The Shamrock was a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

constructed between 1946 and 1949 by

wildcatter A wildcatter is an individual who drills wildcat wells, which are exploration oil wells drilled in areas not known to be oil fields. Notable wildcatters include Glenn McCarthy, Thomas Baker Slick Sr., Mike Benedum, Joe Trees, Clem S. Clark ...

Glenn McCarthy Glenn Herbert McCarthy (December 25, 1907 – December 26, 1988) was an American oil tycoon. The media often referred to him as "Diamond Glenn" and "The King of the Wildcatters". McCarthy was an oil prospector and entrepreneur who owned many bus ...

southwest of

downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45 ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

next to the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a List of neighborhoods in Houston, neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States. It is immediately south of the Houston Museum District, Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 6 ...

. It was the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events ever held in Houston.Staff Writer.
Houston Remember When, Vol. 1
." ''Houston PBS.'' Accessed November 29, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-29. Sold to

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton Worldwide. The original company was founded by Conrad Hi ...

in 1955 and operated for over three decades as the Shamrock Hilton, the facility endured financial struggles throughout its history. Hilton Hotels sold the hotel to the Texas Medical Center in 1985 and was demolished in 1987. The former hotel site is now campus locations for Texas A&M

Institute of Biosciences and Technology The Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT), a component of Texas A&M Health, and The Texas A&M University System, is located in the world's largest medical center, the Texas Medical Center, in Houston, Texas. The institute provi ...

and DeBakey High School for the Health Professions.

Design and construction

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

architect Wyatt C. Hedrick, the eighteen-story building with a green tile pitched roof and 1,100 rooms was conceived by McCarthy as a city-sized hotel scaled for conventions with a resort atmosphere. The hotel was located in a suburban area three miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Houston at the acute southwest corner of Main Street and Bellaire Boulevard (West Holcombe Boulevard after 1963). At the time, this was on the fringes of countryside and was meant to be the first phase of a much larger indoor shopping and entertainment complex called McCarthy Center, anchored alongside the planned Texas Medical Center. At the hotel's north side was a five-story building containing a 1,000-car garage and exhibition hall. To the south was the hotel's lavishly landscaped garden designed by Ralph Ellis Gunn, a terrace and an immense swimming pool, meeting Olympic specifications, measuring 165 (50m) by described as the world's biggest outdoor pool, which accommodated exhibition

water skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

and featured a 3-story-high diving platform with an open spiral staircase. Construction was completed for about $21,000,000 (equivalent to over $200,000,000 in 2007). Politician and entrepreneur Jesse H. Jones privately warned McCarthy that business travelers would be reluctant to stay at a hotel three miles south from downtown Houston. Hotel industry executives flatly warned McCarthy the project would not be profitable. He publicly replied, "I went into the oil business in 1933 when everybody said I was a damn fool. Now they're saying it again about my hotel." The lobby fabricated in highly figured Honduras

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Universit ...

sourced from a single log and with added trim heavily influenced by

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

, a design movement which had been popular during the 1920s and 30s, was manufactured by local Millworker, Brochsteins Inc., who also fabricated the millwork for the Shamrock Room, The Cork Club, and the Emerald Room. They also designed and fabricated the interiors of the Men's shop and the Smart Shop. McCarthy ordered furnishings and decor in 63 shades of

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

, a nod to his ancestral Ireland. Hedrick's

architectural firm In the United States, an architectural firm or architecture firm is a business that employs one or more licensed architects and practices the profession of architecture; while in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark and other countr ...

reportedly had been the third-largest in the U.S., however his conservative design for the building's exterior along with its lavish interiors by Robert D. Harrell of Los Angeles drew wide criticism, notably from

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

who while being shown the completed facility before it opened, pointed at the lobby ceiling and said to Fay Jones, "That, young man, is an example of the effects of venereal disease on architecture." Wright also called the Shamrock "an imitation

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

" (which had been completed ten years earlier). McCarthy claimed the decor represented "the best of all periods." Time magazine described it as "

eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...

." The building's structural design has since been characterized as "more robust and sturdy than sleek and futuristic."

Historic grand opening

The hotel opened with fireworks displays on

St. Patrick’s Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...

1949. Two thousand Houstonians paid $42 a person to have dinner at what was widely publicized as “Houston’s biggest party" which cost an estimated one million dollars. The party was attended by over 150

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

celebrities including

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

Hedda Hopper Elda Furry (May 2, 1885February 1, 1966), known professionally as Hedda Hopper, was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, more than 35 million people read her columns. A strong supporter of the Hous ...

, Robert Preston and

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...

along with noted Los Angeles business executives and reporters, some of whom were flown in to Houston International Airport on a customized

Boeing 307 Stratoliner The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner (or Strato-Clipper in Pan American Airways, Pan American service, or C-75 in United States Army Air Forces, USAAF service) is an American stressed-skin four-engine low-wing Conventional landing gear, tailwheel mo ...

airplane which McCarthy had bought only days earlier from

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...

.Staff Writer.
Houston’s Aviation History Timeline
." ''The Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society.'' Retrieved on 2006-11-26. Many more were brought in by train on a chartered Santa Fe

Super Chief The ''Super Chief'' was one of the List of named passenger trains, named train, passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The then-modern streamliner was touted in its heyday as "The Train of the Stars" b ...

. With a crowd estimated at 50,000 gathering outside the hotel, newspaper boys dressed in

black tie Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and North American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal ...

handed out commemorative editions of the ''

Houston Post The ''Houston Post'' was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper shut down, and its assets were purchased by the ''Houston Chronicle''. History Gail Borden Johnson founded the ''Houston P ...

'' as guests arrived that evening. The party became very overcrowded, with three thousand people milling in the hotel's public areas, a thousand more than had been foreseen. Houston mayor

Oscar F. Holcombe Oscar Fitzallen Holcombe (December 31, 1888 – June 18, 1968) was an American businessman who served as the mayor of Houston, Texas, for 22 years, in 11 non-consecutive terms. Biography Holcombe was born in Mobile, Alabama, and raised in San A ...

and his wife sat in a hallway for two hours after his chair was stolen. "It was the worst mob scene I have ever witnessed," Holcombe said later. The festivities became so raucous that a radio broadcast from the hotel by actress, singer and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

pinup girl A pin-up model is a model whose mass-produced pictures and photographs have wide appeal within the popular culture of a society. Pin-up models are usually glamour, actresses, or fashion models whose pictures are intended for informal and aesthe ...

Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the ''Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing C ...

was cut off by the network; assuming he was off-air, NBC audio engineer Raoul Murphy uttered an expletive heard live nationwide and dead air greeted the audience for a very long twenty seconds. The ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

'' society editor wrote that the event was "bedlam in diamonds". ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' called it "...the most dazzling exhibition of evening dresses and big names ever seen in Texas. Everyone had to concede it was quite a party and quite a hotel." The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events in Houston’s history.Stephen Fox.
Shamrock Hotel
" ''

Handbook of Texas Online The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

.'' Accessed November 29, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.

Operation

The Shamrock initially had a staff of 1,200 managed by George Lindholm, who had been recruited from the socially prominent

Waldorf-Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Street (Manhattan), 50th Streets, is a 47-story ...

hotel in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. There were 23 different employee uniforms. Guests signed the register in "grass-hued" green ink and their luggage was carried by

bellhop A bellhop (North America), or hotel porter (international), is a hotel employee who helps patrons with their luggage while checking in or out. Bellhops often wear a uniform, like certain other page boys or doormen. This occupation is also know ...

s wearing emerald green, lemon trimmed uniforms past a portrait of McCarthy in the elevator lobby to air-conditioned, green-hued rooms each with generously framed abstract art on the walls, push-button radios (including recorded music from an elaborate in-house system through which an operator played extended-length phonographic records) and television, all somewhat rare amenities for a hotel at the time. Over a third of the rooms had

kitchenette A kitchenette is a small cooking area, which usually has a refrigerator and a microwave oven, but may have other appliances - for example a sink. They are found in studio apartments, some motel and hotel rooms, college dormitories, office buildings ...

s. Celebrity singers (including Lamour) performed in the hotel's nightclub, called the Emerald Room. From 1949 to 1953 the Shamrock hosted a network radio program called ''Saturday at the Shamrock'' carried by the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...

, then the only nationally broadcast scripted radio program produced outside New York or Los Angeles. However the Shamrock soon began experiencing persistent problems with occupancy rates and was seldom if ever full. McCarthy had spent lavishly, then borrowed heavily against his assets (including the hotel) to leverage a series of risky investments and his cash reserves quickly dwindled. Within a year Lindholm quietly resigned. In 1952 McCarthy defaulted on a loan and the hotel was acquired by Equitable Life Assurance Society. That same year author

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...

described the Shamrock as the "Conquistador" in her novel ''Giant'' (and it was later briefly featured in the 1956

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

directed by

George Stevens George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''A Place in the Sun (1951 film), A Place in the Sun'' (1951) ...

). Despite financial troubles the resort-like Shamrock with its restaurants, bars and swank shops had become a popular gathering place for local society and was characterized as "Houston's Riviera" during the early 1950s. The Shamrock's private and sleek Cork Club was noted as the site of many oil deals (and reportedly, fist fights), along with performances by singer

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

. In 1953 singer Patty Andrews of the

Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (1911–1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (1916–1995), and mezz ...

launched her brief solo career in the hotel's still somewhat fashionable Emerald Room nightclub.

Shamrock Hilton

In 1954 the

Hilton Hotels Corporation Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is an American multinational hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels, resorts, and timeshare properties. Founded by Conrad Hilton in May 1919, the company is now led by Christ ...

assumed management of the hotel and bought the property at a discount from its construction costs in 1955 but also struggled to find a profitable model for the huge facility, later shown to be isolated from both downtown Houston and its growing system of

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

s. Moreover, the Shamrock was overwhelmed by competition from many much smaller, cheaper and automobile-friendly

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the Parking lot, parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central Lobby (room), lo ...

s. A low two-story "lanai" wing in the form of a motel was added next to the swimming pool in 1957. Meanwhile, affluent

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an home buyers bypassed the area and the planned shopping and entertainment center was never built (although McCarthy's concept influenced the successful

Houston Galleria The Galleria, stylized theGalleria and also known as the Houston Galleria, is an upscale mixed-use urban development and shopping mall located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas, United States.Trader Vic's Trader Vic's is a restaurant and tiki bar chain headquartered in Emeryville, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. (December 10, 1902 in San Francisco – October 11, 1984 in Hillsborough, California) founded a chain of Polynes ...

restaurant in Texas was launched at the Shamrock where it did business until after 1985.

Closure and demolition

By 1985, the 36-year-old hotel, which was still the second largest in Houston, was in need of extensive refurbishing and refitting. In March 1986, a protest rally was held by historic preservationists including McCarthy, and the hotel opened its last annual St. Patrick's Day party to the public. That evening, some people who had been at the opening night party in 1949 reportedly attended a semi-formal event in the hotel's Emerald Room. A few employees had been with the hotel since its first year of operation. Following its closure in July 1986, the hotel was sold to the Texas Medical Center for $14.9 million, who at that point were undecided on whether to renovate or demolish the building. Artefacts and furnishings were sold off piece by piece and by August 1986, around 40% had been sold. The hotel was demolished on June 1, 1987.

Redevelopment

The Albert B. Alkek Institute of Biosciences and Technology Building, a component of the

Texas A&M Health Science Center Texas A&M Health, also known as Texas A&M University Health, and Texas A&M University Health Science Center, is the medical education component of Texas A&M University, and offers health professions research, education and patient care in dentistr ...

, was constructed on the former north gardens of the hotel in 1992. The $67 million

DeBakey High School for Health Professions Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions is a medical secondary school located in the Medical Center area of Houston, Texas, United States. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District. It has been named the number one ...

was constructed on the original site of the hotel structure in 2017. Along with fountains and some landscaping on the northeast grounds, the hotel's multi-story parking garage has been retained, but the trademark green roof tiles have been removed. Shamrock Drive, the street in front of the hotel, was renamed to Pressler Street.Staff Writer.
Gone but not forgotten: 25 years of city memories
" ''Houston Business Journal.'' Written September 27, 1996. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.

Residents

Maxine Mesinger Maxine Mesinger, born Maxine Ethel David (December 19, 1925 - January 19, 2001Pugh, Clifford. (). ''Houston Chronicle'' at the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''. Friday January 19, 2011. Retrieved on November 20, 2011.) was a celebrity gossip columnist ...

and her familyFeldman, Claudia.
Auction set for Chron columnist Mesinger's mementoes
" ''

''. October 8, 2013. Retrieved on October 9, 2013. "In the midst of those glory days, the Mesinger family lived at the old Shamrock Hilton Hotel, and Jay Mesinger remembers his childish delight in pitched tents by the side of the enormous hotel pool and the joy of calling room service for his friends."

Programs/Menus

1949-04-30 The Pine Grill.jpg, The Pine Grill Menu cover (circa April 1949) 1949-04-30 The Pine Grill-menu.jpg, The Pine Grill Menu (inside, circa April 1949) 1949-07-01 The Pine Grill.jpg, The Pine Grill Menu cover (circa July 1949) 1949-07-01 The Pine Grill menu.jpg, The Pine Grill Menu (inside, circa July 1949) First Anniversary Saint Patrick's Day celebration.jpg, First Anniversary Saint Patrick's Day celebration (1950) First Anniversary Saint Patrick's Day celebration - Entertainment and menu.jpg, First Anniversary Saint Patrick's Day celebration - Entertainment featuring Dinah Shore (1950) First Anniversary Saint Patrick's Day celebration - message from Glen McCarthy.jpg, First Anniversary Saint Patrick's Day celebration - message from Glen McCarthy (1950) Menu 1951-06-13.jpg, Shamrock Hotel, The Pine Grill menu cover featuring guest General Douglas MacArthur - 6-14-1951 The Shamrock The Pine Grill.jpg, The Shamrock Hotel, The Pine Grill menu cover (circa 1949–1975) The Shamrock The Pine Grill menu.jpg, The Shamrock Hotel, The Pine Grill menu (inside, circa 1949–1975)

References

Burrough, Bryan Bryan Burrough (born August 13, 1961, in Memphis, TN) is an American journalist and author of eight books, including four New York Times best-sellers, the Wall Street classic ''Barbarians at the Gate'' (with John Helyar); ''Public Enemies: Amer ...

. "

The Big Rich ''The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes'' is the fifth book by Bryan Burrough, published in 2009. The book tells the story of four Texas oil men and their families that made large fortunes in the oil industry: Hugh Roy ...

: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes. Penguin Press, New York, 2009.

External links

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, ''Glenn McCarthy’s car at Shamrock Hotel'' (photo)

Dozens of photographs taken at the working hotel in 1949

The Shamrock Hotel Collection at the University of Houston Digital Library

Excerpt from the HoustonPBS documentary In Search of Houston History, 18 Oct 2008
{{good article Hotel buildings completed in 1949 Skyscraper hotels in Houston History of Houston Buildings and structures demolished in 1987 Demolished hotels in the United States 1949 establishments in Texas 1987 disestablishments in Texas Hotels established in 1949 Defunct hotels in Texas Former skyscraper hotels Demolished buildings and structures in Houston