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The Elms Hotel


1888	First Elms Hotel formally opened July 4, 1888.
1889	Elms Annex built 1889.
circa 1890		Front view of one of the earlier Elms Hotel building with horses and buggies in front.	from 1890 advertisement in Kansas City Times
			from 1890 advertisement in Kansas City Times (Music Hall in the background)
1898	First Elms Hotel burned, May 9, 1898.
1908	Second Elms Hotel built 1908.

1909	Second Elms burned 1909
1909			Full frontal and side view of the third Elms Hotel building.

1912	Present Elms opened.	Lobby, New Elms Hotel
1917	The Elm Tree Inn Co and John Emmke proprietors
1900's?		Elms Hotel bus parked in front of the original Golf Course Club House (see: middle bus)
1926	Photo Source: 1926 The Excelsior p. 13 (High School Yearbook)
1930	F.F. Hagel bought the hotel and built a miniature golf course opposide the hotel.
1931	The Elms was infamous as well as famous in those wild days. Early one morning in November 1931 was one of the most intensive and exciting gun battles in Excelsior Springs' history. Bandits attempting to hold up the hotel escaped in a speeding car, followed close behind by a group of local law enforcement men dubbed the "shotgun squad". There was a gun battle in the hotel lobby and veranda, with bullets flattened against stone walls, breaking through windows, and denting cars. The four bandits were captured later in Kansas City, one of them wounded.
1932	The Elms was closed and put up for sale.
1933	Reopened in March 1933.
1948	Harry Truman was elected president while staying at the Elms Hotel.
1961	Elms declared bankruptcy and Sheraton-Midcontinent took over ownership.
1966	Sheraton sold the Elms to Gotham Hotels of New York.
1970	Gotham closed the hotel claiming a lack of bookings.
1973	In June a local group called the Elms Development Corporation bought the hotel. The hotel was never reopened because of nonpayment of taxes.
1976	Robert Bisbee, a Kansas City businessman, bought the Elms. By 1979 the hotel was reopened.