This week in History’s Attic – The demise of the Home hotel in Carter, South Dakota.

The Home hotel was built for the coming of the Railroad. It was to be one of the main hubs of this Jackson Brothers town. Every town with a railroad would need a place to house the sales people or (Drumrs they were called) that would be going around selling their wares to the merchants in town. It also was used to house a barber as you can see a barber pole in the photo above. And also, the town cafe and later the McDonald’s store.

The Jackson’s were sure after the Chicago & North Western Railroad was built to Winner that it would continue on to Carter, but the line stopped in Winner dashing there hopes. They hung on still hoping the Railroad would build on to them as the town crumbled around their hotel. Their last hope was in 1929 when the railroad commenced building, but again their high hopes were dashed when the rail line swung north to Wood to wheat country that would enrich the line with grain hauling. [Unfortunately,] Carter was cattle country.

I thought it was interesting to find three photos of the Home Hotel in various states of decline. The first photo above shows it newly built in the bustling town of Carter surrounded by buildings. The second photo below shows it still in use but all the buildings around it gone.

And the third photo below clearly shows it in its last gasp before complete collapse. It was there in a pile for years, but I think completely gone now only thing left on the town site is a cement bank vault. The last intact building was moved out about 20 years ago to the 1880 town.

 

Author Richard Papousek, November 2023