Downtown Hotel Will Rise

              Hotel Will Rise
NEW DOWNTOWN HOTEL—This sketch shows the Downtowner Motor Inn to be
built on the northeast corner of Fourth St. and Cheyenne Ave. by a Memphis hotel
chain.
Million Dollar
Unit to Be at
4th, Cheyenne
A luxurious new motor hotel
—the Downtowner Motor Inn—to
cost in excess of $1 million will
be constructed on the northeast
corner of Fourth Street and Cheyenne Ave., by Nationwide Downtowner Motors Inns., Inc., of
Memphis, Tenn., it was announced here today.
It will be a four-floor structure
with a patio swimming pool, special meeting rooms, restaurant,
125 rooms and suites and off-
street parking under the hotel for
guests.
A block east of the civic cen-
g^ter, it will be the first large
' downtown hotel built here in more
than 30 years.
Lather F. Matthews of Memphis, president, announced that
his firm has purchased two
pieces of downtown property.
It first purchased the northwest
corner of the Fourth and Cheyenne intersection from the Land
Smith Co. and then acquired the
property, east across Cheyenne,
from the Citizen's State Bank and
Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Strahm.
Original plans for the hotel
called for its erection on the
Land Smith property. A short
time later, when Citizen's bank
announced plans to move to the
new Skelly Building at 15th St.
and Boulder Ave., the second
deal was made.
Citizen's had maintained drive-
in1 banking and parking facilities
on the lot on the northeast corner of the intersection, which is
west across an alley from the
bank at Fourth St. and Boulder
Ave.
Both properties were acquired
for the hotel company by Tom
Grant Jr., of the firm of Whiteside and Grant, Realtors. Grant
said the firm plans to sell the
northwest corner.
The company will take possession of the building site
about Sept. 1 and construction
will begin soon thereafter. Completion is expected seven to
eight months later.
The structure will be of contemporary style, with large rooms
and wide expanses of glass.
Guests will drive into the hotel
on the street level, leave their
cars and register for accommodations.
Matthews said it was interesting
to him that his firm selected a
site in an area which had been
assigned for re-designing by Oklahoma student architects in a recent contest sponsored by Downtown Tulsa Unlimited, Inc.
"The contract for sale of the
property was made before the
contest was publicized. I am
pleased that our choice of a
location was substantiated,"
Matthews said.
Nationwide Downtowner Motor
Inns is presently constructing
inns at Memphis, Nashville, Jackson and Kingsport, Tenn., and Little Rock, Ark.
Plans have been completed for
others in Houston, Louisville,
Roanoke, Va. and Columbia, S. C.
The company plans an ultimate
coast-to-coast chain of 75.