A group of Little Rock photographers was given access to the Hotel Pines on Sunday July 9th, 2017, and I went along with a camera. We had to sign a liability waiver and wear hard hats but were otherwise given free run of the hotel, which is what we had in the past before the hotel was bought this year.
Parts of the hotel have been cleaned up, including the lobby and basement, so that renovation work can begin. Most importantly, structural stabilization has been done. The fact that the hotel was still a viable building after 104 years of existence and many years of neglect and weather damage is not quite as miraculous as the fact that the nonprofit group Pine Bluff Rising will be spending $33 million to restore the it.
The sparkly, shiny, metallic-flower-like thing is apparently a peeling-off of the inside silver surface of the mirror.
On the roof, facing northwest, with part of Lake Saracen (center) and the Jefferson county courthouse (right) in view.
Not of our doing.
Elevator equipment room on the roof.
View from the roof looking south along Main Street.
Lobby has been cleaned up considerably since we were in the hotel last July.
The above effect serendipitously happened. The lower part is a separate photo from upper part.
The angel has survived, but has now fallen (on her side). Can't tell if she's blocking the elevator to Heaven or the one to Hell. Someone scrawled "heaven" and "hell" on the elevator doors a few years ago, as documented (a few years ago) by the Blue-Eyed Knocker photo group I was with on this day.
Dining room, ground floor. My father's investment business, Trulock & Company, was located in the building next door, outside the windows on the right, during the 1960s and early 70s. In the early 60s, we sometimes ate Sunday dinner in this dining room, where a "smorgasbord" was available. That's what they called it, not a buffet.
See the last two photos in my Hotel photo post of July 26 last year. An otherwise homeless person had made his home in these two rooms during the early part of 2016. We didn't encounter him.
