1896 -- Midland Hotel, Hico TX
N 31° 58.891 W 098° 01.839
14R E 591580 N 3538797
The Midland Hotel has been a fixture in downtown Hico since 1896.
Waymark Code: WMH2YM
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/13/2013
Views: 6
The Midland Hotel was built on Pecan Street in 1896 to serve the needs of passengers traveling to or through this Central Texas town on the Texas Central Railroad as a feeder line to the bigger Houston & Texas Central. In 1910 the TCRR was acquired by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR. Source: Handbook of Texas online (
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Hico continued to be an important regional gateway to the rails until more railroads jumped in to serve the area. Then the 1909 boll weevil infestation decimated the area's cotton farming and the Great Depression hit. Declining agricultural production caused a resulting decline in rail shipping. After WWII the great demographic population shift away from farms to the cities set off decades of declining fortuned in Hico. Source: and (
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The Midland Hotel closed and spent the next few decades being either vacant or temporarily occupied by small businesses that soon failed. In the 1990s Hico began to invest in its historic downtown and reinvent itself as a tourist destination. That metamorphosis has pumped new money and opportunity into this very cute Texas town, and has touched off a renaissance in Hico. The recently-completed renovation of the Midland Hotel is proof that Hico is on the rebound.
Now all the Midland needs is a tenant.
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