Who Remembers These Long-Defunct Owensboro Luxury Hotels?

There's no telling how many motorists drive through the intersection of 4th and Frederica Streets in downtown Owensboro daily, so there's no telling how many folks take a gander at the Corporate Centre every single day.

Owensboro Motor Inn

With that structure in mind, now envision this beautiful old hotel in its place.

It was the Owensboro Motor Inn (also sometimes known as the Owensboro Hotel), built in 1926, and it was a showplace. My parents had been there many times for dinner or meetings. Unfortunately, I never entered the building. But it was a familiar landmark on that corner until this happened in 1990.

All good things must come to an end, as they say. And we weren't finished.

Read More: Tennessee Hotel Considered One of America's Most Haunted Places

Gabe's Tower

For decades, Owensboro's skyline had two focal points. There was the Roosevelt House on Frederica Street (still there) and Gabe's Tower, part of what I called the "Gabe's block." The iconic luxury hotel was erected in 1963, attracting visitors from far and wide. I had an aunt who wouldn't stay elsewhere when she came to visit, not even with relatives. She loved that hotel and its rooftop swimming pool (well, its glass-enclosed top-floor swimming pool, let's say).

And I don't want to leave its swanky restaurant one floor below the top. The more popular ground-level Gabe's Restaurant was its equal in class and menu.

After years of trying to figure out if it could be repurposed, the decision was made to bring it down. Here are the "three stages of Gabe's Tower," the last image of which was from its final day of existence in June 2020.

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The Executive Inn Rivermont

Asking if you remember the Executive Inn Rivermont could be construed as a rhetorical question. The youngest of the three structures mentioned in this story, the Exec opened in 1977 and immediately attracted some of the biggest names in entertainment to its world-class entertainment venue, the Showroom Lounge, which extended beyond the main hotel over the Ohio River. I spent quite a few nights there introducing musical acts, and I miss it. And I'm not alone.

Here's a retrospective of this magnificent hotel, a destination for so many for so many decades. Anyone who remembers it wishes it were still in downtown Owensboro.

Big, beautiful, locally-owned luxury hotels are most likely a thing of the past. Even the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City is a Hilton property. Gone are the days, I guess, and those kinds of days will probably never be seen again.