Commercial Hotel

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, William P. Daily was born in Alabama, and by the time 1911 rolled around, he had packed up his family and pointed them toward Floyd County, Texas.

They settled in first, briefly, out in the Muncy community, about five miles north of Floydada. But a man like Daily wasn't the type to stay put for long, not when he could see an opportunity takin' shape just down the road. He moved the family into Floydada and opened himself a feed, coal, and wagon yard.

And standing there in the middle of all that commerce, watching travelers come and go, Daily recognized something. This town needed a hotel. So he built one.

Construction started in 1912, and come January of 1913, the Commercial Hotel opened its doors with twenty-one guest rooms ready and waiting. Now who was coming through Floydada back then? Mostly traveling salesmen, the kind who rode the rails from town to town with trunks full of goods and a pitch for every occasion.

Daily knew how to treat them right. He'd roll up to the railroad station himself, in a horse-drawn buggy, and carry those salesmen back to the hotel in style. And once they were settled in, he let them spread their wares right out in the hotel lobby.

The whole place became a kind of rolling showroom, and everybody got what they needed. Daily ran a good operation, and his hotel stood as a fixture in Floydada for decades. The name changed eventually.

In 1964, the old Commercial Hotel became The Lamplighter Inn. But the story of how it got there, one Alabama man, a feed yard, a buggy, and a vision, that started with William P. Daily rolling into Floyd County in 1911, seeing what was missing, and deciding he was the one to provide it.

What the marker says

Alabama native William P. Daily (1865-1941) and his family arrived in Floyd County in 1911, settling briefly in the Muncy community (5 mi. N). After moving to Floydada to open a feed, coal, and wagon yard, Daily recognized the need for a hotel here. Construction began in 1912, and the hotel opened in January 1913, with 21 guest rooms. Catering mostly to traveling salesmen, Daily transported them from the railroad station in a horse-drawn buggy, and allowed them to display their wares in the hotel lobby. The hotel was renamed The Lamplighter Inn in 1964. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986