Gilmer Hotel

A hotel for traveling salesmen made sense in a county no railroad ever entered. The nearest line, the Southern Pacific, ran about twenty-five miles south of Edwards County, and the Handbook of Texas dates the county's first reliable transportation to the 1930s, when the state and federal highways arrived. State Highway 55 and U.S. 377 meet in Rocksprings, and the paved roads let ranchers reach markets for their wool and mohair. The Handbook suggests that the lack of transport may also explain why the county's iron, sulfur and silver were never developed.

What the plaque says

Gilmer Hotel Built in 1916 by Jesse Walter Gilmer (1883-1961), the two-story Gilmer Hotel was originally wooden, with an upper gallery on the east and south sides. It was frequented by traveling salesmen as well as local ranchers and other visitors. The dining room was popular with townspeople, and the kitchen provided meals for prisoners in the Edwards County Jail. The hotel sheltered influenza patients during a World War I epidemic and, later, victims of a 1927 tornado. The Gilmer family sold the hotel in 1918. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area — steps away
  A 140-foot shaft into a cavern outside Rocksprings, seen only on guided tours from a platform at the rim as some three million bats spiral out on summer evenings.
• Real County Historical Museum — 33 mi
  A small county museum in Leakey, at the head of the Frio Canyon, with a log-cabin parlor, an 1880s horse-drawn hearse, a wool and mohair shearing machine and 1910s jail cells.

More markers nearby

• Rocksprings Telephone Company — steps away
• First Methodist Church of Rocksprings — steps away
• Edwards County — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Rocksprings — 0.4 mi