Mexia, TX History Finds

A bit of a Mexia mystery for you... In April, 1921 there were several front page columns devoted to the exciting new Halson Hotel coming to Mexia. One even featured an architect's rendering of the place. Its cost of $350,000 in 1921 translates to a $5,000,000 cost in 2018. the hotel with electric elevators would also have a theater on the ground floor and public auditorium on the second. The feature below goes into great detail regarding the plans, down to the private baths with each of the 28 rooms on the top three floors having "water mixers" for the right temperature and a hook for the shaving strop. A site was announced the same month, at the northeast corner of Sherman and Main June 30, 1921, a two page spread includes the six-story hotel as a main selling point for Mexia But in July, amidst the list of building projects, there is a only short line "the lot has been cleared for the Halson Hotel" and noth...

Editor's Note -- Following the recent Mexia High School Homecoming (1950) Miss Alma C. Harris, now of El Paso, wrote her recollections of early Mexia school which the Black Cat school paper published. Miss Harris has consented that her recollection be republished in this newspaper. Following is the first of several articles. My memory of Mexia schools begins with September, 1878 when at the age of six I entered Mr. Milton Park's school on the first floor of the old Masonic Temple, located where the First Baptist church now stands (at least was there when I left Mexia in 1921) Later, Dr. Malone, a Baptist preacher, who had a school not far from Judge D.M. Prendergrast's old home, moved his building to the Masonic lots and the school were combined. Later, Mr. Park moved away from Mexia and Dr. Malone continued the school until 1884 when the public school was opened. During these six years my teachers were Miss Janie Park, Mr. Park, Miss Veazey,...

The earliest Sanborn Insurance map of the town of Mexia is dated 1877 and encompasses just three blocks, directly east of the railroad tracks. Everything outside of this is marked "Vacant Ground." Below the dated stamp is the state of the fire department: Volunteer Fire Department. 1 Hook & Ladder. All the brick buildings have cisterns inside with hand force pumps.  The northernmost section of the map, above Palestine, marks a total of eight structures: three homes (Dwg stands for dwelling), two of them two stories in height, a Printer, one two story office building, and a photo gallery with a small space out back. Wherever you see an "x" marks a window. The numbers indicate single or double stories.   On the south side of Palestine is even less: two warehouses, one office, one home. The primary street's lots are nearly 100% occupied. The northern side of Commerce starting at Railroad, west to east is filled with a brick structure ...

Looks like I made it through half a century of Christmas picking through every year to 1954 before I just ran out of time this season.  By the middle of the century, car advertisements take over a lot of real estate on the pages and December was the big reveal month for the coming year's models. Strangely, this period is when the paper stops publishing Santa letters, sadly. Too much baby boom.  But in 1954, the paper announces they will begin publishing many more local photographs, so I pulled as many of those I could find from the month of December. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas! 1950 . 1951 1952 ...