Site of Binkley Hotel
Historical marker location:Site of Binkley Hotel
In the 1870s, a joint stock company was organized to construct a hotel in Sherman. One of the largest stockholders was Judge C.C. Binkley, a community leader for whom the hotel would be named. Binkley was also president of the Merchants and Planters (M & P) Bank, established in Sherman in 1872.
The first two hotels at this site burned, and the second fire was reportedly set to cover an attempted robbery. The next hotel was built by the Sherman Hotel Company and operated by bank president C.B. Dorchester. The bank, then the Merchants and Planters National Bank, served farmers, ranchers, counties, and Indian tribes, becoming a financial hub for Texas and Oklahoma, and the close ties between bank and hotel attracted and accommodated business in the growing community. The Sherman Opera House, which brought in touring dramatic companies, added to the list of popular and prominent men and women who visited the hotel. Ladies would enter on the north, at the carriage entrance, and avoid passing the bar on their way to receptions in the dining room of the three-story hotel. Former president William Howard Taft visited Sherman in 1919 and spoke briefly from a wrought-iron balcony on the hotel's north side.
The hotel's name changed to Texas Hotel in 1947. The third and final Binkley Hotel building burned in 1967. During its many decades of operation, the business contributed to Sherman's development. The hotel, bank and opera house together formed a unique, functionally integrated business, civic and cultural complex. The hotel served the many guests of the bank and opera house and was a popular spot for travelers as well as local residents.
(2002).