Completed in 1929, the Baker Hotel cost $1.2 Million and was the first skyscraper to be built outside a major metropolitan area. It was also the first hotel in Texas to have a swimming pool. Rising 14 stories, there were 450 guest rooms, two ballrooms, a beauty shop, bowling alley, and gymnasium. It was shuttered in 1972, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. More recently, a private investment group announced plans to renovate the old hotel and bring it back to life, and in 2014 the city of Mineral Wells approved a measure for tax revenue to help fund the project. Photo by Kathy Weiser-Alexander, 2007.