Wow!! Hard to believe that place is gone. I first was there while in high school, we had a band conference of some sort and had to stay overnight due to a surprise blizzard. While the conference rooms were very elegant, the hotel rooms were very run down and not too clean, I was surprised but at that age didn't realize what might come from that.
I went to a heavy truck convention there and went to the Fire Chief's convention almost annually and again, the convention areas were nicely kept. I remember one year a heavy weight boxer (an Italian guy who's name I can't remember) was training there during the chief's convention. This would have been in the early 80s, the boxer was a contender for the championship.
That place had a lot of history and was well known throughout the state. It did seem however that unless you appeared to have money you weren't treated very well. I rode my motorcycle to the truck convention and even though I was neatly dressed no one there would give me the time of day. I knew there were troubles there when the Chief's convention found another venue to exhibit at.
Are there plans at all to rebuild or were they simply cleaning up a hazard?