From Luxury Hotel to Jail and Now Back to Hotel

Update:   The former Cabana Hotel (then the Bill Decker Detention Center) was recently sold to the Centurion Group with plans to restore the hotel to it's former glory.
   The Centurion Group is most know for it's redevelopment of the Statler Hotel.



The Original Post

   Every day from my studio, I can see the beautiful Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge (aka The Big Bent Pole) but I also see the Bill Decker Detention Center.


   Most people probably don't know that this jail was once a luxury hotel where the Beatles stayed on the one trip to Dallas.  Back in the 60s this was a rather upscale join known as the Cabana Motor Hotel. Doris Day was a one time owner. Raquel Welch once worked their as a cocktail waitress

   Enjoy a blast from the bast, The Cabana Motor Hotel, in more glamorous days.












News Story from December 12, 1984




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The Civil Rights Monument Built to Shadow over Fort Worth's KKK Hall





   Above, the Obelisk and final resting place of William McDonald, a prominent African American banker, civic and political leader in Fort Worth for the first part of the 20th Century.  


   Legend has it, that upon his passing, he wanted his monument to be seen from the front steps of Fort Worth's Ku Klux  Klan headquarters. A lasting memory for lifelong advisories. 

  Is the story true? 

  We know a few things are true. First of all, it was reported in a Fort Worth paper at the time of his passing, that McDonald had already chosen his gravesite before his death. 



  Secondly, the old Ku Klux Klan hall still sits on 1013 N. Main Street between downtown and the Stockyards. It has been decades since it was used for a Klan hall. Most remember it as headquarters for the Ellis Pecan Company. Today it's sits abandoned. 

The old Klan Hall on 1013 N. Main Street in Fort Worth. 

   If you stand on the front steps of the old hall, and look to the west, you can see the hill on which the Old Trinity Cemetery sits.  A number of trees have filled in the horizon since McDonald's death in 1950, but it is apparent that at one time, you could see the obelisk as your exited the hall. 

  To find the obelisk and the cemetery,  Use the address 502 Grand Avenue in Fort Worth  and look across the street. 


The Old Trinity Cemetery in Fort Worth 



The historic marker at McDonald's grave



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