St. Cloud Hotel in Chandler Comes Down
Ongoing demolition of the St. Cloud Hotel in Chandler, which is halfway down. Photo courtesy of Mariko Kusakabe.
CHANDLER, OKLAHOMA - After a year of discussion, advocacy, and legal battles, Chandler’s historic St. Cloud Hotel is coming down.
In March of 2025, the roof of the St. Cloud Hotel in Chandler was severely damaged in a storm, compromising the building. The City of Chandler held a meeting on April 8th of that year and deemed the building a hazard and voted for demolition. The owner argued that the City had blocked his application for permits to repair the building and that a permit was not required for some of the work that needed to be completed. The City denied this and stated that the permits were not completed correctly and had provided a list of necessary changes for approval. This escalated all the way to the Oklahoma Supreme Court on appeal, but according to a KFOR report in January a bond was not paid and the city’s plans could proceed.
“Preservation is one of the primary parts of our mission,” said Association President Rhys Martin. “So when a historic structure is endangered, we do what we can to call attention to it and connect people with resources. The St. Cloud Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but, unfortunately, that does not offer protection from demolition. In this case, the Association was never able to engage the owner to talk directly.”
In an email, the State Historic Preservation Office said that they had been in contact with the owner multiple times, as had Preservation Oklahoma, but that since it was an issue between the city and the property owner there were limited solutions available and that all of them would require significant financial investment. Larry Donbraswell, co-owner of the building, said on Facebook that the city did not give him due process to make the needed repairs.
Snapshot of the September 2007 Oklahoma Route 66 Newsletter.
Chandler is known for its high concentration of structures on the National Register, both on and off Historic Route 66. The St. Cloud Hotel opened on April 20th, 1904 and was known for the ghost murals on the side of the building. The St. Cloud and Coca-Cola murals were restored in 2006 by Dean Godner and Shaun Colbert of Oklahoma City with funding from the Great Plans Coca-Cola Bottling Company. The project, which restored the faded murals while retaining a weathered, vintage look won the SHPO’s Citation of Merit Award in 2007. Owner John Givens operated a muffler shop in the building at the time and even then it was noted to be struggling with condemnation by the city.
