Randol Hotel - Ardmore, OK
N 34° 10.400 W 097° 07.856
14S E 672263 N 3782952
Historical marker, commemorating the Randol Hotel, site of the shooting of oilman Jake Hamon in 1920. Located at 209 W Main St, Ardmore, OK. The hotel is long gone, the site now occupied by a parking lot.
Waymark Code: WMFY2C
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 12/15/2012
Views: 11
The marker text says:
Before 1899, J.W. Banks built, at this site, a mercantile establishment combined with lodging quarters. In 1903, W.F. (Dixie) Gilmer arrived from North Carolina and leased the hotel which was a three story structure with rooms on the second and third floors and long, wide verandas facing Main Street. As was the custom of the day, a horse-drawn carriage carried guests of the hotel to and from the train station.
But it was the Randol Hotel that international attention was focused on this location when on November 21, 1920, Jake Hamon, prominent oil man and political figure slated to become Secretary of the Interior under President-elect Warren G. Harding, was shot by his mistress and died a few days later. The murder trial of Clara Smith Hamon in 1921, which ended in acquittal, was closely followed by newspapers around the world through reports from the mass media that descended upon Ardmore.
On July 17, 1925, fire of undetermined origin destroyed this famous landmark.
County: Carter
Record Address::
209 W Main St
Ardmore, OK USA
Web site if available: [Web Link]
Rate the Site: 
Sponsor (Who put it there): Ardmore Main Street Authority
Date Erected: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:1 - Must visit the site in person.
2 - New Photo required.
3 - Give some new insight to the marker/site.