STAR HOTEL

Pictured above is the L.L. Lester family ca. 1912.

Mrs. Lester is probably the lady on the left.  The Lester children included Louise Lester  (Kitchen), Lillie Lester (Williams), Vernon “Poodle” Lester (1903-1952), Albert “Whissel” Lester,  George B. Lester, Herman Lester and Owen C. Lester.

    In November 1881, W. P. Ferguson erected De Leon’s first hotel at LaSalle and Texas Avenue where Comanche County Tractor is today.  The hotel was still in operation in 1900 when the Sanborn-Perrin Map Co. created a map of De Leon for insurance purposes.  The building is believed to have burned later that same year and was replaced by the Pittman Hotel.

    Mr. Ferguson apparently acquired the former home of J.T. Campbell and reopened his Star Hotel in that residence.  The home stood on the southwest corner of Reynosa and Austin.

    On January 29, 1912 Mrs. L.L. Lester took over the hotel, moving to De Leon from Dublin.  The family had lived in Cisco before moving to Dublin.  Mrs. Lester continued to operate the hotel in this building until 1927.  On Monday July 18, 1927 workers began demolishing the building.  It was replaced with a new 26 room brick hotel.  That hotel later became the York Hotel and finally the Anthony.  It closed in the 1960s.

    Although part of the right side of the photograph did not print, the original negative shows that the room rates were $1.00.

The Lillie Lester Williams family.