In 1913 the Fayette Journal called Thurmond the “Biggest Little Town.” Its once-thriving downtown commercial district included a telegraph and express office, district telephone offices and a telephone exchange, two general stores, offices of two coal companies, a restaurant, drug store, law office, shoemaker, jeweler, photographer, meat processing plant, offices of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, and the Thurmond Hotel. Yet even in its prime in the 1920s, Thurmond’s resident population never exceeded 500. A January 23, 1902, Fayette Journal account praised the new Thurmond Hotel as one of the finest little hostelries in the state, with 35 rooms, seven bathrooms, steam heat, 400 electric lights, and nearly every room filled every night. Beyond the hotel stood more businesses, including an Armour packing plant that shipped meat to coal camps for 30 years. The hotel and Armour plant burned in 1963, and only three buildings survive from the commercial district.