Site of Plaza Hotel and Plaza Theater
Wharton, Wharton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built on Wharton's Courthouse Square, the Plaza Hotel began circa 1904 as a two-story brick structure with a large dining room on the first floor and 20 rooms to let. Owned and operated by R. B. Huston and his wife Lula Merriwether Huston, the Plaza Hotel was the site of many community activities, conventions, and civic and club banquets. A third floor added in 1929 expanded the rooming capacity of the hotel, and included a small opera house. Wharton's first radio station began in July 1933 and operated from the third floor. Wharton was one of many cities that participated in the World Bridge Olympics in 1934; the local tournament was conducted at the Plaza Hotel. The lot on which the hotel stood was sold in 1941 to Long-Griffith Theaters. The hotel was gutted and a movie theater built within the brick shell in 1941, and a gala grand opening was held in March 1942. One of three movie theaters in Wharton, the Plaza Theatre operated until the 1970s, when it was closed. In 1990 the Community Theater of Wharton reopened the Plaza Theater to provide live entertainment for the region. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1904 the two-story brick Plaza Hotel rose on Wharton's Courthouse Square, its dining room and twenty rooms hosting conventions, banquets, and civic gatherings. A 1929 third floor added a small opera house, and the next year Wharton's first radio station broadcast from it; the town even hosted a 1934 World Bridge Olympics tournament there. In 1941 the hotel was gutted and rebuilt as a movie theater, which ran until the 1970s before reopening in 1990 as a community live-performance venue.
Why it matters
The site charts the evolving social heart of a Texas county seat—from grand hotel to broadcast studio to movie house to community theater—across most of a century.
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Related people
- · R. B. Huston
- · Lula Merriwether Huston
Related events
- · World Bridge Olympics 1934
Themes & tags
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