Eight-story 1925 hotel named for timber and railroad baron William Rhoads Grim, closed 1990, now converted to apartments — its decades of reported paranormal activity included Ghost Hunters investigations and EVP of an opera singer.
301 N State Line Ave, Texarkana, TX 75501
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Building exterior is visible from State Line Avenue at no cost. Interior is residential and not open to the public.
Access
Limited Access
Exterior viewing from public sidewalk on State Line Avenue.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1925 · National Register of Historic Places (2016) · Texarkana Architectural Landmark · Jazz Age Social History
William Rhoads Grim built the hotel that bears his name as a showpiece for downtown Texarkana. Grim was among the most prominent businessmen in the region, with holdings in banking, railroads, and timber. Construction cost $1 million and produced an eight-story building with 250 rooms, a marble-and-stone lobby, a café called the Palm Court, and a rooftop garden that could convert to a ballroom. The building stood as the second tallest in Texarkana when it opened in 1924-1925 and was a center of Texarkana's social life during the Jazz Age and Depression era, hosting jazz bands and high-stakes poker in its ballroom.
The hotel closed in October 1990 after 65 years of operation. For more than three decades the building sat abandoned on State Line Avenue, added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 7, 2016. Planning for rehabilitation began around 2009; developer Jim Sari's Grim Lofts LLC formed officially in July 2016, with HUD approving $1.429 million in assistance in January 2017. Cohen Esrey completed the $42.7 million project in November 2024, converting the structure to 93 residential studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units marketed as the Lofts at the Grim.
Sources
After the hotel closed in 1990, its long vacancy on State Line Avenue made it a destination for paranormal investigators. Multiple investigation teams entered the building over the following decades, producing EVP recordings that investigators analyzed for content. The most-cited audio capture is a sustained vocal sound identified as an opera singer — recordings circulated among Texarkana paranormal communities and were reported by regional press.
A clairvoyant participating in the Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walk stated that the spirit of a serial rapist remained inside the building, a claim corroborated, according to investigators, by EVP sessions from separate teams that captured the word 'rape' multiple times in audio recordings. Reports from people who visited the building described being physically touched — pinched or having hair pulled — with no apparent physical cause.
Ghost Hunters, the television investigation team, conducted a documented investigation of the Hotel Grim while the building was vacant, recording unexplained audio phenomena. The hotel's reputation as one of Texarkana's most haunted buildings was established during its operating years as well, with reports of suicides and murders among the deaths recorded at the property during its six decades of operation. With the 2024 reopening as residential apartments, interior access is no longer available to the public.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The eight-story building at 301 N State Line Ave is visible from the street in downtown Texarkana, directly on the Arkansas-Texas state line. The Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walk includes the building as a stop; tour departure schedules are available through Texarkana ghost walk operators.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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Laredo, TX
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Amarillo, TX
Cornelius Taylor Herring (1849–1931) financed and built the hotel that bears his name, completing the 14-story Art Deco tower in 1927 after two years of construction at a cost of $1 million — roughly $14 million in current dollars. It was the tallest building in Amarillo at opening and served as a hub for the Panhandle's oil-boom dealmakers. Its basement Old Tascosa Room featured pine-paneled walls and murals by local artist H. D. Bugbee. The hotel closed in 1966 and has been vacant since 1978; in November 2025, restoration plans were announced to reopen it as a luxury hotel by 2029.