Charles Sansone, the hotel man who helped build Springfield

The Colonial Hotel, pictured during its heyday in downtown Springfield, Missouri, served as one of the city's premier hotels during the 1920s and 1930s. Charles Sansone managed the landmark hotel from 1925 until his retirement in 1944, welcoming business leaders, tourists, entertainers and civic organizations. During his tenure, the hotel hosted the 1926 Rotary District Conference and was associated with the meeting in which the designation "U.S. Route 66" was first proposed. Courtesy of the History Museum on the Square, Springfield, Missouri. Public domain image.

Editorial note: This is the final of two articles highlighting the life and experiences of Charles Sansone.

By 1911, Charles Sansone had already overcome challenges that might have ended another man's career.

The Sicilian immigrant had arrived in America as a child, built a successful restaurant business in Springfield, lost nearly everything in the devastating Baldwin Theatre fire of 1909 and, with the steadfast support of his wife, Angelina, begun again only three days later.

Now, standing in the lobby of the newly opened Hotel Sansone, he found himself entrusted with one of downtown Springfield's finest establishments. It marked the beginning of the most successful chapter of his remarkable career.
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Hotel Sansone quickly became known not only for its elegant accommodations but also for the hospitality Charles and Angelina extended to every guest who entered its doors. Years later, developer John T. Woodruff explained why he had selected the couple to manage the hotel. In his memoir Reminiscences of an Ozarkian, Woodruff wrote, "The venture panned out excellently. Charles and Mrs. Sansone were very attentive to business and prospered."

That simple observation reflected the philosophy that guided the Sansones throughout their careers. Success, they believed, was earned one customer at a time.

Travelers arriving by rail found more than comfortable rooms. They encountered attentive hosts who remembered names, anticipated needs and treated guests with genuine courtesy. The reputation Charles and Angelina established soon spread well beyond Springfield.

During the next decade, Hotel Sansone became one of the city's best-known addresses, welcoming commercial travelers, vacationers, civic leaders and entertainers visiting the rapidly growing Queen City of the Ozarks.

Yet Charles rarely stood still. By the early 1920s, another opportunity presented itself. Rather than remaining at the hotel that bore his name, Sansone sold his interest in Hotel Sansone in 1922 and turned his attention to another venture. He purchased property formerly occupied by the Hernan Sanford Saddle Company and developed what became the Crown Drug Store.

His entrepreneurial instincts continued leading him toward new challenges. In 1925, he accepted management of Springfield's prestigious Colonial Hotel. Constructed in 1907 at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and St. Louis Street, the Colonial ranked among the finest hotels in southwest Missouri. The Springfield-Greene County Library District later described it as "the finest hotel in southwest Missouri," while noting it was also Springfield's first steel-frame building.

Managing the Colonial represented a significant step upward. The hotel welcomed business executives, railroad officials, convention delegates, entertainers and political leaders arriving from across the Midwest.

Charles and Angelina once again became the faces visitors associated with Springfield hospitality. Just as they had done at Hotel Sansone, they emphasized courtesy, professionalism and careful attention to detail.

Their son, D. "Bunch" Sansone, eventually joined his father in the family business, ensuring the Sansone name remained closely connected with Springfield's hotel industry.

The Colonial Hotel soon became the center of many of Springfield's most important civic events while Charles himself remained active in community affairs. He belonged to the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, supported St. Agnes Catholic Church and participated in the Knights of Columbus. His business success never isolated him from the community that had embraced him more than three decades earlier.

One of the most memorable events during his management occurred in April 1926. Thousands of Rotarians from Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas descended upon Springfield for the Fifteenth District Rotary Conference.

The Springfield Leader announced: "The Colonial, managed by Charles Sansone, Rotarian, will be the conference hotel during the Fifteenth District Rotary conference today and tomorrow, and will be the main gathering place for visitors aside from the mosque."

The newspaper's prediction proved accurate. The Springfield Republican described downtown Springfield as overflowing with celebration. Visitors marched through the streets in impromptu parades while music echoed throughout the business district. According to the newspaper, St. Louis Street and the public square were illuminated so brilliantly that "the light was equal to that of day."

Amid that festive atmosphere, the Colonial Hotel became associated with one of Springfield's most enduring historical claims. On April 30, 1926, highway officials met in Springfield to settle a disagreement over the numbering of a proposed highway stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Evidence suggests portions of those discussions occurred at the Colonial Hotel while Charles Sansone managed the establishment. That afternoon, a telegram proposing the designation "66" was transmitted from the Postal Telegraph office located within the hotel. The message became the first documented proposal for what eventually became U.S. Route 66.

Charles Sansone did not choose the famous highway number but the discussions occurred under his roof while he welcomed many of the officials and visitors participating in one of the most significant transportation meetings in American history.

Despite managing one of the city's premier hotels, Charles never lost the work ethic that had carried him from a fruit stand to downtown prominence. Friends remembered him as approachable, optimistic and constantly looking for the next opportunity.

He also possessed interests extending far beyond business. According to his obituary, Charles developed a lifelong fascination with boxing.

"As a young man," the newspaper recalled, "he would often don fighting trunks and go several rounds with the boxers."

Over the years, he became acquainted with many of the sport's leading champions, a hobby that reflected both his outgoing personality and his enthusiasm for meeting interesting people.

After retiring from active hotel management in 1944, Charles hardly slowed down. Instead, he devoted his energy to developing a thirty-two-acre orchard on the former Country Club property along Glenstone Avenue. 

Even in retirement, he remained a businessman at heart, eager to cultivate new ventures and remain productive. Life, however, also brought profound personal loss. On July 28, 1945, Angelina died unexpectedly after suffering a heart attack while visiting relatives in St. Louis. She was sixty-three.

Her death ended a partnership that had lasted more than four decades. Together, Charles and Angelina had weathered financial disaster, rebuilt successful businesses, managed two of Springfield's finest hotels and raised their son.

Charles continued living for another nine years. Although advancing age gradually slowed him, he remained widely respected within Springfield's business community. When he died on Dec. 7, 1954, at the age of eighty, local newspapers remembered far more than a successful hotel operator. They celebrated a man whose life demonstrated perseverance, integrity and gratitude toward the country that had welcomed him as a child.

His obituary summarized an extraordinary journey that had begun in Sicily and culminated in Springfield. Today, many Springfield residents recognize the name Sansone because of the historic downtown building that still bears it.

Fewer know the remarkable story behind that name. They may not realize that the man honored by the building once sold fruit from a small stand on St. Louis Street and volunteered to serve his adopted nation during the Spanish-American War.

They may never have heard how he and Angelina lost virtually everything in the Baldwin Theatre fire, only to reopen another restaurant three days later. Nor may they know that one of Springfield's leading developers considered Charles and Angelina so trustworthy that he placed one of his largest investments in their hands.

Yet through attentiveness to customers, employees and opportunity, the Sansone family succeeded.
         
More than seventy years after his death, the former Hotel Sansone still stands in downtown Springfield as the city's last surviving grand hotel of its era. It is not only as an architectural landmark but a monument to the perseverance of an immigrant family who believed setbacks were temporary, hard work mattered and success was earned through service to others.

For Charles Sansone, the journey from Sicily to Springfield was never simply about building businesses but building a life, and in doing so, he helped build a city.

 Jeremy P. Ämick is author of the historical compilations “Moments on the Moreau” and “Beyond the Moreau.”