A.C. Cooper purchased the Inn and rebuilt after the fireThe Stamford Inn in Stamford, Texas was built in 1900 by the Swenson Interests for visiting clients looking to do business related to their ranching business. In 1901 the Inn opened its door for its clients.

At some point the Inn was purchased by A.C. Cooper and on Christmas Eve of 1924 the hotel was lost to a fire. After the fire Mr. Copper built a new Inn and its the building that you see today. He and his wife ran the inn for twenty years until they retired and sold the Inn to E. B. Wheeler sometime in the 1940s.

Dr. Hudson co owner of the Stamford Inn after it was converted to a nursing home

Then in 1964 Dr. Hudson and Jack Southerland (both deceased) purchased the Inn and turned it into a nursing home. In 1970 the nursing home became the Teakwood Nursing Home until 1972 when a newer building was build closer to the new Stamford Hospital.

Mr. Southerland - Co owner of the Stamford Inn after it was converted to a nursing home

 

Then sometime in the late 70s or early 80s the Inn was purchased by 4 businessmen and turned into a “supper club or gentleman’s club.” This was a members only restaurant and bar with pool tables. The club turn out to be a popular place and was the last business to operate inside the Inn.  We aren’t sure to when the club was shut down or as to when the Inn was abandoned.

The Condition of the Stamford Inn

Stamford Inn - Cellphone photo by Buster Boyd taken in 2016

The Stamford Inn is in danger of being torn down. It is extremely dangerous to go in there. Many parts of the second floor have weakened and some of the floors have even collapsed. Every year the building gets a little worse and I’ve heard that the building was built with asbestos products so the owner/city will not spend the money to tear it down. From what I know there is no one wanting to invest in saving the old Inn and it will eventually be torn down.

We Need Your Help!

If you have any information, pictures of the Inn, as a nursing home, or club we would love to share them here. Please contact us using the comment form below, Contact Us page, or via our Facebook Page.

Please Note: the article  was posted to VanishingTexas.com on October 26th, 2016. That site is no longer affiliated with us. All content from that site is slowly being migrated and updated to this site.  As new information and images are found this article will be updated.

The images were taken November 2014, 2016 (by Buster Boyd), and vintage photos taken from achieves and church photos. . This article will be updated as new information becomes available.

Sources: Many thanks to the families and residents of Stamford for helping my contacts in town to gather this information. Without their help we would not have been able to add the history of the school to Vanishing Texas. A big thank you goes to the ladies that helped with this project. Please make sure to visit them if have any questions about Stamford or the surrounding areas. Their contact information is listed below.

  • Sandra Rhea – Curator, Cowboy Country Museum, Stamford, TX (325)773-2500
  • Lucile Wedeking – Director, Stamford Carnegie Library, Stamford, TX (325)773-2532, stamlib2@sbcglobal.net
  • Buster Boyd – 3 photos from 2016 and connected me with the Cowboy Country Museum

About the Images

The images were shot by hand around 11 in the morning with my Sony Nex-3N and Sony SEL16F28 16mm f/2.8  or Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS Lens. I then edited the images in Adobe Lightroom. Next, I post processed with Topaz Clarity to add texture, brighten, and bring out the details in the images. Then I removed the dust spots. Finally, I used Topaz DeNoise to remove the noise from the images.