Little Hotel
Lampasas, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After the nearby Gracy (now Keystone) Hotel was completed in 1870, it was decided to use the leftover stone for the construction of a "Little Hotel." Built for J. L. N. Gracy and his bride, the structure contained a private apartment upstairs and rooms for travelers downstairs. It was constructed by Charles Green, a stonemason who worked on several other buildings in the area, including the Gracy Hotel and the Coleman County Courthouse and Jail. The Little Hotel now serves as a reminder of the pioneer heritage and craftsmanship of Lampasas. (1984)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the nearby Gracy Hotel was finished in 1870, its builders used the leftover stone to raise this smaller companion, the "Little Hotel." It gave J. L. N. Gracy and his bride a private apartment upstairs while offering rooms to travelers below. Its mason, Charles Green, also worked on the larger hotel and on the Coleman County courthouse and jail, leaving his craftsmanship across the region.
Why it matters
Modest stone buildings like this preserve the everyday hospitality and hand-cut craftsmanship of a frontier Texas town before the railroad age.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J. L. N. Gracy
- · Charles Green
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Keystone Hotel
Lampasas, TX
Built in 1870 of native rock hauled to the site by oxen, the Keystone Hotel served as a stagecoach inn on the routes crossing early Central Texas, its windows crowned by the keystone arches that gave it its name. Kept by J. L. N. Gracy, it stood amid the ordinary infrastructure of frontier travel — a wagon yard, a bell tower, quarters for employees, and, poignantly, the grave of a boy killed in an Indian raid. It survives as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Lampasas County
Lampasas, TX
Lampasas County was organized in 1856, formed from Travis and Bell counties as Anglo settlement pushed up the Texas rivers in the years before the Civil War. Its name derives from Lampazos, the Spanish name for the local river, said to refer to the cockle-burs that grew thickly along its banks. First settled around 1850, the county grew steadily and gained its first railroad in 1882, with the town of Lampasas as its seat.
Hanna Springs
Lampasas, TX
In the Texas Hill Country, the bubbling mineral springs first glimpsed by "Hopping John" Burleson in 1847 became the seed of the town of Lampasas, laid out in 1855 around a hotel at Scott's White Sulphur Springs. Under later owner John L. Hanna the resort took his name and drew health-seekers who believed the mineral waters could cure their ailments. A grand pavilion-turned-opera-house even hosted the 1892 State Democratic Convention before the fashion for spa towns faded and the grounds fell to brush, until the site was given to the city in 1994.
Site of Park Hotel
Lampasas, TX
When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe reached Lampasas in 1882, the town became a rail terminus and a fashionable spa destination famed for its healing sulphur springs. Houston and Galveston businessmen built the Park Hotel, opened in 1883: a 300-foot frame resort with 200 rooms, ballrooms, a bandstand, and a mule-drawn trolley to the depot, host in 1885 to the first Texas Bankers Association convention. Its glory was brief — as the rails pushed west and medicine outgrew mineral cures, the hotel declined and burned in 1895.