ALL MY SLIDES CAME FROM, I BET THEY
ARE FROM TAYLOR. MAYBE I WILL GET A CHANCE TO GO TO TAYLOR. - TIM,
September 30, 2004
I grew up in
Taylor and us kids would go to the hotel to play pinball on those
old nickel machines. I also remember that there was a cranky old
man named James who was the elevator operator who would run us off
if he thought we had been playing pinball too long. Also for the
longest time the coffee shop was the only place to get something
to eat after 9pm and they had a great bowl of chili. - Lee Crowell,
Taylor Duck Class of 1971, May 11, 2002
Reference to
Lee Crowell' s letter concerning "james"..
I ran across the poor man while working in law enforcement. "James'
was sick and living out of a car. I found him one cold winter night
sleeping in a car on West Second street in Taylor. He was having
chest pains. I called EMS and they took him to the hospital. A few
years later I came across this man in a rest home in Taylor. I too,
like Lee, remember him ("James") when I was a kid. I played a few
games of pinball there myself ! I also remember that the railroad
housed their people there and one night there was a rail strike
and there was concern of hostilities in the rail yard across the
street from the Hotel. Thank God nothing developed from that. Late
nights, the Blazimar was the only place to get pretty good food
too! There where a few fights in the bar that was on the south end
of the building toward the rail yard where the rail personnel and
the general citizenry would mingel. - James Rowland/Taylor Duck
class of 1971 July 14, 2005
|
|
|
HOME
