Lamar Building
Crosbyton, Crosby County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site of Crosbyton Inn, first hotel here, built 1908, by C. B. Livestock Company to help promote area for cotton farming. A two-story frame building, it was mecca for travelers and land buyers. After fire in 1912, hotel rebuilt over original basement. It was razed in 1920s. A brick office and apartment building was erected by E. H. Hendricks in 1926; purchased 1944 by W. P. Lamar and renamed Lamar Building. Lamar (1889-1946), farmer, businessman, was son of pioneer of Crosby County. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This site first held the Crosbyton Inn, a two-story frame hotel built in 1908 by the C.B. Livestock Company to lure land buyers and promote the region for cotton farming. A magnet for travelers on the South Plains, it was rebuilt over its original basement after an early fire and finally razed in the 1920s. In 1926 a brick office and apartment block rose in its place, later bought and renamed for W. P. Lamar in 1944.
Why it matters
The building's history captures the boosterism that turned the West Texas plains into cotton country, one hotel and land sale at a time.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1900s, the South Plains of West Texas were on the edge of a dramatic transformation. Land that had long served as open range for cattle was about to be plowed and planted. Large ranching companies, with huge holdings and the means to sell them, saw that farmland could be worth more than grazing land if settlers could be persuaded to come.
Cotton was the crop that drove the change. As farmers and promoters learned the plains could grow it, a wave of town-building and land selling swept across the region. Developers laid out new towns, advertised to farmers farther east, and brought prospective buyers out to see the land for themselves.
Crosbyton grew out of exactly this moment. A town needed somewhere for those visitors to stay, eat, and be sold on the dream of a new life on the plains, and the first hotel was often one of the most important buildings in a new community.
People & events
The story starts with the C. B. Livestock Company, which built the Crosbyton Inn in 1908 as the town's first hotel. Its job was more than offering beds. The company wanted to promote the surrounding country for cotton farming, and the two-story frame inn became a lively center for the travelers and land buyers who came to see what the area offered.
The inn's life was eventful. Fire struck in 1912, but the hotel was rebuilt on its original basement, a sign that the town wasn't ready to lose so useful a building. It lasted until the 1920s, when it was finally torn down. By then the area's first boom years had passed and the town was settling into a steadier life.
In 1926, E. H. Hendricks put up a brick office and apartment building on the site, a more permanent structure for a maturing town. In 1944 it was bought by W. P. Lamar, who gave it the name it carries today. Lamar, who lived from 1889 to 1946, was a farmer and businessman and the son of a Crosby County pioneer, so his ownership tied the building back to the families who had settled the county.
Its place in the American story
The Lamar Building's site tells a story repeated across the American West: land companies and boosters creating towns and selling the land around them. Railroads, ranches and development companies all worked to turn empty acres into farms and farms into customers. A hotel full of eager land buyers was the front door of that whole enterprise.
The move from cattle range to cotton fields on the South Plains also reflects a larger shift in American agriculture. As the twentieth century began, farming pushed into lands once thought fit only for grazing, reshaping the economy and landscape of West Texas in ways that last to this day.
The site's progression, from frame hotel to fire to rebuilding to a solid brick building, traces the familiar arc of a frontier town growing up. Temporary and flammable gave way to durable and permanent as communities proved they were here to stay.
If you visit
When you stand at the Lamar Building, picture two layers of history on one spot. Beneath the brick building of 1926 once stood the frame Crosbyton Inn, busy with land buyers sizing up the plains. Try to imagine the scene: dusty travelers, hopeful farmers, and company agents talking up the rich soil.
Look at the brick building itself as a product of its era, a time when West Texas towns began building in brick and stone to signal permanence. Respect any current occupants, and enjoy the exterior from public spaces.
Crosbyton sits in wide, open South Plains country, and the drive in gives you a strong sense of the landscape the land companies were selling. It's a rewarding stop on a road trip through West Texas, where small towns still carry the story of the cotton boom in their streets and buildings.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · W. P. Lamar
- · E. H. Hendricks
Themes & tags
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