JACKSON -- It turns out there is life after death for the old King Edward Hotel, for decades the home away from home for hundreds of the state's lawmakers.
Once a witty newspaper reporter wrote that there were actually three branches of the Mississippi Legislature "the Upper House, the Lower House and the Edwards House."
For years after it was built in 1923 the 12-story beige brick hostelry on Capitol Street was known as the "Edwards House" until its name was changed to the more regal King Edward.
Since the structurally-sound hotel was unceremoniously closed in 1968, the hotel building has stood as a gaunt remnant of a bygone era, playing host to an occasional hobo from the railroad tracks nearby and as a pigeon roost. This week the old hotel is being welcomed back after a near-miraculous rebirth.
Defying a legion of skeptics who believed it would never happen, the sturdy old box-shaped building with its tons of political memories, and its spacious grand lobby meticulously restored, is set to reopen.
Lawyer/developer David Watkins is the chief honcho of the hotel's restoration. With $84 million invested in the hotel's redo Watkins has saved the downtown landmark from the wrecking ball that was the fate in the 1970s of its former down-the-street rival, the baroque-style Heidelberg Hotel.
The box-shaped King Edward didnít have the exterior grace of the Heidelberg, but the Edward's spacious ornate lobby was always quite striking in its best days. The lobby's grandeur was marred when owners once decided to stick an escalator in the lobby to expedite getting to the second floor. Immediately, the escalator became a subject of controversy among old-line Jacksonians.
Noticeably, the escalator has disappeared in the restoration and the original gold-leaf cornices and swirls of the atrium have been carefully restored. It's hard to imagine that this princely space was where cigar-puffing legislators cut their deals on what would be the next day's agenda in the chambers of the Legislature. Hovering nearby would be lobbyists (far fewer then) eager to pick up the hotel tab of country legislators or put a bottle of whiskey in their room. By the way, the room rate back then was $2.00 a night.
Long-time House Speaker Walter Sillers, the courtly Delta baron, was noted for "holding court" each evening in the hotel lobby to plot mischief for his foes over at the Capitol. Memorable was the Sillers' "caucus" that derailed the historic effort by Gov. J. P. Coleman to hold a constitutional convention to overhaul the state's 1890 State Constitution.
The rebirth of the King Edward has raised hopes that it will reverse the decades-long decline of Jackson's downtown business area-and spark a new era of downtown development in the state's Capital city at a time when the state needs an economic boost. A significant part of the hotel's restoration project is the adding of several floors of upscale apartments in keeping with the trend in other metropolitan areas to provide small family housing in the downtown business district.
I recall in the late 1950s not long after the King Edward owners built the Crown Room ballroom adjacent to the hotel, Ronald Reagan, then on a national tour being sponsored by General Electric, packed the house with budding Republicans for one of his speeches on how America's free enterprise system's technology far excelled that of Soviet Russia. I remember a year later the USSR sent Sputnik into outer space, putting the U.S. in second place in space technology.
My, how times have changed.
Bill Minor of Jackson has observed state politics for 40 years.
