Site of the Crockett Hotel

Aldrich's 1943 history of Houston County says Thomas P. Collins, born in Cookstown, Ireland, in 1800, left Ireland about 1839 for Crockett and was probably the town's first merchant. He built a large log store on the northeast corner of the square, and Collins & Brother, with his younger brother Dr. John Collins, traded there. W. V. Berry bought the old Collins & Douglas store in 1890 and renamed it the Pickwick Hotel. Aldrich adds that the Lions Club sponsored the work that made the two-story Pickwick the three-story Crockett Hotel.

What the plaque says

Site of the Crockett Hotel James H. Collard, a surveyor, opened a general store on this site in 1837. Four years later he sold the business to Thomas Collins (1800-1869). Members of the Collins family ran the store until 1890 when William Berry (b.1856) constructed the Pickwick Hotel. Two brothers, F.A. and J.H. Smith, bought the building in 1921. It was reopened as the Davy Crockett Hotel in 1927. During construction of a new courthouse (1938-39), it housed county offices. The Crockett Hotel Co. purchased the business in 1939. Ray and Alta Cornelius served as managers until a fire destroyed it in 1972. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 27 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Crockett — steps away
• Five Courthouses of Houston County — steps away
• Miller-Spinks-Mayes Property — steps away
• First National Bank of Crockett — steps away