HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Site of the Capitol Hotel

Marshall, Harrison County, Texas

Marker Inscription

A 3-story brick structure built on this site in 1857 by business leader George B. Adkins (1810-76), and called "Adkins House", ranked as a very fine hotel and served as depot for stage lines, including southern branch of Butterfield Mail, 1858-61. In this hotel the Confederate governor of Missouri, functioning in exile in Marshall, held several conferences with the Civil War governors of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Afterward the hotel was renamed "The Capitol." it continued as host to celebrities for years. In 1915, first floor was converted to mercantile uses. The building was razed in 1971-72.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Business leader George B. Adkins built a fine three-story brick hotel on this Marshall site in 1857, and "Adkins House" quickly became a stage depot serving the southern branch of the Butterfield Overland Mail. During the Civil War, the exiled Confederate governor of Missouri met here with the Confederate governors of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, making the hotel a quiet crossroads of Confederate wartime politics. Later renamed "The Capitol," it hosted celebrities for decades before its first floor turned to shops and the building was finally razed in 1971–72.

Why it matters

The hotel captures Marshall's role as a wartime capital of Confederate government west of the Mississippi and its earlier place on the great overland mail and stage routes that knit the frontier to the nation.

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Related people

  • · George B. Adkins

Related events

  • · Butterfield Overland Mail

Themes & tags

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