Hotel at White Deer
White Deer, Carson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The White Deer Land Company, a trustee for court-ordered land sales in this area, established the White Deer Demonstration Farm in the 1890s. About 1909 this frame four square structure was built to board prospective land buyers. Marvin Hughes bought the building in 1913 and it became a hotel. Subsequent owners included the Goodner Family in 1929, and E. L. Colgrove in 1944. The structure has served as a boardinghouse, apartments, and a private residence.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the sparsely settled Texas Panhandle, the White Deer Land Company managed court-ordered land sales and ran a demonstration farm to lure buyers. Around 1909 it built this four-square frame building to house prospective settlers coming to look over the land, and by 1913 it had become a full-fledged hotel under Marvin Hughes. Over the following decades it served in turn as a boardinghouse, apartments, and a private home.
Why it matters
The building is a tangible piece of the land-company machinery that populated the Panhandle, turning empty grassland into farms and towns in the early twentieth century.
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Related people
- · Marvin Hughes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of White Deer
White Deer, TX
Baptists in the young Panhandle town of White Deer first worshipped in the Presbyterians' building before organizing their own missionary church in June 1912 with missionaries of the Palo Duro Association. Funded by gifts and the sale of wheat and cotton crops, the congregation dedicated a Mission Revival–style brick sanctuary in 1921 and paid off its debt within five years. The building sheltered residents during a deadly 1951 tornado and later served as a school cafeteria and education building, remaining a hub of community life.
White Deer
White Deer, TX
White Deer took its name from a creek and an Indian legend of white deer that fed there. The county's first water well was drilled at the N Bar N Ranch in 1887, and the site served as headquarters for the White Deer Land Co., successor to a British syndicate that held 630,000 Panhandle acres before selling them off for farms in 1902. The arrival of the railroad and, later, a 1920s oil boom turned it into a shipping town for grain and cattle.
Jackson General Store
White Deer, TX
Built at White Deer's original townsite, this commercial building was hauled half a mile to the new townsite in 1908 when the community relocated. It housed the general merchandise business of J. C. Jackson, a leading figure in the town's development who also served as mayor, postmaster, county judge, and precinct commissioner across four decades. Jackson and his wife Dolly helped found the First Presbyterian Church and even made their home inside the store for many years.
First Presbyterian Church
White Deer, TX
Dedicated on July 4, 1909, this was the first church building in the Panhandle town of White Deer, paid for largely by gifts from pioneer members' home churches and neighbors of other faiths. For eleven years Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists shared it, their circuit pastors taking turns on Sundays and splitting the offerings three ways. It served as a house of worship until 1969 and was moved from this site in 1978.