The clothes and the map would have made a short list. Ricky Denzler told Abilene police somebody had also taken five paintings from his motel room. He said he’d painted them himself and estimated they were worth more than $2 million together. The map hardly stood a chance of being the detail people remembered. [1]

Denzler was sixty and on his way from Lubbock to the Dallas–Fort Worth area. He’d stopped to see family and rented a room at 3417 South First Street. On June 5, 2017, Abilene police put his account of the weekend into a one-page notice. It said he had yet to provide proof of the paintings. There was a street address to look up. Finding a picture of even one of the works would be harder. [1]

A concrete railroad bridge above the Pine Street road underpass in Abilene
Pine Street passes beneath the railroad in this 2015 Abilene photograph.
Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY 4.0 · Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

A room on the old highway

In the fall of 2017, the Tower Motel came up for sale. The listing shows the property at the same address. It advertises 29 rooms with exterior corridors. Go back a little further, to the 1983–84 city directory, and the name is there too. That older entry gives you another way to find the place. It calls the road U.S. Highway 80 West. [2] [3]

That name tells you something about who used to pass the motel. The state planned to send through traffic around town on Interstate 20, with the old highway through Abilene serving as a business route. People who needed a room, a place to eat, or an address in town could still take the older road. A stop to see family could put someone on South First decades after the bypass came along. [1] [3] [5]

Pull up Abilene’s 1902 fire-insurance map and you can see where South First got its bearings. In the little map in the upper right, a set of tracks runs between two streets called First. On the larger sheet, you can pick out the wagon yards, the cotton gin, and the lumber yard. The Texas & Pacific and local ranchers helped get Abilene started, and the town dates its founding to a sale of lots in 1881. The old drawing still makes it easy to see how much of town faced the railroad. [4] [7] [14]

By the 1930s, road traffic and the railroad had to share the same crossings downtown. A Depression-era public works project raised the rail line and put Pine and Cedar streets underneath it. There was even a pedestrian passage so someone coming from the south could reach the passenger depot. The passenger depot sat just across the tracks from South First. So did a hotel built for the people coming off those trains. [19]

A red-brick corner building with a Grace Museum sign and a covered sidewalk
The former Hotel Grace at North First and Cypress in 2015. The restored building now houses The Grace Museum.
Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY 4.0 · Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Across the tracks at the Grace

At North First and Cypress stands the kind of hotel a passenger could spot as soon as they got downtown. The Hotel Grace opened in 1909, a large brick building near the station on the line between Fort Worth and El Paso. You can still see the long covered sidewalk in the photograph. A room at the Grace belonged to the era when a rail ticket could bring you nearly to the hotel door. [6]

The Grace took the name Drake in 1946. As passenger service thinned out and downtown lost business, the hotel lost guests. It shut in 1973, and for years the building sat in bad shape. When local preservation advocates bought it in 1987, architect Rick Weatherl had to work out how to make a museum inside a building they wanted to look as it had in 1935. In February 1992, the doors opened again. People who walked under that canopy could go in to see paintings. [6]

There’s a similar story up Cypress Street, where the Paramount Theatre opened in 1930. The auditorium was designed to look like a courtyard after dark. Clouds were projected overhead and little stars twinkled above the seats. The theater closed for a time as downtown traffic fell, and preservation advocates helped save it too. The Grace and the Paramount became part of the downtown cultural district, in buildings that were already familiar to generations of people in Abilene. [8] [9]

A black-and-white street photograph of the Paramount Theatre sign and marquee
A black-and-white view of Abilene’s Paramount Theatre, which opened in 1930.
Amanda Shouse (ElTrio1), Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

The week Wilbur got a garden

The garden party planned for the week of the burglary report had its roots in a visit to an Abilene elementary school. In 1993, Mayor Gary McCaleb read Santa Calls to children there and learned that William Joyce had set the book in Abilene. Joyce later recalled choosing the town because he wanted his main character to wear a cowboy hat. He’d never been to Abilene when he picked it. The book brought the two men together, and their friendship helped start the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature. It eventually found a permanent home in the old Rhodes Building downtown. [10]

Texas gave Abilene its Storybook Capital designation in 2015. By June 2017 the city was getting ready to open a garden outside the convention center, with bronze figures of characters the illustrator Garth Williams had drawn. The local festival schedule gave the parade a six o’clock start on Thursday, three days after the police notice. The garden opening was set for half an hour later. There’d be a garden party for Wilbur, and an exhibition of Williams’s work was on the program for Friday and Saturday. [11] [16] [17]

If you grew up with Charlotte’s Web, you already know who to look for in the bronze figures. That week the city was making a place for artwork people could recognize from a few words on a festival schedule. Meanwhile, anyone who picked up the police notice would come away knowing how much Denzler said his paintings were worth, with almost nothing to tell them what they looked like. [1] [16] [17]

Silhouettes of Abilene buildings against an orange evening sky
The Abilene skyline at sunset in 2013.
Flofor15, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Back to South First

Even a bad photograph of a painting can show a signature, a subject or a nick in a frame. That kind of detail helps identify a work in a database such as the FBI’s stolen-art file. The Abilene notice gives the number of works and the owner’s estimate. It supplies no titles, images or independent appraisal. [1] [13]

Police classified the report as burglary of a habitation, a term Texas law uses for places adapted for overnight stays. The release remains in the city archive, and Abilene has a public records process. The announcement leaves the method of entry and hour unspecified. A later arrest, court outcome or recovery remains unverified in the sources for this article. [1] [12] [15] [18]

The directory can take you to the Tower Motel by the name of the old highway. The listing can show you the building. The one-page notice takes you to a traveler who said he’d lost five paintings. It ends before you find out what they looked like. [1] [2] [3]

Case brief

Abilene, Texas · 2017

Recorded outcome
Abilene police announced a reported burglary on June 5, 2017. The reported missing works, their value and the later case outcome remain unverified in the public record reviewed.

Key moments

  1. Before June 5, 2017Denzler rents a room on South FirstView on map
  2. Weekend before June 5, 2017Denzler says five paintings went missingView on map
  3. June 5, 2017Police announce a burglary investigationView on map

Case photographs

  • The Tower Motel exterior

    The property listing dated September 2017 includes an exterior photo of 3417 South First Street. The listing gives the address and the motel name.

    Exterior photograph at source · 2017 LoopNet property listing

Look closer · 7 visuals

Explore six photographs and a 1902 street map of Abilene. Each visual includes a credit, a source and a note about what it shows. The case photographs section links to the Tower Motel exterior.

Context

Abilene’s streets in 1902

April 1902 Sanborn map of Abilene. The upper-right inset shows the tracks between North and South First.

Read the evidence notes

Use the top-right inset to orient yourself. The larger plan labels a cotton gin, wagon yards and a lumber yard.

Historic city map. The motel report came 115 years later.

Source 14 ↗ · Sanborn Map Company · Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Sanborn Maps Collection · Image source · U.S. public domain

Context

The Pine Street railroad underpass

Pine Street passes beneath the railroad in this 2015 Abilene photograph.

Read the evidence notes

The 1936 project separated rail and street traffic and kept a route to the passenger depot for people on foot.

Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Source 19 ↗ · Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY 4.0

Context

From Hotel Grace to The Grace Museum

The former Hotel Grace at North First and Cypress in 2015. The restored building now houses The Grace Museum.

Read the evidence notes

Look for the long covered sidewalk and the corner entrance of the former railway-era hotel.

Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Source 6 ↗ · Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY 4.0

Context

The Paramount’s marquee

A black-and-white view of Abilene’s Paramount Theatre, which opened in 1930.

Read the evidence notes

The theater’s marquee and vertical sign are part of downtown’s historic streetscape.

Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Source 9 ↗ · Amanda Shouse (ElTrio1), Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0

Context

A look up a downtown block

Downtown Abilene photographed in 2007.

Read the evidence notes

The street-level view gives a sense of the scale of the blocks in the old commercial district.

Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Source 8 ↗ · Keithimus, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · Public domain dedication

Context

Abilene at sunset

The Abilene skyline at sunset in 2013.

Read the evidence notes

The low roofs, towers and utility lines give a broader view of the town beyond the motel address.

Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Source 7 ↗ · Flofor15, Wikimedia Commons · Image source · CC BY-SA 3.0

Context

Windmill and water tower at dusk

Carol M. Highsmith photographed this Abilene scene in 2014.

Read the evidence notes

An archival view of Abilene’s landscape away from the downtown buildings.

Abilene setting photograph. The Tower Motel exterior is linked separately.

Carol M. Highsmith, LC-DIG-highsm-26192 · The Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · Image source · Public domain dedication

★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.

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Follow the locations

Put the story on the map.

Follow the dated entries, then select an event to find its regional setting. Shared-location pins open a group of events. Evidence symbols identify important findings and their limitations.

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Sources & further reading

  1. Abilene Police Department · June 5 release NR 0605027Primary · 2017-06-05Records Denzler’s account, the address, his estimate, and the burglary classification at the time of the release.
  2. LoopNet · Tower Motel property listingPrimary · 2017-09-20 market dateIdentifies the property as Tower Motel, lists 29 rooms, and shows an exterior photograph. The photo capture date is unspecified.
  3. Abilene city directory · 1983–84 motel listingsPrimary · 1983–84Lists the Tower Motel at 3417 South First and references U.S. Highway 80 West. Digitized by the Portal to Texas History.
  4. Taylor County Historical Commission · Founding AbileneSecondaryFounding date, town-lot sale, the railway and area ranchers.
  5. Texas Department of Transportation · State Highway Loop 355Primary · 1961 and 1990 entriesDocuments the old U.S. 80 alignment in Abilene, its business-route designation and transfer to Business I-20.
  6. The Grace Museum · Historic restorationSecondaryHistory of the Hotel Grace, the Drake, preservation and the conversion to a museum.
  7. The Grace Museum · Early Downtown AbileneSecondaryRailroad origins and the development of downtown.
  8. Abilene Cultural Affairs Council · Cultural districtSecondary2010 designation and downtown arts institutions.
  9. Historic Paramount Theatre · HistorySecondaryOpening year and atmospheric design of Abilene’s theater.
  10. National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature · Our storySecondaryThe Abilene setting of Santa Calls and the center’s history and permanent home.
  11. Texas Legislative Reference Library · HCR 93Primary · 2015Designation of Abilene as the Storybook Capital of Texas.
  12. Texas Penal Code · Chapter 30PrimarySection 30.01 definition of habitation.
  13. FBI · Art crime and reporting guidancePrimaryGeneral guidance on documenting and reporting stolen objects.
  14. Library of Congress · Sanborn map of Abilene, sheet 1Primary · 1902-04Street index, railroad corridor, block plan and building uses in early Abilene.
  15. City of Abilene · Public information requestsPrimaryCity’s channel for requesting releasable records.
  16. Abilene Scene · Growing a Storybook GardenSecondary · 2017-05-02The scheduled June 8 opening, parade, Williams exhibition, and artists behind the garden sculptures.
  17. Abilene Cultural Affairs Council · Storybook GardenSecondaryIdentifies the garden, its 2017 opening and the characters represented.
  18. Abilene Police Department · Release archivePrimaryArchive indexes the June 5 release under NR 0605027.
  19. Texas Historical Commission · Commercial historic district nominationPrimary · 1991 nominationDocuments the Pine and Cedar underpasses and pedestrian access to the depot.

Editorial review: 2026-11-12 · 1114 words