Site of Hotel Knox and Thurber Mining Office
Thurber, Erath County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Texas and Pacific Coal Company built the first-class Hotel Knox about 1895. In addition to serving out-of-town guests, it was a social center in Thurber and home to many of the town's white collar workers, including store clerks and staff of the adjacent mining office where general manager William Knox Gordon maintained his headquarters. The Hotel Knox burned in 1907 and was replaced by the Plummer Hotel. Although the town was dismantled in the 1930s, ruins of the mining office were still visible decades later. (1995)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1895 the Texas and Pacific Coal Company built the first-class Hotel Knox in its company coal town of Thurber, where it housed and entertained the mine's white-collar staff beside the mining office run by general manager William Knox Gordon. After the hotel burned in 1907, the Plummer Hotel replaced it. Thurber itself was dismantled in the 1930s, though the ruins of the mining office lingered for decades.
Why it matters
Thurber was one of Texas's great company coal towns, and these vanished buildings mark the boom-and-bust arc of an industrial community that rose, thrived, and disappeared.
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Related people
- · William Knox Gordon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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