The formal opening of the New Moore Hotel will begin with a reception from 3 to 5 o’clock on Friday afternoon, August 10th.  During this time the hotel will be open for inspection by the townspeople and any interested visitors of the city.  From 6 to 8 o’clock a special dinner will be served in dining room of the hotel.  An invitation dance will begin at 10 o’clock in the evening and continue until after the midnight hour.  The famous original Blue Devil Orchestra of Dallas will furnish music throughout the evening’s entertainment.

     A number of Coleman ladies will assist Mrs. Moore in her role as hostess at the reception Friday afternoon.  Mrs. Harry Wooldridge will the meet the guests as they enter the lobby.  Miss Vivian Taylor, Mrs. Bab Lewis, Mrs. H. C. Johnson, Mrs. H. B. Baker, Mrs. R. S. Johnson, Mrs. Sidney Sackett, Mrs. M. B. Broadfoot, Mrs. J. H. Nolan will all serve on this reception committee.  Music will be played and punch served throughout the reception and guests will be conducted over the hotel on an inspection tour.

     The ladies’ parlor and the lobby of the hotel will be tastefully and beautifully decorated with large baskets of flowers and ferns.  The dining room flower decorations will be arranged on the tables in vases, and the serving room will be banked with ferns and occupied by the Blue Devil Orchestra of Dallas.  Flowers for the occasion are being furnished by the merchants of Coleman, who have contributed several hundred dollars for this purpose.  A number of tables have already been reserved for the dinner hour by both local and out-of-town people.  A special menu will be prepared for the opening dinner.

     The dance, which is under the direction of Cole Williams, will be held in the lobby and dining room begging at 10 o’clock and lasting until 2 o’clock.  Over 200 invitations have been sent out to Coleman people and out-of-town friends.  The Blue Devil Orchestra will furnish music throughout the dancing hour.  Elaborate preparations have been made in order to make the affair an outstanding one that will not soon be forgotten by Coleman people and that will prove of interest to many outside of Coleman. As well as furnishing an opportunity for inspection of the hotel and its facilities, the preparations will make the opening an outstanding social event.

     The fact that the New Moore Hotel is a new two-story building thoroughly modern in both construction and equipment and having an accommodation of 40 guest rooms and a dining room capacity of 60 at one time, is enough to make it looked upon by Coleman people as an interesting and worthwhile addition to the city.  However, perhaps the biggest and most interesting features about the New Moore Hotel is the fact that from planning to the finishing touches, inside and outside, the building is thoroughly a Coleman product. Undertaken by a leading citizen of Coleman, planned and built by a Coleman contractor, and materials furnished by Coleman firms, the enterprise is one which shows the possibilities of  “The Coming Central City.”

     The New Moore is owned and operated by Mrs. Helen Moore who has been known as a leading citizen of Coleman for many years. The managing of this new hostelry will not be in any way a new and strange undertaking for Mrs. Moore; she has had a hotel in Coleman since 1909 conducted under her personal management, except for one period of seven years when it was leased to her son, Louis Randall.  The hotel which Mrs. Moore operated before building the New Moore was known as the “Cottage Hotel” and was located on the same spot where the new building now stands on East Pecan Street.

     The new hotel is built In the shape of the letter “H.”  On the first floor the lobby, ladies’ parlor, salesmen’s sample room, the dining room and kitchen, a few choice guest rooms, and the apartments of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Randall are located. The second floor is made up of individual guest rooms, with the open air court in the front making a pleasant out-of-doors parlor for the spring and summertime. A homelike atmosphere pervades the entire place giving the effect of modest simplicity and beauty and yet not lacking in the most modern conveniences.

     All the rooms of the hotel are furnished with the most modern fixtures, some of which are fans, telephones, and lavatories.  Eleven bathrooms and seven shower rooms have been equipped in the building.  These and additional advantages make it possible for the guests to obtain up-to-date hotel service at this place.

     R. S. Johnson, who has been a citizen of Coleman for the last forty years and in the contracting business for over three years, was architect and builder for the hotel.  Under Johnson were a number of efficient workmen, all Coleman men.  S. L. Weaver was sub-contractor for the frame-work and R. L. Cope was sub-contractor on the brick-work.   S. J. Tinsley did the cabinet work and other of the more intricate carpenter jobs.  The painting and papering along with other interior decoration work was under the direction of Sims and Hargett, interior decorators, of this city.

     Building materials were supplied by Martin Brick Company and the South Texas Lumber Company.  The West Texas Utilities Company, operating one ice plant and two stations in Coleman, furnished the electric fixtures which were installed by Randolph Strong; A. W. Luckett, electrician here, did the wiring for the building.  Telephones were installed in all the rooms of the hotel by the West Texas Telephone Company through the branch operating in this city.  The main part of the inside furnishings of the hotel were supplied by the furniture and hardware departments of J. E. Stevens Company; this company also furnished all the plumbing fixtures and the installation of these fixtures. Furnishings for the ladies’ parlor came from Gordon & Sons and Mead Furniture. Draperies and linens were bought through the Hemphill-Robertson store here from Baker Hemphill at San Angelo.

     Mrs. Moore has made her hotel essentially Coleman in every respect and it will likely remain so as it is her policy to patronize local dealers in every way possible. The steady growth of Coleman through the last several years has made a demand for increased facilities along many lines, and citizens such as Mrs. Moore are rapidly meeting this demand as is evidenced by the construction work now going on throughout the city.

     The draperies in the lobby of the new hotel are made from the very latest drapery cloth known as Monk cloth. The dining room draperies are made of the popular Terry cloth. The ladies’ parlor has the most elaborate draperies to be found in the hotel; the sides are of silk with the velvet valance and the silk marquessette center.  Mrs. Frances West and Mrs. Bertha Johnson are the two efficient waitresses at the New Moore who have already become known to the dining room visitors as giving quick and satisfactory service.

     Mrs. Helen Moore, owner and manager of the New More Hotel recently completed at 215 East Pecan, has spent the greater part of her life in Coleman, having lived here and taken interest in public life for the past forty years. As one of the leading citizens of Coleman, Mrs. Moore has always been characterized for her progressive attitude toward the community and her creditable accomplishments in both public and private life.

     Mrs. Moore built her first Cottage here in 1909, which had a capacity of 10 roomers. She preferred to keep young married people and did, so for a short while, but it was not long until the constant demand and insistence made by traveling men forced her to turn the place into a hotel.

     Her business became so rushing during the next year or so that she found it necessary to rent the Old Florence Hotel, which was located just east of the rear of the First National Bank. (Note: The Florence Hotel was located in the east half of the north side of the 100 block of East Pecan Street.)  During this time she used the Cottage Hotel as an annex and gave dining room service to both places.  In 1912 the Florence Hotel was torn down to be replaced by business houses and Mrs. Moore returned to the Cottage Hotel.  She added ten guest rooms, a dining room and a kitchen to the Cottage Hotel.  This was the only hotel in Coleman at this time but it had sufficient capacity to accommodate all such trade of the city.

     From 1912 to 1920 Mrs. Moore built up the secure and splendid reputation which gives her a record of competency and ability as a hotel manager which has not been equaled in West Texas.  During this period of her hotel management there were three hotels in West Texas that were charted by the traveling men as the best places to get the best cooked and best served meals. These places were “The Ridgeway” at Comanche, “The Barcroft” at Colorado City, and the “Cottage Hotel” at Coleman.  Mrs. Moore retired in 1920 and leased the “Cottage Hotel” to her son, Louis Randall. For seven years the hotel was under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Randall.  In 1912 Mrs. Moore was given charge of the Grace Dining Room in Abilene and was manager here for three years. As Mrs. Moore constantly added to her experience her abilities became more and more in demand.

     The New Moore Hotel Is now completed and ready for formal opening and inspection, and Mrs. Moore is fully prepared to undertake this new and very commendable enterprise. Coleman has advanced to the place where one hotel cannot satisfy the demand as in the old days; progress demands “more and better” of everything and Mrs. Moore’s experience and accomplishments prove her able to give something progressive in the way of hotel accommodations to Coleman and the traveling public.

Floor plan of the New Moore Hotel in 1930, along with outbuildings and a second dwelling behind the hotel at 215 1/2 East Pecan Street.

Sometime in the late 1930's or early 1940's the New Moore Hotel closed and the building was used as a Coleman County Office building.  The dwelling remained at 215 1/2 East Pecan, but the dwellings on the back (north) part of the lot had become 108 San Saba Street and 108 1/2 San Saba Street before 1930.

The County Agriculture Building, now empty, poses a problem for members of the Coleman County Commissioners Court.  What to do with it, is the question they would like satisfactorily answered.

At one time the big two-story brick structure, formerly a hotel, did indeed serve a useful purpose, housing all the governmental agencies, the county agent, county home demonstration agent, county superintendent, in fact, every office that could not go into the old courthouse.  One by one the offices have moved to better quarters and now the last is gone and the building is empty. The county has an investment there well as annual expense and now the structure is not needed.  So what to do with it?

The question of the Agriculture Building will likely be on the agenda for meetings of the County Commissioners Court, until the correct answer is found.  The structure was built in the late 1920’s, prior to the depression, and was known then as the New Moore Hotel, having been the successor to the older Moore Hotel.  It is believed that the County acquired the building in the late 1930’s.