Colonel House Motel

Colonel House Motel
Type	Motel
Address	1829 Triplett Street
City	Owensboro, Kentucky
County	Daviess County
Architect	Max W. Bisson
Built	1959
Cost	About $500,000
Rooms	41 at opening; 49 after 1960
Earlier use of site	Model Dairy Products plant, 1939–1959
Acquired by city	2025
Demolished	August 2026

The Colonel House Motel was a two-story, mid-century motor hotel at 1829 Triplett Street in Owensboro, Kentucky. Built in 1959 on the site of the former Model Dairy plant and opened as one of the most modern lodging houses in western Kentucky, it operated for roughly sixty-five years under a succession of corporations, partnerships and families before declining into weekly-rate residential housing. The City of Owensboro purchased the property in 2025 and demolished it in August 2026.

The Model Dairy site

Before the motel, the corner of Triplett and East 19th streets belonged to the dairy business. Model Dairy Products Company, Inc. opened a plant on the site in 1939, occupying roughly the southern half of what would later become the motel grounds. Fire insurance maps of the period show the dairy as a single consolidated complex addressed at 1825 Triplett Street, with separate parcels to the north along the same block and a filling station at the corner of 18th and Triplett. Some accounts of the early 1950s placed the dairy at 1829, the address the motel would eventually carry.

On January 19, 1959, Model Dairy Products Company sold the property to Motels, Inc., a Kentucky corporation, for approximately $70,000. The transfer was recorded in Deed Book 281, page 80 of the Daviess County Court Clerk's office and reported in the newspaper's real estate column as a lot of ground with improvements on the east side of Triplett Street and the north side of East 19th Street. Motels, Inc. changed its corporate name by amendment to its articles of incorporation on March 4, 1959, recorded with the Kentucky Secretary of State on March 11 and in Daviess County Corporation Book 10, page 300. From that point forward the company was known as Colonel House, Inc.

Planning and construction

Colonel House, Inc. was formed by Jerome Lighton, Marvin Cohen, Dr. Horace Harrison, George S. Wilson Jr. and William L. Wilson, all of Owensboro. The company retained architect Max W. Bisson, who designed the building after what the newspapers of the day called the two-story Florida type, with open balconies running the length of each floor.

As first announced, the project called for a two-story, forty-room luxury motel on the northeast corner of Triplett and 19th, directly across from Gabe's Shopping Center and restaurant. Twenty units were planned for each floor. Every unit was to be carpeted, individually decorated and fitted with its own tile bath; many were designed to connect, and some could be combined into suites. The plans also included a manager's apartment, linen rooms and a lobby.

The building was to be completely fireproof, framed in steel and concrete, with balcony rails of ornamental iron, trim of colored porcelain enamel and a special marble surfacing. Double-glazed window openings were specified to keep out street noise and control interior temperatures, and the mechanical and electrical work was designed for unit air conditioning, quiet plumbing, television and telephones. There were to be no dining facilities. A swimming pool was planned for a landscaped area but was deliberately excluded from the construction bid.

Bids on the general construction work were opened at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon, with the owners hoping to open late that summer if a satisfactory price came in. Asked what the finished project would cost, Bisson conceded he doubted he could guess within $100,000 of the final figure once the building was constructed and furnished. An application to build had already been filed in the city building inspector's office.

Opening

The Colonel House Motel was erected in three months at a cost of about $500,000 and opened for business in 1959. As built, it contained forty-one units rather than the forty originally advertised. Its arrival brought to thirteen the number of motels and tourist courts in or near Owensboro.

Beginning at nine o'clock on opening morning, four rooms were made available for public inspection at an open house, and the first tenants were accepted that evening. The two-story, balconied steel and concrete structure contained twenty-eight rooms with two double beds, eight executive suites with two single beds, four rooms with twin beds, and the "Colonel's apartment," a large upstairs room with twin beds and a kitchenette. The building was faced in red brick with baby blue trimmings, and each room had a picture window of thermopane glass.

The amenities were unusual for Owensboro at the time. Every room had a television set and a telephone, and the heating and air conditioning in each room could be controlled by the occupant. Wall-to-wall carpeting was standard throughout. A light on the base of the telephone illuminated when a call, a message or mail had arrived during a guest's absence, and the switchboard operator at the front office would explain what had come in. A small swimming pool was being finished in the front yard, and concrete parking for thirty-four vehicles was provided at the rear.

Floyd Haire, formerly a purchasing agent for Glenmore Distilleries, was hired as manager, and the motel expected to employ ten to twelve people depending on the volume of business. Jerry Lighton served as president of Colonel House, Inc., with Marvin Cohen as vice president and William L. Wilson as secretary-treasurer; Dr. Horace Harrison, Lester Yeager and George S. Wilson Jr. were directors.

Although the motel served no food of its own, arrangements were being worked out for Gabe's restaurant across the street to furnish meals under a room service system. Corporate demand was evident from the start: General Electric had already rented three of the executive suites on a year-round basis, and Green River Steel Corporation had contracted for two more on the same terms.

Expansion and early operation

The building's success was immediate enough that expansion followed within a year. By late November 1960 the Colonel House was adding eight units to the original forty-one at a cost of approximately $32,000. The addition was built as a wing extending east along the northern edge of the lot, a footprint still plainly visible in aerial photographs decades later.

The corporate year-round rentals of 1959 proved to be a preview rather than an exception. By February 1964 the motel was advertising directly to permanent residents, offering what it called luxury living at budget prices for $125 per month plus maid service, under the telephone number 684-5271. That number remained attached to the property for the next six decades. The shift toward long-term occupancy, which came to define the Colonel House in its final years, therefore began within five years of its opening rather than in its decline.

Colonel House, Inc. held the property into the 1970s, mortgaging it to Citizens State Bank on September 19, 1974, in a mortgage recorded in Mortgage Book 393, page 815.

The Coomes years, 1976–1985

On December 23, 1976, Colonel House, Inc. sold the motel to Thomas H. Coomes Sr. of 905 Griffith Avenue, Owensboro, by deed recorded in Deed Book 462, page 660. The sale covered both the real estate and the personal property used in running the motel, and the total consideration came to $190,025.50 — $150,000 for the real estate, $40,025.50 for furniture, fixtures and inventory, and $3,083.89 for accounts receivable.

The terms illustrate how such a business changed hands at the time. Coomes paid $3,000 in cash at execution and gave a $40,000 promissory note due within one year at seven and one-half percent with a ninety-day grace period. He assumed the $136,354.47 remaining balance of the corporation's first mortgage to Citizens State Bank along with a further note of $7,916.02, and paid $2,546.82 and $208.19 in accrued interest on the two obligations. Possession passed at five o'clock on the afternoon of the deed, and with it all income and rents then due from occupants of the premises. Colonel House, Inc. retained its outstanding accounts billed to the American Express Company and the National Aluminum Company, an echo of the corporate arrangements that had helped fill the building at its opening.

The purchase money notes were satisfied, and the lien released, on November 21, 1977, in a marginal notation executed by William L. Wilson as president of Colonel House, Inc. The same day, Coomes took out a new first mortgage of $180,000 on the property.

A quit claim deed dated October 1, 1980, recorded in Deed Book 501, page 144, corrected a typographical error in the legal description carried in the 1976 deed. The parcel comprised all of Lots 4, 5, 6 and 7 and part of Lot 1 in Block A of the Fair Ground Addition, bounded on the west by Triplett Street, on the south by 19th Street, on the north by the Fiorella lot and on the east by the property of the James E. Russell Sheet Metal Company.

B & L Motel Associates and the contract for deed

Three weeks earlier, on August 22, 1980, Thomas H. Coomes Sr. and his wife Joyce had entered into a contract and bond for deed with B & L Motel Associates, a Kentucky limited partnership acting through general partner Bhaskar H. Desai. The arrangement was recorded in Deed Book 501, page 146.

The total consideration was $365,000, allocated as $325,000 for the building, $20,000 for the real estate and $20,000 for the furniture, fixtures, vending machines and motel supplies. B & L paid $10,000 in cash at execution, $50,000 within ninety days, and $5,000 at one year, with the remaining $300,000 payable in 240 consecutive monthly installments of $2,995.14 at ten and one-half percent interest. The final installment was due on or before October 1, 2000.

Under the contract, B & L took full possession of the motel upon payment of the $50,000 increment, meaning Desai's partnership was operating the Colonel House from late 1980 onward while Coomes retained legal title. A general warranty deed and bill of sale were executed the same day and placed in escrow with Central Bank and Trust Company of Owensboro, to be delivered when the balance had been paid in full. Coomes remained responsible for his own $180,000 mortgage, which then carried an unpaid balance of $169,124.13, and covenanted not to borrow further against the property.

The contract offers a rare glimpse of the building's condition at the twenty-year mark. Coomes specifically warranted that the central air conditioning unit serving all motel rooms would be in good working order and that all rooms would be in commercially reasonable rental condition at the delivery of possession. An exhibit listing the handful of items Coomes retained — a calculator, a typewriter, a table and four chairs, an adding machine and the plants in the office — was written on Colonel House Motel letterhead bearing the address "Triplett and 19th" and the same telephone number advertised in 1964.

An assignment recorded June 1, 1985 in Deed Book 543, page 281 transferred Coomes's interest in the contract, and on June 6, 1985 Thomas and Joyce Coomes conveyed the property itself to W. Gordon Iler, an Owensboro attorney, by deed recorded in Deed Book 550, page 358. Iler thereafter held title while B & L continued to operate the motel under the 1980 contract.

Records from this period name at least one of the operators. On September 19, 1989, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed two notices of state tax lien against the Colonel House Motel Limited Partnership, identifying Larry Mayfield of 2232 Becklyn as the responsible party. The liens were satisfied quickly; a certificate of release was signed on September 29 and recorded on October 12, 1989.

That residents were living at the motel long-term through these years is confirmed in the public record. A notice of recoupment lien filed June 28, 1995 by the Division of Unemployment Insurance named Ronald J. Wagner at 1829 Triplett Street, Room 244, over $207.00 in benefits erroneously paid — a state agency corresponding with a man at his motel room as his permanent address.

Pavlas ownership, 1996–2025

On July 22, 1996, W. Gordon Iler of 207 West Second Street and B & L Motel Associates of 3136 West Second Street, again acting through Bhaskar H. Desai, jointly conveyed the property for $300,000, closing out the 1980 contract more than four years before its scheduled maturity. The buyers were Charalambos A. Pavlas and Nicholas A. Pavlas, who took a fifty percent interest jointly, and Christos Poulos, who took the other fifty percent. The deed was recorded in Deed Book 664, page 215, with a deed of correction following on August 15, 1996 in Deed Book 665, page 83. Iler, an attorney, prepared the deed himself.

On November 6, 1996, Poulos quit-claimed his interest to the two Pavlas brothers by deed recorded in Deed Book 667, page 640.

The family formalized its holdings at the end of the decade. OCA, LLC was organized as a Kentucky limited liability company on February 4, 1999, with its registered office at 1311 West Second Street, Charalambos A. Pavlas as registered agent, and its principal office given as the Colonel House Motel itself. A certificate of assumed name adopting "Colonel House Motel" for OCA, LLC was executed in February 1999, signed by Nicholas A. Pavlas as president through Charalambos under power of attorney, filed with the Secretary of State on February 10 and recorded in Daviess County on February 22. The same company held assumed names for the Cadillac Motel and for C & N Pawn and Check Advance.

A deed recorded October 8, 2019 in Deed Book 1019, page 069 transferred the property from Charalambos A. and Nicholas A. Pavlas to Charalambos A. and Androniki Pavlas, an intrafamily conveyance recorded at no consideration.

Decline

By the 2010s and 2020s the Colonel House had become a rent-by-the-week establishment and had fallen into general disrepair. Rooms were advertised at rates such as fifty-five dollars a night, two hundred fifty dollars a week or one thousand dollars a month, with a ten-dollar key deposit. Reviewers described a clientele composed largely of long-term residents.

The property became a persistent subject of complaint from neighboring businesses and residents and a recurring focus of the Owensboro Police Department and city property maintenance staff. A compilation of police reports by the Messenger-Inquirer showed seventeen instances of reported criminal activity or arrests at the address over a five-year period, while police data cited in broadcast reports indicated officers had been dispatched to the motel more than three hundred times over two years. In January 2024, Daviess County Sheriff's detectives serving a search warrant on one of the rooms arrested three residents and recovered methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana, cash and surveillance equipment.

The idea of a city purchase had first been raised in 2018. Although the motel stood within the Triplett Twist Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area, its owners never participated in the grant programs available for remodeling, even as the city and private developers spent $2.6 million in federal funds and $2.8 million in private money on projects nearby. The city had already purchased and demolished the dilapidated Tower Motor Inn in 2020, and Gabe's Tower, across the street from the Colonel House, was likewise razed while Gabe's Shopping Center was renovated.

City acquisition and demolition

On November 19, 2024, the Owensboro Board of Commissioners approved Municipal Order 30-2024, authorizing the purchase of 1829 Triplett Street from Charalambos and Androniki Pavlas for $600,000. The Daviess County Property Valuation Administrator had the property assessed at $423,300 for 2025. City Manager Nate Pagan said the city intended to take possession once the building was vacant and immediately issue a request for proposals to convert it into affordable rental housing, adding that the city had no intention of becoming a landlord. Mayor Tom Watson and Mayor Pro Tem Mark Castlen both described the motel as a longstanding source of trouble in the neighborhood.

Residents of the motel told reporters that week that they had learned of the sale through the news rather than from the owners. Community Development Director Abby Shelton said her department and the property owners would work with tenants to find other housing before the transfer.

The deed to the City of Owensboro was recorded May 6, 2025 in Deed Book 1111, page 085. The city issued its request for proposals shortly afterward, setting a June 6 deadline for developers to propose either rehabilitating the building or clearing the site for new construction. Six developers showed some initial interest, but no viable proposal emerged. Assistant City Manager Lelan Hancock said that once prospective developers examined the building, the age and condition of the structure and the requirements of modern accessibility, electrical and plumbing codes made rehabilitation economically impossible.

In November 2025 the city announced it would instead demolish the building, and issued a request for demolition contractors with bids closing December 16. The project had to be bid twice. Six bids came in during the first round, all above the city's estimate, with a low bid of $121,500; Hancock attributed the overage in part to contractors not knowing how much asbestos-containing material the building held. After the city commissioned an evaluation identifying what required abatement, seven firms bid a second time, at prices ranging from $116,895 to $204,700. Relatively little asbestos was ultimately found.

Murphy Excavating took the contract at approximately $117,000, covering both demolition and abatement, and began work on the morning of Monday, August 24, 2026. Officials expected the structure to be reduced largely to rubble within the week and the debris to be removed over the following week. The city planned to leave a flat, seeded lot at the corner. Zoned B-4 general business, the site was to be marketed for private redevelopment, with the city expressing no preference for a particular use.

Notes

The metes and bounds description of the property varies between recorded instruments. The 1976 deed and those following it begin at the northeast intersection of Triplett and 19th streets and run 162 feet along Triplett; the 1980 correction deed reads northwest and 167 feet. Contemporary newspaper accounts of 1959 place the motel on the northeast corner, consistent with the earlier description.

The name of the founding president appears as Jerome Lighton in pre-construction coverage and as Jerry Lighton in reporting on the opening.