Editor's desk: Hotel elevator 'Main' attraction

Clovis native Milburn Moore, 78, writes a blog — http://milmoore.blogspot.com/ — and often features memories of his hometown. As the city revs up for a reminiscent night of “dragging Main” this Saturday night, here’s a sampling of downtown memories from Moore’s blog readers:

• My dad was a charter member of the Clovis Rotary Club, which met at the Clovis Hotel at noon on Thursdays. I used to go there with him, and hung out in the fancy lobby. It made me feel like a big deal, while waiting for Daddy to come out of the Rotary meeting.

I even rode the elevator to the ninth floor once. Imagine nine stories tall in downtown Clovis.

— Wylie Dougherty, CHS Class of ’53

• My memories relating to the Hotel Clovis are limited. I remember the curio shop, and I believe there was a beauty shop and possibly a barber shop located there.

And the elevators were classy and sturdily built; they were quite possibly at that time the first and certainly the best in Clovis.

However, I never spent much time there as most of it was beyond my allowance/pocket money as a teenager. I more frequently was seen across Second Street at the Greyhound Bus Station restaurant, run by Mr. Asimos, or across Main Street at the Coney Island.

My parents usually took me to the Busy Bee on Saturdays. I can still remember the pool hall across the alley from the hotel. A lot of Santa Fe railroaders and some high school students used to enjoy the clicking of billiard balls there.

— Robert Stebbins, CHS Class of ’51

From the Editor’s Desk was compiled by Clovis News Journal Editor David Stevens. Contact him at: dstevens@cnjonline.com