Site of Lacy Hotel
Denton, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Charles Christian Lacy (1816 - 70) moved with wife Sarah (Brown) from Kentucky to Texas, 1854; platted Denton townsite, 1855; had what is thought to have been city's first hotel, existent 1858-82, at this site. Before he gained fame as bandit, Sam Bass worked here briefly as a livery stable boy.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Charles Christian Lacy came from Kentucky with his wife Sarah in 1854 and helped plat the Denton townsite the following year, opening what is remembered as the city's first hotel here around 1858. For nearly a quarter century the Lacy Hotel served travelers on the young frontier town's dusty streets. In a footnote that later loomed large, a teenage Sam Bass worked here briefly as a livery stable boy before turning outlaw and becoming one of Texas's most notorious train robbers.
Why it matters
The site captures the founding of Denton itself and a small brush with the frontier outlaw legend of Sam Bass that still colors Texas folklore.
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Related people
- · Charles Christian Lacy
- · Sam Bass
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Denton County Courthouse
Denton, TX
Completed in 1896–97, this is Denton County's fifth courthouse, following earlier seats at Alton and Pinckneyville and a Denton predecessor burned in a crime blamed on the Sam Bass gang. Architect W.C. Dodson designed it in a free mix of Victorian styles, with French Second Empire pavilions and ogival domes, using native limestone walls and Burnet County marble columns. It remains a landmark of frontier-era Texas civic architecture.
Denton County
Denton, TX
Denton County was carved from Fannin County in April 1846 and organized that July, both town and county named for John B. Denton — a pioneer preacher, lawyer, and Indian fighter who died in 1841. The county seat wandered from Pinckneyville to Alton before settling permanently at Denton in 1850. The marker records the restless early years of a North Texas frontier county finding its footing.
John B. Denton
Denton, TX
Born in Tennessee in 1806, John B. Denton came to Texas in 1836 and worked as a Methodist circuit-riding preacher and pioneer lawyer. He was killed on May 24, 1841, in the Village Creek fight against Native people in what is now Tarrant County—an expedition led by Gen. Edward H. Tarrant, for whom that county is named. Both the city and county of Denton later took his name.
First Methodist Church of Denton
Denton, TX
Organized by Rev. William E. Bates in 1857—the very year Denton itself was founded—this Methodist congregation first met in the log courthouse before sharing a Masonic building that doubled as school and meeting hall. From a white frame church in 1873 the congregation grew to a red brick sanctuary in 1899 and, by 1925, a building seating 2,400. Its history tracks the growth of a North Texas county-seat town from raw frontier settlement to established community.