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 ref ...

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. Clarke, ...

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 busi ...

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 (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

next to the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrate ...

. 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. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...

in 1955 and operated for over three decades as the Shamrock Hilton, the facility endured financial struggles throughout its history. In 1985, Hilton Hotels donated the building to the Texas Medical Center and the structure was demolished on June 1, 1987.

Design and construction

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

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 measuring 165 (50m) by described as the world's biggest outdoor pool, which accommodated exhibition

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

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 Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874June 1, 1956) was an American Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumbery ...

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 was paneled in burled

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: Unive ...

with added trim heavily influenced by

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

, a design movement which had been popular during the 1920s and 30s. 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 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

, 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 countri ...

had reportedly been the third-largest in the US, 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 (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

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 large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

" (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 ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost pat ...

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 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 Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committ ...

, Robert Preston and

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

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 service, or C-75 in USAAF service) is an American stressed-skin four-engine low-wing tailwheel monoplane airliner derived from the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, which entered co ...

airplane which McCarthy had bought only days earlier from

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

.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 named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The streamliner claimed to be "The Train of the Stars" because of the various celebrities it carried between Chicago, Ill ...

. 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 American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

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 ...

'' 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 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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

pinup girl A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...

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 ...

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. Due to the numerous broadcast difficulties, Lamour reportedly fled the stage in tears. The ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in 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''. With it ...

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

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' 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 ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular ...

.'' 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 Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultz ...

hotel in

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

. 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 (carrier), porter (international), is a hotel employee who helps patrons with their luggage while check-in, checking in or out. Bellhops often wear a uniform (see bell-boy hat), like certain other Page (a ...

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, but may have other appliances. In some motel and hotel rooms, small apartments, college dormitories, or office buildings, a kitchenette consists of a small ref ...

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 broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

, 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), '' Ci ...

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

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

directed by

George Stevens George Cooper Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, film producer, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', March 12, 1975, page 79. Films he produced were nomi ...

). 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. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

. 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 (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January ...

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 (legally Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.) is an American multinational hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and resorts. Founded by Conrad Hilton in May 1919, the corporation is now led b ...

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 area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

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, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

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 Polyn ...

restaurant in Texas was launched at the Shamrock where it did business until after 1985. The hotel remained popular for Houston social events such as

debutante ball A debutante ball, sometimes called a coming-out party, is a formal ball that includes presenting debutantes during the season, usually during the spring or summer. Debutante balls may require prior instruction in social etiquette and appropriate ...

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

s and business meetings, continuing operations as the Shamrock Hilton until 1986, by which time even its local reputation had long since faded.

Demolition

During a severe local

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

in 1985 the 36-year-old hotel, still the second largest in Houston but by then in need of extensive refurbishing and refitting, was in effect donated to the Texas Medical Center. 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. The building was demolished 1 June 1987 (McCarthy died 18 months later) and the land was paved over as a surface parking lot, which it remains as of 2-16-2020. The

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 provid ...

, 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 ...

, has since been built on part of the site and, along with fountains and some landscaping on the northeast grounds, the hotel's multi-story parking garage was retained; however, the trademark green roof tiles were removed. The street in front of the former building was renamed from Shamrock Drive.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. "

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 skyscrapers Demolished buildings and structures in Houston