From the Archives: The Carroll Hotel

The opening of the Carroll Hotel on Oct. 10, 1893, almost didn’t happen.

A stock company composed of leading citizens of Vicksburg was formed in 1890 for the purpose of raising funds necessary to build a new Vicksburg hotel. The company, headed by E. C. Carroll, hired architect Thomas Sully, a principal in the New Orleans firm of Sully, Toledano and Patton, to design the building that would eventually be located on Clay Street, on the southeast corner of Walnut. The construction was advertised for bids throughout the southeast with the firm of Jackson and Helbert from Chattanooga winning with a low bid of $80,000, after taking $8,000 off of their original bid after it was decided that the brick could be made in Vicksburg instead of being shipped in from elsewhere.

The Carroll Hotel Walnut Street entrance in 1936. (Courtesy of Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.)

By late in 1891, the project was in trouble and the hotel company had a new builder, Robert Morrison. An inspection of the progress by Sully in January 1892 resulted in the rejection of “office furniture, railing, counter, etc. put in by a Birmingham, Alabama firm, as unsatisfactory and will not be received.” Cost overruns continued to plague the project and in 1893 the stock company was in default and the incomplete building was advertised in a trustee’s sale to be held on April 18. The members rallied, however, selling bonds to investors in New Orleans on April 15, and the sale was averted.

The Carroll Hotel, circa 1900. (Courtesy of Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.)

Work continued and the hotel bar was the first to open on Sep. 22, 1893. The newspaper reported that the bar, located in the southwest corner of the hotel, has a “massive elegant antique oak bar with great bevel plate mirror in the alcove of the bar, decorated with samples of rare wines and liquors, and a profusion of the finest cut glass and silverware.” The hotel’s billiard hall then opened, followed by the rest of the hotel, named the Carroll Hotel after the president of the stock company, on Oct. 10.

The Herald reported that the hotel was “modern, systematic, and up to date” with “large and airy rooms, passenger and freight elevators, electric bells, city gas, river water, and steam heat all through.” The first floor on Clay Street was divided up into small retail spaces, similar to the Hotel Vicksburg when it was built on the opposite corner. In 1896, those spaces were occupied by the Vicksburg Electric Light Company, J. J. Weimer Shaving Saloon, Thomas Mount Life Insurance, and J. Eisloeffel, a tailor.

The Carroll Hotel, in 1963. (Courtesy of Nancy Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.)

Architect Thomas Sully was born in Mississippi City, MS, the son of a cotton merchant. He studied in New Orleans, Austin, TX, and New York City and opened his office in New Orleans in 1881. He became one of the most prominent Louisiana architects of the late 19th century. The Carroll Hotel was called the Jefferson Davis Hotel by 1954. It was demolished in 1967 and the parking structure that is currently on the site was constructed. Nancy H. Bell, Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.