Aviation theme, location near airport appeal to fliers
FREDERICKSBURG, Texas - If the Hangar Hotel looks familiar, it could be because you stayed up late as a kid watching old movies on television.A well-pitched throwback to the romance, both cinematic and real, of the 1940s, the 50-room boutique hotel captures the mood and music of those times without becoming a caricature of the era.
"It was a great period, the country all coming together," said hotel owner Richard Estenson.
"Values were there."
Aviation adds to the scene at the bright-white lodging set beside the runway at the Gillespie County Airport in Fredericksburg. Framed adaptations of warbirds' nose art hang in guest rooms, fine art of fighter planes decorates some walls, and airplanes landing at and leaving the field are prime entertainment.
The three-year-old hotel is shaped like an oversize World War II Quonset hut, but its interior and amenities are a lot cushier than those of the rough, half-moon-shape metal shelters the military threw up by the thousands.
Big-band music plays in the lobby (and on a TV channel in the rooms), and guests might feel the urge to jitterbug to the teak and granite front desk. Behind it, an old telephone cord board, manual typewriter and electric fan like Grandma's seem to ask, "Remember me?
" Above, a rank of clocks provides times worldwide.
An early riser settles into an easy chair to relax with coffee and a newspaper. A bulbous floor-model radio, its rich wood restored to a gleam, and old Samsonite suitcases frame the sipper, and the pendulum of a massive grandfather clock ticks almost in time to Glenn Miller's rhythms.
The placid scene is a reminder that while no policy forbids children, they're in short supply here.
Also in thin ration are business travelers.
"It's not a road warrior who comes here," Estenson said.
"People come for the weekend, spend a lot of time in the hotel and occupy the room a lot.
"Younger people bring their older family members," he said. "They enjoy airplanes.
"
About a third of guests are pilots and their spouses who like being able to fly to Fredericksburg and park their aircraft near their room, but, said Estenson, a flier himself, "You don't have to be a pilot to enjoy the hotel."
Rooms aren't equipped with workaholics in mind. Although free Internet connection is available throughout, big desks for spreading out spreadsheets are absent.
And as it would have been in the '40s, rooms provide no robes, no fridge, no microwave and no in-room coffee pot (though a coffee and pastry buffet is available each morning, and staff will brew a pot as early as your schedule requires).
There are concessions to modern times and tastes. Rooms are spacious (a stepped-up ceiling makes each seem even larger).
The mahogany and rattan bed swathed in Egyptian cotton sheets is king-size. The bulky black telephone looks '40s but works with 21st century technology. Air conditioning replaces noisy fans.
Lighting is ample and well-placed. And while it isn't wall-mounted, a flat-screen TV broadcasts cable channels such as Discovery Wings.
It's back to the '40s again in the bathroom, where the vanity is built of beadboard and granite and floors are tiled in no-nonsense little ceramic hexagons.
Also period are each room's two big easy chairs, which are covered in bomber-jacket leather, and colors used throughout the hotel. For the latter, Estenson mixed versions of military olive drab, khaki and gray for walls and continued the evocative tones in palm-motif carpeting.
Guests can borrow one of the hotel's electric carts and drive across the airfield to Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park for golf, tennis, hiking or swimming (the hotel has no pool).
Or, they can indulge in Fredericksburg's shopping and dining two miles away.
But the favorite pastime at the hotel is sitting in the teak chairs on the second-floor observation deck, which offers an unobstructed view of the airport's runway.
"Every plane is an entertainment," Estenson said.
"All the pilots are the entertainers, and we're the audience."
If Cessnas, Pipers and Beechcraft are fewer on weekdays, killdeer and songbirds provide fly-bys to compensate.
Three evenings a week, guests can settle in at the atmospheric Officer's Club just off the hotel lobby, where Thursdays offer Martini Night, with 120 variations of the cocktail.
The comfortable lounge also has live piano music, abundant red leather chairs in conversational groupings and a pool table freshened by belt-driven, single-blade ceiling fans.
In a separate building beside the hotel is its Airport Diner and its 10,000-square-foot conference center, whose lighting includes a restored movie-house marquee from Houston.
Open for lunch only, the cafe's interior is a flavorful mix of mid-20th century railroad dining car and soda fountain.
A handsome birch ceiling arches over booths, and two dozen stools sprout beside a black granite counter backed by stainless steel embossed with sunbursts. The effect is charming; the prices, moderate; the burgers, award-winning.
"We have our normal things to do," Estenson said.
"But sometimes we want to escape them."
In that spirit, he's creating a South Pacific island in another 10,000 feet of the hangar-shape conference and diner building.
Estenson said he has been asked to replicate the Hangar Hotel elsewhere, but it will remain a one-of a-kind Texas destination.
"Chain anything is not of interest to me," he said.
Hangar Hotel,= is at the Gillespie County Airport, west of Texas 16, two miles from Fredericksburg's Main Street. 830-997-9990; .
Details | Fredericksburg Convention Visitors Bureau, 1-888-997-3600; .
Dining | Fredericksburg has many dining possibilities on and near Main Street, the main shopping area. Airport Diner, in the building beside the Hangar Hotel, is a popular lunch spot for guests and locals.
Sandwiches ($6 to $7.50) have aviation-oriented names: the VFR, Bomber Burger, Whirly Bird Wrap and Bravo Lima Tango.
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