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Carrousel Motor Hotel

3310 Reveille
  • Year Built
    1961
  • Building Type
    Commercial
  • Neighborhood
    Gulfgate
  • Quadrant
    SW
  • Status
    Mod No More

The Carrousel Motor Hotel was built in 1961 and designed by architect William Tamminga. The steel folded plate roofed building was located at 3310 Reveille, just outside of Loop 610. The Carrousel included 130 apartments, just south of the main circular building, and are extant as the Evergreen Apartments. In 1967 the Carrousel Motor Hotel was a defendant in an important civil rights case decided by the Texas Supreme Court. Plaintiff Emmit Fisher, an African American mathematician for NASA, was attending a conference at the motel and was in line to eat lunch when the manager grabbed his plate out of his hand and yelled that a `negro could not be served.` The court decided in favor of Fisher citing that assault and battery can (and did) occur without physical harm. By 1975, the Carrousel Motor Hotel closed but reopened under ownership of John Coil who opened it as an `adult movie luxury motel` according to an article in the March 1976 issue of Texas Monthly. Just a couple months later, Texas Monthly ran another article featuring the Carrousel`s new membership club, `Dare to be Bare.` After a slew of lawsuits from 1977-1988, the Carrousel Motor Hotel closed for good. The motel rooms and main building were demolished and the swimming pool was filled in, leaving just the bathroom tiles and circular foundation. William Tamminga had previously been partners in the firm Ford, Colley & Tamminga with O`neil Ford and Richard S. Colley.