Marion’s ‘something’
Historic hotel is a discovered destination for travelers
Staff writer
On a pink late afternoon in April, I drove through budding wheat fields into Marion for the first time, not quite understanding the “eye sore” warning sign at the corner of US-50 and Sunflower Rd. but feeling the bucolic quiet and anticipating a bit of the luxury promised by the Historic Elgin Hotel’s website.
Still, there was a moment of dissonance when I reached Main St. The faux gas lamps and scattered rhinos suggested something lively, but I felt very alone — no moving cars, no pedestrians, not even trees with leaves aflutter.
My honest first impression of the county seat was: Wait, what? How could a fine hotel be here?
Then I crossed Main St. At the corner of 3rd and Santa Fe Sts., beneath a cozy canopy of old trees, stood a compact cluster of charm: the well-scrubbed stone prairie palace of the Elgin, the sweet clapboard Victorian Sit Down Café, and the PWA Moderne municipal building suggested a civic pulse.
It signaled that the lights were on, and somebody was home in Marion.
Carrying that torch, travel agency owner Tammy Ensey took a flyer and bought the 12-room Elgin a decade ago, trusting it could be the “destination” I was sensing as I drove in for the first time.
Ensey moved to Marion when her husband got a job here in 2014.
“I said, ‘two years is all I give you, because I’m not really a small-town person.’ Although, this place,” she said, indicating the building around her, “turned me into one.”
She was looking for office space for her business when she found the Elgin for sale.
Though listed on the National Register of Historic Places for architecture and commerce, and lavishly renovated with wood paneled libraries and sitting areas as a bed and breakfast, it had no signage and was never promoted, advertised, or open to curious walk-ins.
“My husband and I walked in,” she said, “and I was just like, ‘Wow, why is this not open to the public?’”
She saw it as a tourism gem that could bring a healthy return on investment — not to mention boost Marion’s image — and she’s kept the place up with improvements through sweat equity, and assiduously pursuing economic development grants and tax breaks.
I stayed at the Elgin for two weeks while looking for long-term housing for my four-month stay here, and I’ve frequently returned to the hotel restaurant, Parlour 1886.
The club-like leather-and-wood dining room and bar is a cozy extension of the hotel’s mission.
Chef-proprietors Alicia and Luis Peña call it an “accessible” price point — not cheap, but for about $25 you can get crisp grilled salmon with creative seasonal sauces (Beluga lentils pureed with spinach was my favorite), or a large square of cheesy lasagna, or their signature chicken-fried steak that stays crunchy even blanketed with gravy.
They also make an amazing off-menu mocktail — blossom breeze — that Alicia Peña, a US Air Force retiree, will tweak it to your taste.
It’s good enough to regret that the restaurant is open only for dinner Thursday to Saturday and for Sunday brunch.
Ensey’s vision of the Marion area as a potential attraction is proof of a travel axiom: People do not always travel to places because they are already famous. Sometimes they come because someone has cared enough to reveal what is there.
Ensey ticks off a list of area assets. People will come, and want a nice place to stay.
Elgin guest Jonathan Tasler, a Kansas City air charter broker and amateur photographer, has driven widely across Kansas, capturing images of churches, poor houses, gas stations, sunrises, and sunsets.
But it was the massive, infinitely faceted Elgin chandelier that brought him to the hotel: “I had to find out more.”
He knew little about Marion before visiting and did not immediately connect the town with national coverage of a raid on the Record.
But, he said, that was what made the place more than a dot on a map for him. (Indeed, Ensey said it’s not uncommon for guests to ask if they can visit the Record.)
“Marion is a bit of a bright spot in very rural Kansas,” Tasler said. “There’s some new energy here.”
And the hotel gave him a comfortable base for exploring during a three-day stay in May.
Ensey has managed to evoke the Elgin’s 19th-century origins without knick-knack clutter that can make historic lodgings feel like dusty stage sets.
Ensey perceives what modern travelers want and has given it to them: Wi-Fi that works, accessible sockets for phone charging, decent light, easy parking (covered, if you pay extra for haven from wicked hail), a small gym, and on two floors, large working kitchens for guests with tables big enough to lay a spread of food for a crowd or to spread your laptop and work files out.
More valuable than those appointments, Tasler said, is that the staff and management are “really good ambassadors for the city of Marion.”
That hospitality captures something that’s just as monumental as the hotel edifice itself, he said.
“In Kansas, there’s just miles and miles of nothing,” he said. “But then occasionally, there’s something.”
The Elgin helped him find Marion’s something.