Smith Building (Palace Hotel)

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my right by the story. Now, Canyon, Texas has got buildings, and then it's got buildings with a little history packed into their walls. The Smith Building, sometimes known as the Palace Hotel, is the kind of place that's been a whole lot of things to a whole lot of people, and it's been standin' there since 1906 to prove it.

That, friends, is a long time to hold your ground on a corner. J. Frank Smith put this commercial building up in 1906, the very same year Canyon was incorporated as a town.

Brand new town, brand new building. Smith wasn't the kind of man to sit on the sidelines either. He got himself elected to the first city board of aldermen, and up on that second floor, he ran a land company.

Canyon was growin', and J. Frank Smith was right there in the middle of it, movin' land and movin' up. Down on the ground floor, the Canyon Mercantile and Hardware Store set up shop first.

You need a nail, you need a bolt, you need something to help you build out on the Texas Panhandle, that was your place. Then 1912 rolls around, and a man named S. B.

McClure arrives with a different idea entirely. McClure opens the Palace Hotel right there at that same location. A hotel needs a cafe, and P.

D. Casey was the first to run one on that first floor, givin' folks a hot meal to go with a roof over their heads. Now, ownership changed hands more than once over the years.

History doesn't always hand you names for every chapter, and this one's no different. But here's the thing that matters: through every change, every new set of hands on the deed, the Palace Hotel stayed open. Kept the lights on, kept the doors open, kept Canyon travelers fed and rested.

It didn't close until 1960. Fifty-four years of business, started by a land man in a brand new town, finished quietly, the way most long runs do. Not with a bang.

Just a door that finally didn't swing open again.

What the marker says

J. Frank Smith constructed this commercial building in 1906, the year Canyon was incorporated as a town. Elected to the first city board of alderman, Smith operated a land company on the second floor. The ground floor was initially occupied by the Canyon Mercantile & Hardware Store. S. B. McClure opened the Palace Hotel at this location in 1912. A cafe, first operated by P. D. Casey, later shared the first floor. Despite several changes in ownership, the Palace Hotel remained in operation until 1960. (1980)