Elaborate Toltec Club Society’s Gathering
Place in
Early Days
The El Paso Times, June 22, 1952, p.32
By Bob Chapman
Those were the days of the nickel beer, with a free
lunch thrown in.
The customer who spent as much as five cents for a
glass of beer—standard price in those time—was
entitled to size up the large assortment of cold
food stuffs and help himself. The layout resembled
the stock in better delicatessen stores.
The man who wasn’t bothered by any qualms of
conscience could stand before the food counter,
holding a glass of beer where everybody could see
it, and stuff himself.
Then, there were the timid soul who believed that,
for $2 worth o free eats, he should, at least, spend
more than a nickel for beer. So, he gave the
bartender another nickel for a second glass,
loosened his belt and waddled back to the food.
This was also the era of swanky society affairs,
attended by men in “tails,” or otherwise they were
excluded, and women in evening gowns with long
trains. Parties in those days meant format attire.
Those who “belonged” abided by the rules and
regulations.
A half century has flitted by since the heyday
period. The wheels of progress that have been
rolling along all these 50 years have long since
crushed out the nickel beer and free lunch. Women
still turn out in formal gowns, but the present-day
male escort too frequently contributes a sour note
by tagging along in a business suit.
High society here started to flourish when El Paso
wasn’t much more than a dusty adobe village. Dawned
1902 and civic leaders, pioneer city builders, got
together and unanimously decided to have a select
and exclusive club. Thus, the old Toltec Club came
into existence.
George Hitt, a contractor and former city alderman,
and Ed Pennebaker, who was in the real estate and
building business, erected a three-story red brick
building on Texas Street and leased it to the club.
The site, opposite the Popular Dry Goods Co., is the
Texas Street side of the structure of F. W.
Woolworth Co.
ELABORATE OUTLAY
In keeping with the architectural style of El Paso’s
early hotels, there was a wide veranda running he
entire length of the second floor. The frontage of
the building on Texas Street was 60 feet. The club
took over the second and third floors. An ornamental
stairway, in the center of the building on Texas
Street led to the club quarters. In the ground floor
space on the alley side was a Chinese Restaurant.
There was a dumb waiter which operated from the
restaurant to the club rooms.
On the west side of the stairway on the first floor
was a bar—saloon, it was called—and therein were all
kinds of drinks, including nickel beers and free
lunches. the best whisky was 15 cents a drink and
the customer poured his own.
Incorporators of the Toltec were Britton Davis, J.
A. Eddy, A. P. Coles, W. W. Turney, C. N. Tibbits,
U. S. Stewart, Feliz Martinez, C. W. Kendrick, W. G.
Choate, T. M. Wingo, J. G. Hilzinger and William H.
Burges.
Application for the charter was filed Nov 18, 1902,
the following day, John G. Todd, then secretary of
state, affixed his official seal.
Annual dues for resident members amounted to $50 and
&25 for non-resident members.
Britton Davis, first president of the club,
1902-1904, was an old Indian fighter. He was an Army
lieutenant and with contingents that chased old
Chief Geronimo over the Southwest territory and into
Mexico. He was reputed to be the first white man to
cross the Sierra Madre range, east to west.
Other early presidents were A. P. Coles, pioneer
realtor, 1904-05; W. W. Turney, attorney, banker,
prominent cattleman and state senator, 1905-06;
Peyton F Edwards, early settler ands lawyer; John
Franklin, member of the law firm of Hawkins &
Franklin, attorneys for the old El Paso &
Southwestern Railroad, 1970-09; W. H. Burges,
brilliant attorney, 1909-10; Henry S Beach,
outstanding businessman and importer, 1910-12. The
store and gift shop at 104 Pioneer Plaza still bears
his name.
The list of officers and members of the Toltec Club
is a roster including names of men among them the
pioneers who did the work and laid the foundation
for El Paso to become what it is today, Queen City
of the Southwest.
There was Zach T. White, who gave residents gas
lights to replace kerosene lamps, then electric
lights, and street cars. He also built Hotel Paso
del Norte. Harwood J Simmons, general manager of the
EP & SW, who with Frank Powers once owned The El
Paso Times. Charles W. Kindrick, New Orleans
newspaper man who came here for his health and later
was appointed American consul in Juarez.
RAIL BUILDERS
The Eddy Brothers, Charles B and J Arthur, who built
the El Paso & Northeastern Railroad from El Paso to
Santa Rosa; the rail line from Tucumcari to Dawson,
thriving coal mining center for some years; the
branch line from Carrizozo to Capitan, also a
one-time coal mining area, and the scenic railroad
from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft, regarded as a
considerable engineering feat. It was built,
primarily, to haul out lumber from the Sacramento
Mountains, but passengers trains were also operating
on the line. Both the Capitan and Cloudcroft lines
have since been abandoned. All these places are in
New Mexico.
In 1904, the old El Paso & Southwestern bought the
EP & NE, Capitan and Cloudcroft lines from the Eddys.
The Southern Pacific Lines got these holdings when
it took over the EP & EW in 1924.
The Eddy’s also built a rail line from Pecos, Texas,
to Carlsbad, N. M. and finally one into Amarillo,
Texas. These were sold to the Santa Fe Railroad.
The Rock Island, from Chicago, owns the line to
Tucumcari, where it joins the SP. At that point the
Rock Island Golden State Limited is operated by the
SP to California.
Powell Stackhouse, Jr., who owned a cola mine in the
vicinity of Carthage, N. M. and built a branch line
to it from a connection with the Santa Fe.
Other Toltec members included Will E. Race, who
served with the U. S. Customs Service and then was
superintendent of the City Water Works Department;
Attorney Richard F Burges, commanding figure in the
legal profession, particularly in irrigation and
reclamation fields; Feliz Martinez, J. A. (Uncle
Jimmy) Smith, Maury Kemp, Eugene E Neff, W. S.
Crombie, Carl Beers, Otis C and J Frank Coles, U. S.
Stewart and T. M. Wingo. The latter also established
an insurance business. there were, of course,
others.
Fact id, if a shaft ever is erected as a tribute to
the memory of pioneer city builders who gave this
city its real start, names of all members of the old
Toltec Club should be included among those that
appear on it.
Directors who served in the early years of the club
were: A. P. Coles, W. H. Burges, T. M. Wingo and J.
A. Eddy, November 1902 to November , 1905; Powell
Stackhouse, Jr., H. J. Simmons, Zach White and Will
E. Race, November, 1903 to November, 1906; Peyton F
Edwards, Eugene E Neff, Joseph F Williams and David
L Gregg, November, 1904 to November, 1907.
Officers elected on Nov 16, 1904, were: A. P. Coles,
president; H. J. Simmons, vice-president; H. J. A.
Eddy, secretary, T. M. Wingo, treasurer. Members of
the library committee were W. H. Burges, Eugene E
Neff, and David L Gregg.
In 1911, when Henry S Beach was president and Dr
James Vance was vice-president, Fred J. Feldman,
Otis C. Coles, John L. Dyer and R. W. McAfee,
present chairman of the board of State National
Bank, were members of the entertainment committee.
The membership committee was composed of Dr. Vance,
Walter E. Arnold, Otis Coles, McAfee and George F
Hawks.
There were 14 rooms on the third floor of the first
Toltec Club building and these were rented to
bachelor members. Some of these original occupants
were John Franklin, Judge Leigh Clark, Dr. Vance,
Van C. Wilson, Eugene Fox, Garnett King, with the
EP&SW, Otis and Frank Coles and Carl Beers, who was
the manger of the club for three years; one year in
the old building and two years in the new one.
Otis Coles remembered the room rental was &20 a
month. Any time roomers sis not want to go out to
eat, they hollered down the dumb waiter shaft to the
Chinese restaurant and food was sent up.
Social affairs at the Toltec Club were sparkling and
brilliant, particularly the annual banquets. Food,
most of it imported, along with champagne and fancy
liqueurs, were major items.
Quotations, with sources given credit, were featured
on the elaborate menus. For example, the line at the
top of the menu for the sixth annual banquet, Nov
17, 1909, was, “Gee! Won’t I have a hell of a
gorge-“ That was credited to Swat McCarrigle,
whoever he was.
FINE FOOD
The feast started with a sazerac cocktail and the
line with that was “A modern ecstasy”—Macbeth.
Oysters on the shell were imported Blue Points. Then
came strained chicken gumbo, patties of lobster a la
Newberg. Followed Sauterne Tipo and the quotation
for that, “Flow wine! Smile woman and the universe
is consoled.” No one was given credit for that. Come
then roast teal duck, Parisian potatoes, champagne,
fruit and nut gelatin salad, Neapolitan ice cream,
Camembert cheese, assorted fruits, nuts, raisins and
coffee. The line that went with the coffee was,
“Coffee which makes the politician wise and see
through all things with half shut eyes.” No credit
line.
Quotations on the menu for the eighth annual banquet
were something to chat about. Under the fresh crab
flake a la Newburg was this: “From the rude sea’s
enraged and foaming mouth—Twelfth Night.” The
quotation following imperial squab, French peas,
fresh mushrooms and Julienne potatoes, was: “Here is
a pigeon so finely roasted it cries ‘come eat
me’—Swift.” Then this quotation under punch on the
menu: “There is something in this more than
natural—Hamlet.”
The thriving prospering Toltec outgrew the old
three-story red brick building on Texas Street. A
story in an issue of the El Paso Times, July 23,
1908, said the club had purchased the triangular
site at San Antonio Street and Magoffin Avenue for
$80,000. Shares were sold to members. Vincent
Andreas bought five, $100 each. “Yes, I owned some
brick in the building,” Andreas said.
CLUB COMPLETED
Finally, the show place-place structure was
completed at a cost of $100,000. The club, in its
new quarters, was formally opened and dedicated on
the night of Oct, 14, 1910. “It was a gala party.
Men, in full dress suits and women, in gowns with
long trains, danced in the pink and gold room, which
glittered with lights,” The El Paso Times said.
The Times included in the list of social leaders
Mrs. W. W. Turney, Mrs. A. P. Coles, Mrs. William R
Brown, Mrs. U. S. Stewart and Mrs. Joseph Williams.
The club was not only a social center of the city,
but a place to which visiting dignitaries were taken
and lavishly entertained. One such group was the U.
S. Senatorial committee which decided on the
Elephant Butte project. The members who were guests
at a banquet the night before “the decision was made
on the Southwest’s biggest asset (Elephant Butte)”
were Sen. Francis Warren of Wyoming, who was the
father-in-law of Gen. John J. Pershing, commanding
general of Fort Bliss before he was commander of the
American Expeditionary Forces in Europe in World War
I; Thomas Carter of Montana and Wesley Jones of
Washington.
Theodore Roosevelt was an honored guest at a
breakfast in the club. The club held open house for
the staff and retinue of Porfirio Diaz of Mexico
when the later came to the border cities to meet
Howard Taft, the U. S. President. General Pershing
and Gen. Leonard Wood, among other notables attended
affairs of the club.
CELEBRATE PEACE
Historical meetings and affairs were held at the
Toltec Club.
There was a banquet given May 31, 1911, by citizens
of El Paso celebrating the establishment of peace in
Mexico and tendered to Francisco I Madero, the then
victorious president of the republic.
Carl Beers treasures a menu prepared for that
occasion because of the autographs of Madero, his
father C. E. Kelly, then El Paso mayor; B. J.
Viljeon, the Boer general who fought the English in
that African war, later came to the Upper Valley and
settled on his farm at Anthony; Raul Madero; Jose L.
Blanco, a Madero general; Juan J. Navarro, the
general who surrendered Juarez to Madero, Guiseppe
Garibaldi, the Italian soldier of fortune who fought
for Madero.
Otis and Frank Coles purchased the Texas Street
building after the Toltec moved into its own new
building, where somehow, the club fell upon lean
days. The set up represented an investment
approximating $185,000.
In February, 1935, the Elks Club rented the building
and moved in.
In March, 1945, the Elks took up the $50,000
mortgage on the place held by C. N. Bassett and W.
S. Crombie and became the owners. It proved an
excellent investment for the Elks. The prosperity
years that followed netted them considerable cash
and negotiable bonds.
Meanwhile, the famous old Toltec Club had faded out
of the picture.
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