ballroom splendor



The Lubbock County Historical Commission met today in the former Pioneer Hotel, which is being renovated as condos.  Built in the Renaissance Revival architecture style, Hotel Lubbock, later called the Pioneer Hotel, is one of a handful of remaining early pre-World War II major buildings left in the city.  The first five floors were built in 1925, with six additional floors added in 1929.  Other than the exterior brick walls, the first floor staircase and the ornamental plasterwork found in the former ballroom, not much of the original remains.  These decorative plaques sit atop windows in brick arches -- maybe an architectural-minded person can provide their name.  I remember attending a function or two in the ballroom but my clearest memory of the Pioneer was going to the Embassy Club as an underage, young Tech student in the days when Lubbock had only private clubs.

The Pioneer
Broadway and Avenue K
Lubbock, Texas