Longview, TX news and local guide

The Mobberly Hotel opened in 1884 near the depot, serving railroad travelers with cherrywood furniture, marble washstands, crystal chandeliers and a fireplace in every room, and it was the center of the town's social life until it burned on June 13, 1965. On May 23, 1894, Bill Dalton and three others robbed the First National Bank of Longview. In the gunfight that followed, the bandit Jim Wallace and the citizens J.W. McQueen, Charles Learn and George Buckingham were killed, and the robbers escaped with $2,000. The Gregg County Historical Museum tells the story inside the robbed bank's vault. In July 1919 S.L. Jones, a reporter for the Chicago Defender, came to Longview to look into the death of a Black man named Lemuel Walters. An armed white mob attacked the house where Jones was staying, a gunfight broke out, and after Jones escaped the mob burned buildings in the Black section of town, in what became known as the Longview race riot. The Gregg Hotel opened in 1930 to serve the oil boom. Sources Wikipedia: Longview, Texas