Sanderson’s
St. Francis Hotel
Could Get
New Life
by Jim Street
C hris Herrera, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Sul Ross State University, bought the two-story brick St. Francis Hotel on the main drag in Sanderson more than a year ago. Paying for it with 600 Silver Eagle coins,
worth about $10,500 at the time, he hopes to restore the old building with retail, beer garden downstairs, and a few hotel rooms on the second floor. Photo by Jim Street
W
hen Chris Herrera of Alpine
plunked down 600 Silver
Eagle coins, then worth about
$10,500, more than a year ago, “I felt
like I was in a movie or that I had just
gotten bamboozled. I left a lot of
money,” he said. “Did I do something
foolish?”
Herrera, now an assistant professor of
kinesiology at Sul Ross State University,
had just bought the 100-year-old St.
Francis Hotel in downtown Sanderson.
He had passed through Sanderson in
October of 2016 and the old two-story
red-brick building piqued his interest.
12
He said “everyone” told him owner Matt
Lusk was having an auction. Lusk told
him later that he wanted to be paid in
Silver Eagle coins because he believed
they would increase in value over time.
The coins have risen in value in the
last year. At this writing, prices averaged
about $20 per coin, up from $17.50 a
year ago.
“So I went to the January 31 [2017]
auction and I was first on the list with
about eight others,” Herrera said. “Matt
wanted to start the bidding at one coin
so we started bidding it up to about 100
coins. But it was going very slowly so we
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2018
agreed to bid in five-coin increments
and we got it up to about 500.
“Then there were just two and we bid
it up to about 600 coins,” he said.
“Finally, Matt asked if the final bid was
600 and I said ‘Yes.’ The other guy said
no. So Matt did the one, two, three and
then went to Florida or someplace.
“I found the interest here was in rail-
roads and ranching and I wanted some-
thing to appeal to the passersby as well as
the locals,” he said. “I visualize a beer
garden outside. There is a nice outside
space.”
In keeping with the theme of
Sanderson as the “Cactus Capital of
Texas,” he said it could be called the
Agave Courtyard. An inside lounge
might go by the name Ocotillo Lounge.
The hotel and entertainment center
started life when fire destroyed a confec-
tionary, including a candy shop and
soda fountain with a motion picture
theater.
William Francis Bohlman and his
wife Mary Burns Bohlman had operated
the burned business, so they bought the
corner property and erected the
Bohlman Building. They ran their new
confectionary and a picture show down-