Randol Hotel

Before 1899, J.W. Banks built on this site a mercantile establishment combined with lodging quarters. In 1903, W.F. (Dixie) Gilmer arrived from North Carolina and leased the hotel, a three-story structure with rooms on the second and third floors and long, wide verandas facing Main Street. As was the custom of the day, a horse-drawn carriage carried guests to and from the train station. International attention focused on the Randol Hotel when, on November 21, 1920, Jake Hamon, a prominent oil man and political figure slated to become Secretary of the Interior under President-elect Warren G. Harding, was shot by his mistress and died a few days later. The 1921 murder trial of Clara Smith Hamon, which ended in acquittal, was closely followed by newspapers around the world through reports from the mass media that descended upon Ardmore. On July 17, 1925, a fire of undetermined origin destroyed this famous landmark.

Ardmore, Oklahoma · United States