watch that first step

 

This former hotel in Slaton is past its prime.  Paint traces are about all that remain of the exterior staircase.  Slaton started out as a railroad town when Santa Fe purchased the townsite in 1911 and designed its street pattern after the layout of Washington, D.C. Although dismissed by President Washington, Pierre L'Enfant is credited with the national city plan which consisted of a grand avenue and a grid of streets crossed by diagonal avenues.  The "grand avenue" of Slaton was a brick boulevard from the train station to the courthouse square.  The result is that downtown Slaton has irregularly shaped blocks radiating from the square.  That means that many of the buildings on the corners are triangular or the so-called "flat iron."  This hotel, like its counterparts, has a narrow front on the street.  This evening I spoke with a man who had purchased the triangular building across the street.  He wanted the two-story hotel but said it was pretty run down and required too much work.  He was busy installing a bathroom and kitchen as part of a studio apartment.  The real find?  Original tin ceiling when the drop ceiling was removed while opening up the 12-foot interior.

 



 

Slaton, Texas