In the summer of 1956 the Bank of the Southwest building was completed as the first major office building since the Great Depression to be located west of Main Street: a decision considered daring in Houston financial circles. Colonel W. B. Bates, Chairman of the Bank, along with Ed Rotan and Tenneco Chairman Gardiner Symonds, organized what was to become Houston’s premier lunch club located in the bank building. It was small and select, numbering only 100 members while providing facilities for expansion with space for the bank to entertain its clients in a designated area.

To provide the ideal ambiance for the Club, the Committee engaged Kenneth Franzheim, a well-known and highly regarded Houston architect. It was he who established the Nineteenth Century European motif that we continue to enjoy today. He also gave the Club its name after Francisco Vasquez Coronado a Sixteenth Century Spanish explorer. (See Coronado’s Children by Frank R. Dobie, in the Club’s library.)

The Club officially opened January 1957 with approximately 100 members from downtown banking, legal and accounting firms, oil and gas companies, brokerage houses and insurance companies. Ed Rotan was the Club’s first president serving from 1956 to 1959. With its outstanding facilities and membership the Club doubled its membership. In the early eighties the by-laws were amended to invite women to become members and more recently established a ceiling of 750 for the total membership.

In the 1960’s as Houston continued to grow, the Coronado Club was the scene of many significant and historical negotiations in the business community. Many businesses had their monthly and quarterly board meetings here. The Bank of the Southwest conducted its executive committee meetings here. A. G. McNeese, the bank’s president and a Club member was a valuable member in the Club’s relationship with the bank.

In the early days card games were popular and the players were ably assisted by Rudy Frierson, the bartender, who later served as the Club’s Manager for a number of years. Rudy was the confidant of many members, notably Leon Jaworski, then special prosecutor in the Nixon Watergate matter. If only the walls could talk! Rudy didn’t.

The Solo Room became the center of many fascinating discussions, arguments, debates and frequent pearls of information regarding the local business scene. Today the members-only spot remains the site of lively conversation and colorful stories reminiscent of times gone by.