HomeMy WebLinkAboutLaSalle closing forces move; newspaper article (05-07-1980)- ;t>..
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LaSalle closing forces move
J.C. Jaques has lived at the LaSalle dace 19~.
ryan-College Station
ME~f6lYam!
By JANE )HILLS SMITH
Stott Writer
On April 16, 1980 the 25 elderly
persons living in the LaSalle Hotel in
downtown Bryan were given 30 days
notice to vacate the premises.
Word that the senior citizens, some
in wheelchairs and walkers, would
have to move from the place they'd
called home for many years caused
quite an upheaval. Many had no other
place to go. Local nursing and
retirement homes have long waiting
lists.
But the announcement of the hotel's
closing affected some more than
others.
The hardest hit was J.C. Jaques, an
86-year-old North Texas entrepreneur
who bought the hotel in 1959 and
moved into the seventh floor with
intentions to stay there for the rest of
his life.
Tuesday afternoon after talking
with The Eagle about the situation,
Jaques collapsed with what witnesses
described as a mild stroke. A resident
of the hotel said this morning Jaques
was resting 'comfortably. He had
called The Eagle and asked to talk
with a reporter.
"I bought this place out in 1959,"
Jaques said as he settled into a chair
in his living room•bedroom com•
bination suite. "I picked it up and
turned it into the first licensed nursing
home in Bryan,"
"You know this LaSalle was the
pride of Brazos County in its time -
the best place between Houston and
Dallas." An inventor with 12 patents
to his credit including one of the first
power saws ever marketed, Jaques
set to work to do something about the
declining number of residents at the
hotel. In 1962, the second and third
floor was added for the nursing home
Carter_ R~9ns~n avfen~l Ia~.,lr -
s
1
~~W~ ~~aanu rushed to the LaSalle Tuesday when Ja s bec ~`°~°`°~'~ithj"°°°`
9~ ameill,
From page U, col. 6
guess we literally could have thro
him out on the street two years ago
feel we've bent over backwards
Mrs. Walker said.
"No one is any sadder than we a
that it (the hotel) didn't work out,
she said.
"I don't know where I'm going
go," Jaques said as he looked aroun
the room, "I'm not ready. My w'
died here. I kept her right in this roo
with nurses around the clock,"he sai
as tears came to his eyes and his voic
faded.
Jaques has kept everything just a
it was when his wife died of cancer '
1974. He still has her clothes. Her tw'
bed is still made. Unpacked boxe
from their original move to the hole
remain in one room.
"Let me tell you. For a man my
age...I've got stuff here that's
precious. I had this place for as long
as I live. When I have to give this
uP•.. he said his voice again trailing
off as memories filled his head.
It s a dirty shame that outside
entrants can come in and steal a place
like this. To see those old ladies
moving out Breaks your heart;'
Jaques said.
Before he moved to the LaSalle,
Jaques lived in a fashionable home in
Dallas. He and his wife brought their
antiques with them to the hotel and
many have been displayed for years
in the lobby.
"He had a wonderful, beautiful
home -furnished exclusively by
Neiman Marcus," said Mrs. Eloise
egg Johnson, a resident of the
LaSalle who lives down the hall. "The
lobby was what gave the hotel its
mystic and made it so different from
other hotels," she said. "What a wa
to end up." Y
A former extension service em-
ployee who moved to Bryan in 1944,
,Mrs. Johnson called the forced move
a "tragedy." She also planned to
~e_ _
- ~ .
n
I
go. There should be adequate
provisions made for old people. They
„
'
need planning for just like an infant
I
.
have a cane, but some bad walkers
e
and wheelchairs.
"
"One woman cried. It w
asn't lack of
money, she just loved it here. She was ]
~
crushed," she said.
d
Portions of the letter received by
e
the tenants reads as follows:
"This is to announce the temporary
d
closing of the LaSalle Hotel.
e
"We are planning to sell the
building to people who want to
s
completely remodel the hotel and
want the building empty, We are
required by Texas law to give 30 days
notice.
"However, since ou '
Y will all be
moving anyway, we are hoping that
Mrs. Elohle Johnson.
everyone will find a place and go
ahead with their move by May' 1st
spend the rest of her life at th
e LaSalle
a
d i
.
Any Persona] items left in the ~
building become the
ro
t
n
n Bryan but the nearest place she
could find what she feels i
p
per
y of and
are sub'ect to
" ~ be sold by our com- 1
s com-
parable is in Galveston at Mood
House. Y
an .
P Y
Jaques had called movers to pack '
She ahead has
Y a room there but
was back at the LaSalle t
and store some of his belongs_s
Tuesday afternoon. He was d B
own in
o pack her
belongings
the lobb when
Y the truck pulled u
.
She and Jaques like o
thers in the
h
p
and shortly after that, he collapsed at
the elevator as he tri
d t
otel, have become good friends. She
e
o return
to his
suite
is writing his biography.
"The clouds have been hovering for
.
The mo
vers refused to
move
a while," Mrs. Johnson sai
d• We
an in
~h„ g until Jaques was of sound
mmd
knew somethin
but ever g was going to happen,
yhme we got discouraged
.
'I'm very worried about him " '
~ said
`B
,
they'd tell us to hold on, that things
ryan attorne Elm
has filed Y er McVey who
a law
it
would be worked out."
Mrs. Johnson said th
su
against Abbott
SeQ~g to set aside the sale for failure
e
declining
quality of the food was the first si
n t
of consideration.
"
g
o
the tenants that things weren't goin
g
well
ith
h
He set
been °P the LaSalle Hotel
use he wanted to hel
ld
w
t
e management.
She and Ja ue
9 s b
th
p o
people
in Brazos County. He bas been active
o
said
prostitutes had been allowed to stay in
in benevolent work. This is Brea '
kmg
his heart
the hotel and that it upset the elderly
tenants.
to
established see the thing he
g0 down the drain
"
"Life was once wonderful „
here,
she said
"Th
,
McVe
Y said.
McVey said it would do no
o
d f
.
e ]e
tter was very up•
setting, Many people had
g
o
or
JaiYues to~•y to stay in tie hotel
after
no place to
it is closed on
May 16. "The fact of the
:not
ter ~s he's going to have to move
.
He can't climb the stairs if they cut off
the electricity. He can't continue
without food being brought u
t
p
o
him, he said.
lout as lie interview -ended
Tuesday, Jaques still had hope.
"
I think we can still save it,"
Jaques said.
w
r
if
m
m
m
s
I
"You better hurry, brother," an-
sweredMrs. Johnson,
~ wvj~ _ _
end the fifth, sixth and seventh floors
vere converted to senior citizen
partments.
At its peak, Jaques had 120 beds full
o the nursing home. But in 1976 the
ederal government instituted more
trict requirements for nursing homes
nd the 50-year~ld hotel could not be
onverted to meet those requirements
Tithout great expense. The nursing
bme patients were transferred to
Cher facilities, but the senior citizens
nd other people, including many
lggies, continued to call the hotel
'home."
In 1975, Jaques was ready to retire
}om active management of the
LaSalle.
"I made a deal with a man named
lee Abbott from Dallas and my son,
n6n, In that contract, it said I had
f»m that glass door back (about 5
noms of the hotel) for the rest of my
lfe with maid service and my meals
s'rved up here," Jaques
aid. "When I lost my wife,..that
yas when they started taking ad-
wntage of me, He (Abbott} kicked
ry son out. They had a falling out and
h fired him," Jaques said.
Abbott sold the hotel to Mary
Trances and Bil] McHam iD May,
178. The McHams have now sold the
htel to a Houston firm identified as
tie Omega Company which they say
i~going to renovate the LaSalle,
Sandie Walker, a member of the
1►cHam family, told The Eagle this
turning that when they bought the
htel, Jaques' contract became void.
"His deal was with the people we
bught it from. We have clear title.
~ haven't charged him (Jaques) a
dme. We've allowed him to live up
tlere and have maid, linen and meal
stvice, but we owe him nothing. I
fern to FOAHEA, page 4A.