NRHP Nomination Form"Built in 1928 on the northern edge of the central business district at the corner
of N. Main Street and Barton Avenue, the Kyle Hotel was and remains today
one of Temple's only high-rise buildings. The block had been residential at the
turn of the century. Austin architect George Louis Walling designed the 13-
story-plus-basement hotel in the Mediterranean and Pueblo styles. The hotel is a
three-part vertical block building with three distinct vertical zones. L. H. Lacey
& Co. of Dallas received the construction contract with Temple resident Ben
Love serving as construction superintendent. The cost of the project including
land, building and furnishings was about $500,000. When it opened, the hotel
was a first-class establishment managed by the prestigious Baker chain. The
Kyle Hotel had a barbershop, beauty salon, coffee shop, roof garden, laundry,
valet tailoring services, banquet hall, and a presidential suite with porch.
The Kyle Hotel was built as a direct result of the 1920s growth at Scott and
White Hospital. Dr. Arthur C. Scott played a pivotal role in the hotel's
construction, persuading W. W. Kyle of Beaumont Texas, to help finance
construction by purchasing $75,000 in hotel stock. In 1927, Scott transferred ownership of Lot 1, Block 6, in central
Temple to the newly formed Temple Hotel Corporation. Scott believed the presence of a first-class hotel would benefit
commercial interests of Temple as well as the Scott and White Hospital.
Scott and White Hospital leased the upper floors for hotel accommodations for families of patients and outpatient care.
Financial difficuhies and low hotel occupancy resulted in change of hotel management in 1933. Scott and White Hospital
continued to use the Kyle Hotel throughout the 1930s and 1940s. By 1951 the hotel was known as the Kyle Hotel
Convalescent Center. In I960 the main floor banquet facilities were enlarged by demolishing a patio with fountain. In
1963, Scott and White Hospital moved to its new complex in south Temple. In the 1960s, with hotel occupancy on the
decline and Scott and White Hospital farther away, the building was converted to apartments and public space was rented
to civic and social groups.
Brudge Kyle, closed the hotel in 1974. In 1979, he sold the hotel to investors from Walker County. By 1981 the lending
agency repossessed the property. The Temple Kyle Partnership, Ltd., bought the building in 1989 and converted it to
retirement apartments. Working with local architect Robert Weaver and local contractor Bob Lowe Construction
Company, and utilizing the Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program, work was completed in 1991. The building was listed in
the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 (Strong 1993).
The building is architecturally and historically significant to the district as an example of an architect-designed high-rise
hotel built during Temple's heyday. It has not undergone exterior additions or alterations. It retains integrity of location,
design, workmanship, materials, setting, feeling, and association.