99 years later

Here's the only surviving guest register from Hotel Collegeport of Collegeport, Texas. It's from 1910. Some of the entries are kind of funny. Mrs. Judge Jones and 2 young girls, for instance. On p. 33-34, right after Lee T. Witty of Memphis, Mo., (a member of the Missouri legislature several times but not at that time) is C.R. Huston of Blandinsville, Ill. The transcriber wasn't sure of the spelling of that last place but I guarantee that is correct. It's my dad's hometown.

The hotel looked very grand in picture after picture but it apparently outlived its usefulness within 15 years or so. It was torn down in the 1920s. The town, what's left of it, was 100 years old in 2008. You can buy a one-bedroom, one-bathroom home there for $173, 000. One bedroom, one bath -- sounds like a hotel room, doesn't it?