Hotel Cuba

509 E. North Main St.
Phone:

East < GO > West

The Hotel Cuba started out as the Palace Hotel, reportedly in 1915. But that 1915 date may be a little fuzzy, there's a bunch of local newspaper clipping about a Palace Hotel in Cuba up to 1885 and then nothing until 1919 when Edw. Mulligan sold his Grand Hotel, also in Cuba, and bought the Palace. Mulligan only owned the hotel for a few years.

By July of 1924 Wm. Gray was the sole owner of the Palace having just bought out his partner Gus Abels. When the partnership of Abels and Gray became owners of the hotel is unclear.

At any rate, the first Palace Hotel on this site was torn down in 1926 and replaced by a new version which opened in 1927. The new hotel 30 room was built by the Roberts-Judson Lumber Company for Wm. Gray.

That lasted until 1934 when the hotel sold at auction for $8,100.00 about half its construction cost and shortly after closed briefly during the Great Depression.

After reopening the hotel went through at least two news set of owners before becoming the Hotel Cuba. Those owners were Lawrence Winter in 1938 who refurbished the rooms and bought new furniture. Then in 1939 he sold the place to R. A. Moll, who changed the name to the Pla-Mor Hotel.

In 1940 another set of new owners, the Livingston's, changed the name to Hotel Cuba. It continued to operate as a hotel at least into the 1960s or 70s, but by 1952 was renting rooms for $7.00 a week. Sometime after that it apparently became an apartment building.

It wasn't just the depression that brought on the business distress in the 1930s though. This was during a time when the public was switching from rail to automobile travel and in 1934 the hotel was still by the railroad depot and not the main highway. When Missouri State Highway 14 was designated Route 66 in 1926 it meant that the hotel was a block off the main road through town.

It wasn't until the new owners in 1940 took over that the hotel added on-site guest parking, a new north lobby and signage facing Route 66. That's odd because it seems very likely that the hotel owned the land facing 66 since 1920, it came up for sale in 1920, the year after Mulligan bought the hotel.

The hotel name is still, but just barely visible on the south end of the building.

Here's a look at the new north entrance the hotel built when Route 66 opened in 1926. As much as possible it fairly closely duplicates the design of the original south entrance.

The new parking lot occupied a good sized portion of what is now lawn between the building and the highway. Today it;s just a few parking spots along Clay Street next to the hotel.

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Vintage Advertising Highlights

(Front of card)
HOTEL CUBA - HIGHWAY 66 - CUBA, MO.

(Back of card)
STEAM HEATED AND
AIR COOLED ROOMS
PHONE NO. CUB9 , MO.
FOR RESERVATIONS

NOTE: OK, they didn't exactly brag the place up too much on this post card. It does give a peek at the sign on Route 66 though. The cars illustrated in the image appear to be from the late 1930s to the early 1940s.
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Photo(s): 2018