Roberts Hotel Explained

Roberts Hotel
Nrhp Type:cp
Nocat:yes
Location:420 S. High St., Muncie, Indiana
Coordinates:40.1903°N -85.3861°W
Architect:Nicol, Charles W.; Stoolman, A. W.
Architecture:Colonial Revival
Added:July 15, 1982
Refnum:82000034

Roberts Hotel is a historic hotel located at Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana. It was built in 1921, and is a six-story, Colonial Revival style steel-frame building sheathed in red brick with limestone detailing. The basement, first, and mezzanine floors measure 120 feet by 125 feet, where the second through sixth floors above are L-shaped. It has a flat roof behind a parapet. The hotel closed in 1972, but reopened in 1976.[1] The building has been renovated into loft apartments.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is located in the Walnut Street Historic District.

George Roberts, the hotel's proprietor, was a Jew who fled from Russia to the United States in the late 1890s, among others from his native village, in order to avoid being drafted into the Russian Czar's army. In Muncie, he also started and owned a dry goods store. George Roberts lost everything in the Depression, entered the oil business, then died of a heart attack in a tent in the oil fields of Tulsa, Oklahoma. His grandson is Henry Kravis.[2]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD) . Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology . Searchable database. 2015-08-01. Note: This includes Web site: National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Roberts Hotel . 2015-08-01. Larry Snyder. February 1982. and Accompanying photographs.
  2. Book: Burrough, Bryan, 1961-. Barbarians at the gate : the fall of RJR Nabisco. 1990. Harper & Row. Helyar, John, 1951-. 0-06-016172-8. New York. 132. 20491096.