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Wednesday, May 10, 1972
University Daily Kansan
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Rosalea's:
Small Town Scene of Controversy
Angella Parcel, 18, and another patron sit and talk with Rosalea Hostetler, hotel owner, about the problems faced by kids in Harmer.
It's a People's Place
A hot cup of coffee and the morning newspaper keep Rosalea in her favorite chair for most of the morning.
Text and Photos by ED LALLO
Driving the long miles between Lawrence and Harper, I had to move into envisionation. The building, easily spotted for miles over the flat, green wheat fields of southwest Kansas, was an disappointment, in a well-weathered, two-story hotel with a crackly crustic crack splitting its west side.
Born in Harper, a town of 1,750,
Rosalie is a University of Kansas
graduate who has returned home
welcome by Harper townpeople.
Rosalea Hosteler, 35-year-old owner of the hotel, also was entirely different from what I had imagined.
"When I was in New York I bought a guitar for sale, but it bought for $1,000. I explained, "I didn't want it to borne down like the opera house."
ROSALEA CALLS herself a weaver and not a hotel manager. She graduated from KU in 1963 and majored in design, under the tutelage of Eveyne DeGraw, professor of design at New York University the University she went to work for Macy's in New York as a fashion layout consultant.
"At first when I came home the people were really nice to me. They all pitched in to paint the outside of the hotel. Then an article in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon newspaper where live-in take place." Since then the townpeople won't come near me or the hotel."
"I have three looms around the hotel," she said. "All I really want to do is spend my time weaving."
Rosalea's 16 room innovation was formerly the Patterson House Hotel. Built in 1883 from a dry goods store, the hotel housed the housekeeping staff and used its basement for poker games. The gambling era was
short lived, however, because not enough money was gambled to make sizable profits.
The hotel is the oldest business in Harper. When Rosales bought it four years ago, the name change was the first in 80 years.
The decor of the hotel is one of the most unusual in the state. Foil walls, newspaper ceilings, and rock walkways make the place a glamorous destination. Sheraton-Hilton. The gift shop is filled with antiques and homemade items. The patrons don't mind the new concept in styling, though.
"PEOPLE COME here because they are emotionally upset," Rosalea said. "Their minds need a mental rest.
"There was one fellow from Kansas City that came here because he wanted peace and quiet. He wanted to be alone because he was going through a major crisis in his life.
"The hotel is many things to many people, but one thing the place isn't, a whorehouse. I've had cowboys come in and hint they wanted a special room, one a girl. I wouldn't say anything about a girl, I wouldn't say about 15 minutes when no girl would show up they'd sneak out."
Resale's concept of the hotel's service to many people is not sheer convenience, but the streets of Harper to see what the townpeople thought, it became clear that the hotel and its staff were one thing to them, a nuisance
During a conversation with an aged clerk in the "common store", two fronts down from Rosalea's, I mentioned that I had been at the hotel. The clerk me "the eye" and kindly told me to do better things to do than talk to me at the moment.
THE CORNER drug store clerk also seemed taken aback that she was even talking to someone who'd been inside "that place."
"They really haven't tried to
the place up on." Rosales said when confronted up on the townhouses "they told them they did have a meeting of the city council to have me run out of them."
"Why should I cover up for the town, it's like a Peyton Place to come to life. True, there is a handful of good people here."
Despite what the older townspeople think, their kids have a chance to play with their lees's is a place to rap, to play a game of checkers, or just sit and watch.
"The kids come here to talk and play checkers," she said some time ago when she broken homes and some of their parents sit at home drunk all the time.
"The young people are the sal-
vation of this business, and
America. It's the young that are
able to keep their heads together."
ROSALEAH "RED tulip in the spring" is in a state of somewhat doubtful future. Her salvation seems to lie in the young, but the young haven't saved her too. In the past 121 days only 53 rooms have been rented. The range of $4.50 to $15.50, a redemption far in the future.
"I didn't think I could make it six months ago. I didn't think I could mentally hang on," Rosela lea said. "I almost weakened, I put one morning and said Not." No, I put one morning and, but it take I one day at a time.
"I did have an offer to sell the hotel for $1,000, but the carpeting in the place is worth more than $1,000," she says. "I turn your back on four years of your life. Then there's the kids. The hotel has to stand so it can influence free thinking, if it does not." In case, then its all been worth it.
"I'm at a disadvantage here. At my age men don't think as I do. I get lonely, I need someone to share with."
Pausing momentarily, Rosales imagines the feeling of renting all of her rooms for one night. Then back to the daily干励, she straightens the gift shop for potential customers.
When work is done, Rosalea returns to the main room for another rap session.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
America's Pacemaking college newspaper
Editor
Name Attached
Business Manager
Business Manager
Mate Young
Mate Young