Portal:Houston/Selected article/October 2007
The Shamrock Hotel was constructed between 1946 and 1949 by wildcatter Glenn McCarthy southwest of downtown Houston, Texas next to the Texas Medical Center. It was the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. Within a few years the facility was sold to the Hilton hotel chain and operated for over three decades as the Shamrock Hilton, enduring financial struggles throughout its history.
The hotel opened with fireworks displays on St. Patrick’s Day 1949. Two thousand Houstonians paid $42 a person to have dinner at what was widely publicized as “Houston’s biggest party," attended by over 150 Hollywood celebrities including Ginger Rogers, Hedda Hopper and Errol Flynn along with noted Los Angeles business executives and reporters, some of whom were flown in to Houston Municipal Airport on a customized Boeing 307 Stratoliner airplane which McCarthy had bought only days earlier from Howard Hughes. Many more were brought in by train on a chartered Santa Fe Super Chief. Everyone had to concede it was quite a party and quite a hotel." The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the biggest social events in Houston’s history.
