Muskogee native

hates to see

landmark sit idle

By D.E. Smoot

Phoenix Staff Writer

Mesha Bevilacqua has an eye for details that has catapulted her career as a photographer. With an eye on the future, Bevilacqua has a vision to revive a piece of Muskogee’s past. Her focus is the old Muskogee Hotel. Bevilacqua, owner of The Right Angle Photography, bought the building last August. She plans to open a photography studio in the historic building and open other parts of the ground floor and basement for special events and leased retail space.

“I started brainstorming and got with my husband, and we decided that would be a more lucrative busiess all the way around to have a photography studio in there,” Bevilacqua said of her downtown Muskogee investment.“Not just that,

but to have events, and eventually — if the city is willing to support that — to have the hotel back up and running.”

Bevilacqua, a Muskogee native who presently operates a studio near Woodall, said the hotel has a special place in her memory as well as its place in history. “I was born and raised in Muskogee, and I remember the old hotel when it was

apartments,” Bevilacqua said. “It has always been a landmark, and I hate to see it just sitting like that.” The Muskogee Hotel, Bevilacqua said, was closed down in 1991 after it wasdeemed unfit for residential occupation. Bevilacqua said that issue will be dealt with during the second phase of the renovation project as the second and third floors

are brought up to code.

First-phase efforts will focus on the first floor and the basement areas.Within Bevilacqua’s field of vision is the revival of the Brass Rail, a storied institution of Muskogee’s past and the first establishment in town to be licensed to sell liquor

by the drink. “There are so many stories about the hotel that should be preserved — the opera house on the second

floor and the speakeasy down below the old Brass Rail,” Bevilacqua said. “Even if people don’t know the old Muskogee Hotel, they know the Brass Rail.” While the Brass Rail historically has been operated as a bar, Bevilacqua said

she thinks it would make a nice, upscale coffee shop that serves sandwiches and pastries.

To complement her studio and her plan to rent out parts of the historic hotel for special events, Bevilacqua said the retail space would be perfect for a bridal shop, florist or jeweler. In addition to providing space for Bevilacqua’s

planned Muskogee studio, the hotel and its decor provide a perfect backdrop for her photographs. “I like the rustic, falling apart kind of look it provides,” said Bevilacqua, whose recent work incorporates the hotel and her

models. “I think it is a very unique look for pictures that people pay a lot of money to make happen, and

it’s already there for me. “But that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way. I don’t want to change much— we’ll clean it up — But I just love the brick and the rustic feel,” Bevilacqua said. Other than the upstairs renovations that will be required to comply with modern building codes, Bevilacqua said the lower floor won’t need much work because

of the work that was completed shortly before the building was closed. That work included the remodeling

of the kitchen and the elevator. Bevilacqua said she has hired a contractor and theplans are completed, they

just have to be filed, approved and permits granted before work will begin. The work will be completed in

three phases: the ground floor and the basement, the

upper floors, and the tying both phases together.

The upper stories, Bevilacqua said, will feature studio suites. Each floor will have a banquet room once the three-phase

project is completed. “I can’t wait to get it up and going,” Bevilacqua said about the project. “I love the fact that the hotel will again be a hotel at some point.”

Reach D.E. Smoot at 684-

2903 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.

com.