Rachel Whitney, Curator,
Sapulpa Historical Museum
This week in Sapulpa history, 1906, pre-statehood of Oklahoma: The new long awaited hotel that Sapulpa had been looking for seemed to be a sure thing. Plans had been drawn and “The Sapulpa Hotel Company” had been incorporated.
The cost would be around $40,000 (or about $1.5 million today). It would be a grand hotel with one hundred and fifty-foot frontage on East Dewey Avenue, a welcoming sight to see. It would have sixty rooms, with steam heat and toilet rooms on each floor. The large lobby, reception hall, offices, and dining rooms would have tile floors. It would also include both gas and electric lights. It would be a bricked three-story building.
Work would start in just “four short weeks,” it stated, and be “ready to open by June 1. Sapulpa has long been sorely in need of a modern hotel.”
This hotel was not built.
This “modern hotel” would probably have been located where the Berryhill Building is now.
Exactly two years later, the Sapulpa Hotel Company would get its chance to open a modern hotel, just weeks after statehood.
This week in Sapulpa history, 1908, post-statehood of Oklahoma: Sapulpa now had a first-class hotel. It was a five-story brick building. It was located on the northwest corner of South Main Street and West Lee Avenue.
The Sapulpa Hotel Company was established on July 18, 1906, by spirited Sapulpans. Bates B. Burnett, John P. Soliss, Seigel Richey, J.E. Rice, H.C. Abbott, and A.C. Brown were the first members of the company. “These public-spirited and progressive citizens observed the then greatest need and most important demand of our robust and growing young city and to supply that need and meet that demand the Company was organized and this splendid hotel built.”
The St. James Hotel opened to the public on January 9 & 10, 1910. On the 9th, a reception dinner was held, and on the 10th visitors were allowed to stay.
“The proprietors of the St James Hotel, and the Sapulpa Hotel Company greet the guests of this auspicious occasion with best wishes for the health, prosperity, and happiness of the people of the great State of Oklahoma generally and of the City of Sapulpa especially, and bid you heartfelt welcome.” It was said that it when completed it cost a total of $100,000 (or today’s $3.3 million).
The hotel management tried to open in time for Christmas 1907, but was delayed with the final finishing touches. The name of the establishment was announced in November 1907, as it was a secret until it would be opened. Unfortunately, the name was found out before the grand reveal. “It was the intention of the company to keep the name of the hotel a secret until the day of the opening, but on account of the name being put on all the linen and silver, it leaked out sooner than was intended.”
“Mr. Burnett leads the list of original subscribers to the stock of the Company and it was in well merited recognition and reward of his unceasing energy, efforts, and contribution of means to the institution, progress and complete of this enterprise, that the Board of Directors of the Company unanimously voted to Mr. Burnett the privilege of naming the hotel.”
Bates and his wife Dannie Burnett had two children. William “Billy” James Burnett was born in Sapulpa, July 25, 1905. Elizabeth Kathryn Burnett was born on November 15, 1907. The family lived at the “Burnett Mansion” located at 316 South Main, or 320 South Main.
Mr. Burnett “christened the hotel The St. James in honor of his only son, William James Burnett.”
“The St. James occupies every inch of the commodious lots upon which it stands: being sixty-five feet by one-hundred and forty-feet in dimensions. It is five stories high, and contains 100 roomy, well ventilated and lighted guest rooms, lighted by electricity and natural gas, heated by steam, and furnished with private telephones and everything else conducive to comfort and convenience. Of the 100 guest rooms, each has hot and cold running water, and 75 are connected with private baths. The rotunda and dining room are dreams of artistic beauty and elegance. The cuisine is modern and first-class in every detail. The service shall be worthy of the high standard of such a hotel, and shall leave naught to be desired by the most particular and exacting taste.”
The St. James Hotel remained open until August 10, 1962. It was demolished just months later, and this week in Sapulpa history, it was completely removed by early January 1963, just 55 years after its grand opening.
(Sapulpa Light, January 12, 1906; Union News, November 28, 1907, January 10, 1908; Sapulpa Daily Herald, August 12, 1962, December 30, 1962)
