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In the 20s, hired help
prepared pickles and other savories in the dirt floored basement for distribution
to area restaurants and shops. There was always plenty of German food available
to the tenants as was a serious poker game.
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Melcher sold the property
to Nat Washer in 1926, after purchasing the eight story Arlington Arms
luxury apartment house, and building his business premises on West Travis.
The property was sold several times over the next ten years. It went downhill
steadily until Morris and Irene Jaffe took it over in 1938. Operating it
as a rooming house, Mrs. Jaffe lived there until 1973. It was sold again
in 73, and divided into thirty units. By the early 80s all the tenants
had disappeared, and a partnership made plans to convert to offices, and
a restaurant. This plan never materialized.
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In 1986, the Havana was
named to the National Register of Historic Places, but this did not stop
the elements from doing serious damage to the building. The Resolution
Trust Corp. took over in 1988.
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Teresa Greer took the
property over in 1992, and completely rebuilt, remodeled, renovated, and
restored the dilapidated structure. Each of the twenty seven rooms are
individually decorated with period furnishings.
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Battersby Ornamental repaired
the original plasterwork, as needed, throughout the hotel. We also applied
new veneer plaster to the ceilings in the lobbies on each floor, and the
ceilings in all the corridors. The two level penthouse apartment was resurfaced
throughout. Today the building is known as The Havana Riverwalk Inn.
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