Osage Hotel

100 North Summit Street

The Osage Hotel was built in 1920 at the northeast corner of Summit Street and Central Avenue by the Swenson Construction Co., of Kansas City, Missouri.

The price to build the five-story brick and stone structure was $250,000.

Materials, including the Silverdale stone that was used to finish the first level of the hotel, were brought by railroad. 

The Osage replaced the town’s first hotel, a small rooming house called the Central Avenue Hotel.

In addition to hotel rooms, ground-floor storefronts housed small shops, including the Peacock Shop (1938), the Osage Barber Shop (1930s-1950s), and a liquor and coffee shop.

“This corner has been continuously a spot for the weary traveler to seek food and sleep for nearly 70 years,” noted Arkansas City photographer George Cornish in a presentation he gave about 1940. In 1991, the hotel was converted to apartments and the name was changed to the Osage Senior Apartments. 

This building, which has both Neoclassical and late 19th/20th Century Classical Revival architectural elements, features a deep cornice and stylized brick balustrade along the parapet at roof level, horizontal stone banding, keystones at the major windows, and the original stone storefront.

Did You Know?

The first Arkalalah Cotillion was held in the then-Osage Hotel’s ballroom. Queen Alalah I and her court were escorted to the hotel after the coronation ceremony was held at the Fifth Avenue Opera House.