Southern Hotel Apartment Rehabilitation Project: 22 housing units and an example of the potential of repurposing historic downtown buildings

The City’s Southern Hotel Apartments Rehabilitation Project to repurpose the historic downtown hotel into affordable housing units is set in motion with a Friday, Aug. 25 “groundbreaking” in the City parking lot adjacent to the hotel at 1210 Matamoros St.

Plans for the three-story structure are to create 22 housing units, of which nine will rent at market value and 13 will be for low-income applicants. Funding for the  $4.1 million project comes in part from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), the Section 108 Loan Program and HOME Investment Partnership Program, all through the U.S Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) funds.

THE SOUTHERN HOTEL TODAY

Plans for the Southern Hotel’s reconstruction were drawn by Sepulveda Associates Architects, Inc., the firm that blueprinted the repurposing of the old KGNS brick building around the corner from the Southern Hotel into the 15-unit Narvaez City Hall Apartments for elderly housing.

RENDERING, SEPULVEDA ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS, INC.

Architect Robert J. Sepulveda Sr. said that bringing the Southern Hotel structure to life may serve as an example to downtown property owners about the potential of restoring and repurposing their old buildings and becoming a vital part of reviving downtown. “That is a trend in many major cities across the country,” he stressed.

Once an annex to the adjacent Hamilton Hotel, now home to many Laredo seniors, the Southern Hotel will be reconfigured into studio and one-bedroom apartments ranging in size from 350-square feet to 420-square feet.

Sepulveda noted that the work on the exterior of the Southern will meet the U.S. Department of the Interior Standards for Historic Rehabilitation and those of the Texas Historical Commission. “We have limited photo evidence that dates back to 1909. We will come as close as we can to restoring the exterior to what it was,” he said.

The first step in the project, Sepulveda noted, is to abate asbestos and lead paint, and to remove the detritus of the structure’s most recent inhabitants – birds and bats.

“The wood-frame building will require re-enforcement. Selective demolition work will allow us to expand the size of the rooms to add kitchenettes; replace the old wooden stairways with enclosed-fire rated metal systems that meet safety standards and codes; create the opening for an ADA compliant elevator; and provide new efficient, code compliant electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems.” he continued, adding that he and his son Robert, also an architect, have been aware of the Southern’s potential since 2004 when the City’s then-Community Development director Cynthia Collazo asked the Sepulveda firm for a feasibility study.

“Nothing moved for years, but they are moving now. We are looking at completion in the spring of 2025. The plans include an exercise room, a lobby, a laundry facility, and an office. The exterior of the five storefronts that face Matamoros will be framed in wood and will have wooden doors. We will keep the pressed tin ceilings of the three storefront bays that were added after 1915,” Sepulveda said, adding, “We are honored to be part of a City project that provides affordable housing and that presents in its restored façade not only a look at the past, but also the City’s commitment to historic preservation.”

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A history of the Southern Hotel

The Southern Hotel, a three-story Victorian Commercial structure in the 1200 block of Matamoros Street, was among the community’s flagship hotels at the start of the 20th century. It is historically and architecturally significant as an example of the Victorian Commercial architecture that developed at the start of the 20th century when Laredo’s economy benefited from the development of agriculture, petroleum, and railroad-related industry.

Hotels like these served as a temporary home for the flood of workers that Laredo attracted in the boom years between the arrival of the railroads in 1881 and the emergence of the region’s oil and gas industry in the 1920s and 1930s. The Southern Hotel itself evolved as an outgrowth of its neighboring Hamilton Hotel in the “Roaring 20s.”

A large portion of the Southern Hotel’s structure (west one-third) dates to the original Hamilton Hotel and was constructed in 1889, probably with locally produced brick. Brick making became a major export industry for Laredo in the late 1880s.

The Jarvis Plaza area itself was the outskirts of town and considered unsuitable for family living until after 1886 when the International and Great Northern passenger station was anchored at the end of Matamoros Street. The nearby neighborhood of St. Peter’s soon evolved after the railroads began to bring a steady stream of passengers on buggies and later taxis up and down Matamoros Street. Railroad related industry brought many new families from throughout the world to Laredo’s doorstep and attracted entrepreneurs to invest in the town’s booming economy.

The original three-story Hamilton, constructed at a cost of $50,000, was the first major investment in this new part of town, followed by the federal courthouse. Additional rooms were added to the three-story structure, along Matamoros Street, and handsome Victorian storefronts were constructed for its southern façade between 1909 and 1925. Currently attached to the Hamilton’s east flank by a small retail hair products store, and facing south, the Southern Hotel was very much part of the larger hotel established by an entrepreneurial group of businessmen, including A.C. Hamilton in 1899.

By 1900, D.J. MacDonald became the proprietor of the most “Perfect and Palatial Hotel in the City.” By the end of its second decade, the Hamilton had outgrown its potential to serve the captains of the petroleum industry. Between 1923 and 1927, its ownership invested in a brand new Hamilton, a Spanish Colonial Revival high rise which currently dominates the block.

It was not until the “New Hamilton Hotel” was constructed that the Southern Hotel established its own identity. A portion of the original Hamilton, and a 1920’s addition were retained and incorporated into the Southern House, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Misener through the late 1950s. The storefronts during this period include the Southern Bar, operated by P.L. Clark, Laredo Steam Laundry, Roark Insurance Agency, and at the southeast corner, Wright’s Garage. The current Southern Hotel structure, although vacant for at least 20 years, indicates that it served continuously as a lodging house until its upper two floors were used to store inventory for its most recent owner’s automobile parts store.

Photographs of the Southern Hotel indicate that despite the lack of air conditioning, it took advantage of southerly breezes with balconies which opened to the street. Screen doors still attached to the doorways of its upper floors, allowed guests to maintain their privacy while allowing the breeze to circulate. During its early years, bathrooms were centrally located in the hallway, and in the winter, each room was warmed by a gas stove surrounded by a brick fireplace. In the 1930’s, each room was reduced by a small bathroom with its own free-standing tub and wash basin. Examples of both are still found in most of the rooms.

The desire of its previous owners, expressed in a 1980’s newspaper article, to return the Southern Hotel to its former glory as a fine hotel was never realized. It remains a fine architectural example of Laredo’s commercial boom of the 20th century and awaits its next incarnation.

(SOURCES: Laredo The Gateway Between The United States and Mexico, The Laredo Immigration Society, February 1, 1889.Laredo City Directories, 1900, 1920-21, 1923-34, 1935. Rebecca C. Sepulveda, Master’s Thesis, “St. Peter’s Neighborhood,” 2003.Webb County Heritage Foundation, Street File.)