The Molloy Hotel
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1874, three years after the rail line was laid through Corsicana, lawyer Henry Molloy (1829-1913) had a one-story hotel built to accommodate businessmen and other travelers. Molloy added the second story in 1881. Over the years, the building came to be a center of business and social activity and has been owned by a number of the town's leading citizens, including George T. Jester, father of former Texas Governor Beauford H. Jester. The hotel, which closed in 1975, stands as a reminder of Corsicana's early days as a railroad town.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Three years after the railroad reached Corsicana, lawyer Henry Molloy built this hotel in 1874 to house the businessmen and travelers the tracks brought. He added a second story in 1881, and over the decades the building became a hub of the town's business and social life, passing through the hands of leading citizens—among them the father of a future Texas governor. It closed in 1975.
Why it matters
The Molloy Hotel is a reminder of how railroads made and remade Texas towns, turning a trackside stop into a bustling commercial center.
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Related people
- · Henry Molloy
- · George T. Jester
- · Beauford H. Jester
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The First National Bank of Corsicana
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Founded as a private firm in 1871 by former railroad men Capt. James Garitty and Joseph Huey, this bank served cotton growers, ranchers, and cattle drovers as Corsicana grew into a rail hub. Chartered as the First National Bank in 1886, it soon witnessed a turning point in Texas history: in 1894 a crew drilling for city water instead struck oil and gas, opening the state's first major petroleum field. That discovery brought Texas its first refinery and pioneering uses of natural gas and oil.
Alexander Beaton
Corsicana, TX
A Scottish native, Alexander Beaton emigrated to the United States in 1843 and reached Texas in 1848 after serving in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. Settling in Corsicana in 1850, he practiced law and, in 1871, chaired the finance committee that persuaded the Houston & Texas Central Railroad to route its line through town — an effort that earned him the street bearing his name. A Mason, Methodist, and amateur geologist, he raised a family there with his wife, Elizabeth Jane McKinney.
R. N. White
Corsicana, TX
A South Carolina native, Robert Newton White moved his family to the blackland prairie in 1845, the year Texas joined the Union. When Navarro County was organized in 1846 he was elected its first county clerk, holding the post a decade while also serving as Corsicana's first postmaster and helping found a Cumberland Presbyterian church. A civic booster, he lobbied railroads to reach the young town, and his first home here was a simple log cabin.
Petty's Chapel
Corsicana, TX
This corner of Navarro County took shape around the hardbottom creek crossings of an early route known as the Military Road, which carried travelers toward Corsicana, founded in 1848. Families like the Hamiltons and Braggs settled the sandy uplands, and in 1893 local Baptists raised the Petty's Chapel church that still holds services more than a century later. The community was reshaped by the discovery of the Corsicana oilfield in the late 19th century and by the county poor farm, established here in 1890 and closed in 1944.