Hotel Dallas, 1912
Eagle Lake, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Hotel Dallas, 1912 After Eagle Lake was laid out inthe 1850s, Gamaliel Good built a hotel on this corner. The Good Hotel served as a stagecoach and railroad stop. Three railroads crossed town, and commerce was heavy. By 1912 the economy had become dependent on rice farming and this structure was built. The Dallas Hotel was the social and business center for the town. Several hotels competed for the travelers' and drummers' business. With the decline of the railroad and the upsurge in automobiles, business decreased. This is the only one left of the historic hotels. (1979)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Eagle Lake grew up in the 1850s where three railroads crossed and stagecoaches paused, and Gamaliel Good's early hotel on this corner served the steady stream of travelers and traveling salesmen — the "drummers" — who kept a rail town's commerce humming. By 1912, when the surviving Hotel Dallas was built, the local economy had shifted to rice farming, and this house became the town's social and business hub. As railroads faded and automobiles took over, its trade declined, leaving it the last of Eagle Lake's historic hotels.
Why it matters
The rise and fall of a small-town hotel captures the larger American story of how the railroad, and then the automobile, made and unmade the fortunes of towns across the country.
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Related people
- · Gamaliel Good
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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