DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just here to pass it along the way Duane does. Now, Carson County in the 1920s was humming. The oil boom was running hot, and the major oil field supply houses had set up their headquarters right there in Panhandle.
When that kind of commerce moves into a town, it brings people, and people need a place to sleep. That demand was real, and somebody had to answer it. Clark B.
Downs and his wife Margaret were the ones who stepped up. In 1926, they opened the Downs Hotel. Just like that, Panhandle had a proper place to put its head down after a long day in the oil patch.
Now, the hotel changed hands in 1932, when the property was conveyed to J. H. Paul.
New owner, new name. From that point on, folks knew it as the Texan Hotel. Clark Downs passed in 1946, Margaret in 1967, and J.
H. Paul in 1960. The people who built that place and carried it forward are gone, but the building kept going.
Later owners converted the Texan to apartments, though they kept a few rooms available for guests after World War II. The place adapted. It bent without breaking.
And here is where the story lands. By the early 21st century, the Texan Hotel was the only hotel built in Panhandle during the oil boom years that remained in operation. Every other one, gone.
This one, still standing. Sometimes the last one left is the whole story.
What the marker says
Texan Hotel During the height of Carson County's oil boom in the 1920s, the major oil field supply houses headquartered in Panhandle, and lodging was in great demand. In 1926, Clark B. (d. 1946) and Margaret (d. 1967) Downs opened the Downs Hotel to help meet this need. It was renamed the Texan Hotel when the property was conveyed to J. H. Paul (d. 1960) in 1932. Later owners converted the Texan Hotel to apartments but continued to make a few rooms available for guests after World War II. By the early 21st century, the Texan was the only hotel built in Panhandle during the oil boom years that remained in operation. (2002)