Magnolia Hotel (Seguin, Texas)

History

During the Republic of Texas, a two-room log cabin in Seguin, Texas, sheltered travelers on the frontier as early as 1844, and became known as the Magnolia Hotel. An adjoining concrete building was erected by early 1847. Then a larger, two-story frame building replaced the log cabin by 1853.

The Magnolia Hotel was included in the Historic American Buildings Survey (H.A.B.S.) in 1934, and contributes to the Seguin Commercial Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Magnolia's limecrete section was built by John Park, a chemist and doctor who experimented with concrete after moving to Seguin in 1846. The hotel was probably the first 'Park's concrete' building in town, and is surely the oldest still standing. Park's work, with his imitators and rivals, led to Seguin having the largest concentration of mid-19th century concrete structures in the United States.

The dating of the concrete hotel is established because Captain Jack Hays, "perhaps the most famous Texas Ranger" according to Willie Mae Weinert's Authentic History of Guadalupe County, married Susan Calvert, daughter of Jeremiah Calvert, the hotel's owner, "in the south room of the concrete portion of the hotel on April 29, 1847, Rev. John M. McCulloch presiding."

Park's concrete building was next to a two-room cabin built of logs originally gathered by Seguin citizens to build a stockade as defense against possible Indian raids. The logs were instead sold to Texas Ranger James Campbell, and his cabin became the point of defense. The two-story frame building that now sits atop the large basement, replacing the Campbell cabin, dates from the early 1850s. It shows graceful Greek Revival symmetry and detailing around the door, and a roof line similar to that of the concrete house known as Sebastopol built 1854-56.

Frederick Law Olmsted passed through Seguin in February 1854, and wrote about the town's many concrete buildings, noting, "The hotel is large and good." That he made no mention of the hotel itself being of concrete implies that he was referring to the much larger wooden building, dating it to about 1853.

Jeremiah Calvert sold the property to Dr. William Reid, who operated the hotel from 1850 to 1860, then Thomas Dickey Johnson owned it until 1900. Together they encompassed the years when the Magnolia served as an overnight stop for stagecoaches making their runs from the coastal ports to San Antonio and points west. A young slave rang a bell to announce the stage's arrival, to summon guests at mealtime, and in emergencies. The stone the youngster stood on remains in place. The bell reportedly came from the Alamo, having been found in the San Antonio River in 1845, and was used at the Magnolia until about 1900. A Seguin woman purchased the bell and donated it to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, then the managers of the Alamo shrine.

During the stagecoach years, from 1848 to about 1880, the Magnoia served as the stagecoach stop in Seguin. As such, the hotel served as a center of social life in the town, serving food, drink and hosting dances in the ballroom. Rival hotels, constructed of brick and boasting of "fire-proof" construction, opened in the last decade of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century displaced the Magnolia as the premier lodging in town.

In the 1930s, the property was bought by the Lannom family, who lived downstairs and operated with small apartments upstairs for another 65 years or so. The building fell into disrepair, leading Preservation Texas to list it among the state's "Most Endangered Historic Places" in March 2012. By 2013, the resultant publicity attracted buyers who have since been restoring the structure to serve as a personal residence. Though much of the building remains a work in progress, two front rooms have been fully renovated with the new owners having reinstalled an original porcelain sign with the name "Magnolia" found on the property.