INMONROE-L Archives

From: Randi Richardson <>
Subject: [INMONROE] Hotels in Bloomington in 1934: Tourner; Bowles, Graham, Pullman, Lincoln
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 09:11:37 -0500

SOURCE: Scrapbook, Bloomington History--News clippings, World Telephone,
1934, p. 11. Included as part of Local History Microfilm, Roll 1, Monroe
County Public Library. NOTE: this article was about 20 column inches. I
have abstracted it herein because it is still under copyright.

...Some fifteen years ago the town had two hotels vying for supremacay. Of
these two, the Tourner Hotel, still operated by Preston C. Gilliatt, is not
much changed outwardly, but is has actually undergone a complete
modernization inside so that it is well able to take care of the more
sophisticated tastes of today's travelers.

Some ten years ago Bloomington started to grow faster than its hotels could
keep pace it seemed. To correct this situation the Pullman Hotel of 35
rooms, now operated by Rollin S. Hart, was constructed and almost at the
same time the Lincoln Hotel of 30 rooms, now operated by J. H.
Poling. William Graham then purchased the old Bowles Hotel and made it
modern throughout and added 35 rooms to it. These three ventures almost
doubled the hotel capacity of Bloomington as of a few years before.

But Bloomington was coming into the estate of a real city so Preston C.
Gilliatt conceived the idea of a large modern hotel to meet its
needs. From this idea developed the present new half-million dollar Graham
Hotel, the opening of which brought a new higher standard of hotel
conveniences and service to the travelers...

With so many new homes constructd without spare bedrooms, it is a great
comfort to know that your guests can be accomodated at the Graham Hotel in
large well appointed rooms with the finest of beds and the best of
equipment and at such a resonable charge, too.

Evidence of the recognition of Bloomington's hotel facilities can no better
be shown than by the number of conventions which have been brought here in
the last few years...The Graham Hotel is now equipped to serve over five
hundred people at one time in five different dining rooms and can easily
provide the best of sleeping accomodations for at least three hundred
people. It is because of the items set out above and the gracious
management of Mr. and Mrs. Gilliatt that Bloomington has become known all
over the state as "The Convention City."

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• [INMONROE] Hotels in Bloomington in 1934: Tourner; Bowles, Graham, Pullman, Lincoln by Randi Richardson <>