PHOTO BY JOHN FRYMAN / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
HISTORICAL GRAFFITI … In 1898, the Morrello Brothers, part of a traveling troupe from New York City, visited downtown Bryan and left this graffiti on a wall of the former Long Building on High Street. It is now framed and displayed in the hallway area of Zazarac’s Bar and Eatery. Longtime Bryan-area businessman Dave Swanson is undertaking a project to renovate all three floors of the building.
By John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
john@thevillagereporter.com
Dave Swanson envisioned injecting new life into one of the oldest buildings in downtown Bryan, and the founder and former president of the Daavlin Company is now pursuing that project at the former Long Building, 110-116 W. High St.
Swanson owned Daavlin Company, a Bryan-based manufacturer of phototherapeutic products, from 1981 until he sold it to a Chicago investor on May 19, 2022.
Once he sold the company, Swanson took a few months off traveling around the world to places such as Portugal and Africa before realizing he didn’t want to travel for the rest of his life.
In the meantime, Swanson began refurbishing the Long Building, a three-story, 10,000-square-foot, circa-1871 structure on the north side of the courthouse square.
His idea of a full-scale refurbishment of the building would begin with the first-floor construction of Dos Eppi’s Restaurant, a Puerto Rican-inspired restaurant.
The restaurant didn’t last very long. It closed April 1, 2024, according to Swanson. Three months later, Swanson opened Zazarac’s Bar and Eatery on July 19, 2024. It has since become a thriving business in the downtown area.
“There is an overall plan to renovate this whole half-block of High Street, and I divided it down to bays,” Swanson said. “This building has three bays with it.”
Swanson said two of the bays have now become part of Zazarac’s, while the third bay will be an addition to Zazarac’s and will also serve as a lobby for the future Morrello Hotel.
The second floor will consist of residential living space, an office and a conference room, as well as seven hotel rooms.
Swanson drew the hotel’s name from a piece of historical wall graffiti left behind in 1898 by the Morrello Brothers, who were part of a traveling troupe from New York City that stopped in Bryan.
The graffiti is now framed and displayed in the hallway area of Zazarac’s.
“The Morrello Brothers were known as the champion head-balancers in the world, put on a performance here in the building and they left this beautiful graffiti behind,” Swanson said.
The second and third floors will feature seven hotel rooms per floor for a total of 14 rooms, with a lobby beside the space Zazarac’s now occupies. There will also be an elevator serving all three floors.
In addition to its seven hotel rooms, the third floor will also feature an event center for those who want to host special events while overlooking downtown Bryan.
“We look upon it as a nice little event center,” Swanson said. “Somebody can stay in the hotel, come down to have dinner or lunch, go to an event or a business meeting in Bryan. It’s going to be a nice little place.”
Swanson added that structural upgrades may make this one of the safest buildings in the Fountain City.
“As we started tearing things apart upstairs, we found out the whole roof was sagging by almost two feet,” Swanson said.
“We hired a structural steel company to come in and install an iron framework in the building. We also replaced the roof on the building.”
Renovations on the second floor are expected to wrap up by Dec. 1, with the hotel targeted to open in early to mid-2027.
A timeline for completing the third floor and its event space has not yet been set.