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47 T he Astroworld Hotel was more t h a n a h o t e l i n v e s t m e n t property in the A s t r o d o m a i n c o m p l e x . I t s e x t r a v a g a n t seven-figure (in '60s dollars) penthouse, known as the Celestial Suite, was for a memorable four years, 1969 to 1973, the home of the exuberant and enigmatic Judge Roy Hofheinz. It's where he and his second wife, Mary Frances Gougenheim, entertained Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Lyndon Johnson, and Muhammad Ali. The hotel today is the Crowne Plaza and sits across from NRG Stadium and the shell of the Astrodome. Few remember that the hotel, with its understated and functional modernist architecture, was the seat of the Hofheinz sports, media, and entertainment conglomerate, which encompassed 500 acres, ownership of the Astros baseball team, Astroworld amusement park, a quartet of hotels and motels including the Astroworld Hotel, the Astro Bank and Astrohall, all spun around the gem at its center: the world's first indoor stadium, the Astrodome, brashly and optimistically modeled on the Roman Coliseum. The Hofheinz aesthetic was jaw- dropping, theatrically imaginative, and not for the faint of heart. The design DNA was introduced at the family home in Morgan's Point along Galveston Bay, called Huckster House, which was acquired in 1950. "The word 'huckster' is used in the radio business as somebody who went out and sold the advertising, and that's how he got all his business," says the Judge's son, Fred Hofheinz (who, like his father, also served as Houston mayor, and was a one-time VP of the vast Hofheinz holdings). "He was a great radio and television advertising salesman. And Huckster House was filled with people selling." Its design aesthetic would be a blueprint for the Judge's lavish personal quarters at the Dome, and ultimately, the Celestial Suite. Huckster House, for which he paid $12,500, became Hofheinz's personal play land. He and the family entertained on weekends and did business, boating, barbecuing, and closing deals. Victorian in style, circa 1894-1896, the imposing home was loaded with gingerbread and other trappings of its era: wraparound porch, turret, onion-shaped roof, and all manner of fretwork. Some $100,000 was poured into it to create theme rooms and odes to Victoriana that the Judge's Beaumont childhood had lacked, due to scarce funds. He made up for that with a creative vengeance. Among Huckster House's notable interiors were The Circus Room, adjoining The Hofheinz Opera House bathroom (seating for HOUSTON LIVED LARGE IN THE 1960S — AND NO ONE LIVED LARGER THAN JUDGE ROY HOFHEINZ, CREATOR OF THE ASTRODOMAIN EMPIRE, WHICH INCLUDED THE EXTRAORDI- NARY CELESTIAL SUITE, ENSCONCED IN THE PENTHOUSE OF THE ASTROWORLD HOTEL. THE JEWEL OF HIS SPACE-AGE DOMAIN, THIS TIME CAPSULE IS REMARKABLY INTACT NEARLY HALF A CENTURY AFTER ITS OPENING, HAVING LAIN VACANT FOR YEARS. CATHERINE D. ANSPON PEERS THROUGH THE DUSTY VESTIGES OF THE CELESTIAL SUITE. The Crusader Bedroom, the Judge's personal suite and the first room designed by Harper Goff. The chess table awaits a future game, in the Hofheinz Suite's Crusader Bedroom.