Simpson Hotel

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passing it along. In 1917, the same year the railroad town of Seagraves was platted right out of the West Texas flatland, a woman named Alice Jenkins built herself a two-story hotel. She called it the Hotel Texan.

Now, that's a name with some confidence behind it. Two stories tall, stucco exterior, modest detailing. Nothing flashy, but solid.

The kind of place that says: we're stayin'. R. P. and Emma Simpson came into the picture in 1922, took ownership of the Hotel Texan, and ran it through 1923.

Then, for reasons the marker doesn't spell out and I won't pretend to know, they moved on. But here's the thing about a good hotel. It has a way of calling people back.

In 1927, R. P. and Emma Simpson purchased the Hotel Texan again. This time, they put their name on it.

The Simpson Hotel, open for business. That stucco exterior, those modest lines, the whole quiet dignity of it, turned out to be exactly what West Texas small-town hotels looked like in that early part of the twentieth century. Not an accident.

A style. A whole era of prairie hospitality pressed into plaster and proportion. And the Simpson Hotel just kept going.

Kept taking in travelers, kept its doors open across the decades, all the way until 1974. Alice Jenkins built something that lasted. The Simpsons put their name on something worth keeping.

Out here on the South Plains, that's about as good a legacy as the land allows.

What the marker says

In 1917, the year the railroad town of Seagraves was platted, Alice Jenkins built this two-story hotel and named it the Hotel Texan. R. P. and Emma Simpson, who owned the Hotel Texan from 1922 to 1923, purchased it again in 1927 and reopened it as the Simpson Hotel. With its stucco exterior and modest detailing, the Simpson Hotel exhibits a style typical of small, early 20th century hotels in West Texas. It continued in operation until 1974. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1991.