Raleigh Building - Waco, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 31° 33.274 W 097° 08.078
14R E 677054 N 3492573
Ten story brick building erected in 1914
Waymark Code: WM152XR
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/04/2021
Views: 0
Baylor.edu"The Raleigh Building at 801 Austin Avenue was originally “The Riggins,” conceived and funded by James Wyatt Riggins, a former mayor and businessman of the city of Waco.
Roy E. Lane was the building’s architect and it is styled in the Chicago (architecture) school.
“The Riggins” opened to the public on August 1, 1914. The following year, this business venture caused J.W. Riggins to go bankrupt and lose his dream of owning and operating a first class hotel for the city.
Riggins projected the cost of his hotel would be about $300,000 but it ended up costing nearly $600,000. This included his life savings of over $200,000.
January 19, 1916, the Albert Pick Company of Chicago bought the Riggins for $350,000 and days later it became the Hotel Raleigh.
In its prime, it was one of the finest hotels in the southwest. In the 1940s it advertised that it had “250 completely modern guest rooms. Air-conditioned lobby, dining room, famous Purple Cow Coffee Shop. Most attractive hotel in Texas – $150,000 improvement program just completed.”
The facility stopped operating as a hotel in the early 1980s and remained vacant until its restoration and renovation in the middle of that decade.
The former Raleigh Hotel is now the Raleigh Building and is now a government facility that holds 300 employees who work for the State of Texas."