Conroe, TX: The Bluebird Courts Hotel
Address: 1000 N Frazier St, Conroe, TX 77301
Current Address of Original Bellhop Sign: Conroe Central Market - 225 N Thompson St
Opened: 1947
Status: Demolished in late 1970s/early 1980s
Elvis Date: August 1955
I Visited On: July 15, 2023
My experience
Heard the original bellhop sign was at the local antique mall, so I went by. I knew the hotel had been demolished decades before, so I asked a woman at the desk if she knew where the hotel stood and she told me. The Bluebird Courts Hotel was where a Family Dollar now stands. Looking at the building from the street, it is to the left of a Subway shop.
The history of The Bluebird Courts Hotel
The simple version:
Construction on the building began in 1946 and was completed in 1947 by A.H. “Whitey” and Rose Crouch. The hotel was made from stucco and had a flat roof, which caused a lot of leakage problems. By the mid-1960s, the hotel business had become too much for the elderly couple, so they sold it to Wallace Lampton and L.C. Shepard, Conroe businessmen. The mid-1960s also brought the building of a new highway (I-45), which took a lot of traffic away from the hotel; this development began the slow decline of the hotel, until it was finally demolished in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
The long version:
The brain behind The Bluebird Courts Hotel, A.H. “Whitey” Crouch (Abner Henry), was born in Kentucky in 1887 and traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, as a young man, where he worked on an ice wagon and operated a street car. His cousin, Charlie, convinced him to head for Texas and Oklahoma and seek fortune in the oil industry. Along the way, he met a woman named Rose in Henrietta, TX and they got married in 1916. Soon after, Abner began working in the energy industry on the pipeline-side, and Wayne (Abner’s grandson) said he owned his own pipeline company during the late 1920s and 1930s. Abner and Rose bought 1,500 acres of what would soon become much of Lake Conroe in 1939, and the other section, the Seven Coves Subdivision.
Following WWII, Abner wanted to open a hotel in Conroe, and although he picked a prime location on Conroe’s main road, he picked a poor time to build and materials were in short supply from the war. Construction started in 1946 on a 28-unit hotel that took up most of a city block. The hotel was built with stucco and had a flat roof, which caused a lot of leakage problems. Regardless, in 1955, when Elvis stopped by, The Bluebird Courts Hotel was considered a premier hotel in Conroe, TX.
The hotel was co-owned and managed by their daughter, Wynabell, and son-in-law, Earl Inglet, until their deaths in November 1958. By the mid-1960s, the hotel had become too much for Abner and Rose Crouch, and so they sold it to Wallace Lampton and L.C. Shepard, Conroe businessmen. At this point, the new highway (I-45), was recently completed or soon-to-be and much of the traffic was taken away from the road in front of the Bluebird Hotel and it was the beginning of a slow decline for the property. With the new freeway in the mid-1960s and the completion of Lake Conroe in 1973 (a spot for Houstonians to come for the weekend), the end was pretty much guaranteed.
A woman named Madame Rose, has a website of her memories, one of them is from the 1970s, when The Bluebird Courts Hotel had declined quite a bit and was close to being demolished. Her post is as follows:
So many memories of Conroe in the late 1960s and 1970s. Here is one from my memory collection about The Blue Bird Courts. In 1966, my parents moved to Conroe. About 1972 or 1973, they purchased a house on Oak Hollow. This was on the opposite of Frazier Street, but one had to pass The Blue Bird Courts to turn left to get to Oak Hollow Subdivision. It became a standing joke between me, my sister, and our mother – “Let’s go see what the lobby of The Blue Bird Court looks like. Do you really think it is a whorehouse?” (my mother, can you believe?) or “Let’s see if we recognize any cars at The Blue Bird Courts.”
As some may recall, my dear mother passed away in 1975. My dear Aunt Claudie and Aunt Dargie cared for her in her last days. On the day she passed away, Aunt Claudie said that she and Dargie and their husbands, Uncle Ralph and Uncle Horn, respectively were going to go to a motel to rest, as our house would become busy. Aunt Claudie said “We’re just going to go over here and rent a couple of rooms at The Blue Bird Courts.” I started, “OH, Aunt Claudie, that place is…” My sister put her hand on my arm and shhhed me. She then said, “Well, if that place is not suitable, there is a brand-new Holiday Inn on South Frazier.” And out the door the aunts and uncles went.
I looked at my sister and realized what she had done. (I know, I am blaming this all on you, D!) “You did that on purpose, didn’t you? So we could hear about The Blue Courts?”
About 10 minutes later, the aunts and uncles were back at our house. Aunt Claudie and Aunt Dargie were all flustered and saying things like, “Oh no!” “Oh, it did not look clean,” “It did not look safe,” and my all-time favorite, “The lobby was lavender!” My Uncle Horn, who was quite the rounder, even said, “Yep, even I was scared.” So off to the Holiday Inn they went.
My sister and I laughed and said, “Well, we know the color of the lobby.” I am sure we could hear mother laughing, too.
Now, as far as the only known surviving part of the hotel goes, (as stated above) the original waving bellhop sign is now at the Conroe Central Market / antique mall in the historic downtown. The appearance is as it was when the hotel closed, with the exception of one thing… the waving arm. Simply put, the waving arm was broken and has been repaired–that brings us to another story. Mike Canada, the current owner of the sign, says this is how the sign broke:
My friend Ken Kennedy had his motorcycle at the Oasis Drive Inn and his friend wanted to ride it. He told his friend it was too big of a bike for him. Eventually, he gave in and let him ride it up the street. The rider crashed right into the Blue Bird Courts bellhop sign, bending the arm back.
Canada’s brother, David, fixed the arm, but the dent is still visible.
*The back of the hotel postcard, reads: 28 Units - 28 Private Shower Baths Clean, Air-Cooled, Panel-Ray Heated Units. Located on U. S. Hwy 75 at North End of Conroe, Texas. Phone 656. A. H. (Whitey) Crouch, Managing-owner.
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