Statler’s estate created the Statler Foundation which continues to fund students and opportunities in hotel management and hospitality. At the time, it was the largest real estate transaction in American history. In 1954, Statler Hotels was bought by the competing middle-class hotel chain, Hilton, for $111,000,000 (worth over $1.074 billion today). Many of the later Statler hotels had thousands of rooms and the buildings still exist today.
Statler died in 1928, but his second wife Alice continued to expand the business, opening locations in Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas, and Hartford. Statler had set himself apart in Wheeling as an innovator and entrepreneur-a reputation and skills he would cultivate to become one of the most successful businessmen of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Įllsworth Milton “E.M.” Statler, at the end of his life, circa 1927 in Berlin, Germany (Deutsches Bundesarchiv) 7 After the bowling alley started showing promise, Statler converted the storefront space into a small lunchroom restaurant, The Pie House, which was run by his mother and sister. Borrowing money, Statler quickly expanded the bowling lanes and added other entertainment options, including pool and billiard tables. Statler expanded his Wheeling business interests outside of the McLure when he bought out and dissolved a bankrupt bowling club that was operating out of the Musee, a defunct vaudeville hall, at 1124 Market St. According to several sources, this was the first type of railroad ticket counter to start in an American hotel-a service that other hotels would eventually pick up. Even though he sold them for half a cent more than he bought them, the tickets were still cheaper than buying them at the station-a win for both parties. 5 In addition, right outside the billiard room, Statler set up a railroad ticket book where he sold railroad mileage tickets that he bought in bulk. One of his first projects was to reinvent the McLure’s billiard room into a popular and lucrative side business. 4 While at the McLure, Statler was constantly looking for opportunities to make the hotel more profitable.
He rose in the ranks to head bellboy to clerk to managing the hotel books. 3Ī few years later, at the age of 13, he began working at the McLure Hotel as the night bellboy. Child labor laws were virtually non-existent in the 1870s, so it was not uncommon when Statler began working at the La Belle Glass Works at the young age of nine. 2 During his young childhood, the Statler family moved west to Bridgeport, Ohio-right across the river from a bustling Wheeling. The McLure House opened in 1852–this image is from The Wheeling Business Directory a decade later (OCPL Archives) A Budding EntrepreneurĮllsworth Milton Statler was born during the middle of the Civil War near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on October 26, 1863.
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