Wild About Texas: Seguin's Hotel War...Fought and Won Almost 100 years Ago Today

The Park Hotel in its early years

Deep in the recesses of Seguin history,

there is a story of a war

fought over

who could build the best hotel.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Seguin had two hotels of note. The Magnolia Hotel had been built in 1840. It was showing signs of its age since it was over sixty years old.

Read about it here and see some photos... http://wildabouttexas.blogspot.com/2011/02/magnolia-hotel.html .

The second hotel, called the Grand Central Hotel, was located on Austin Street in the building next to where the Lone Star Barber shop resides today. It is still standing, but no longer used as a hotel.

In 1916, Atlee Ayers, a noted architect, designed the beautiful Aumont Hotel, which is located on the corners of Austin Street and Mountain Street ( hence the name "Aumont"). It is located two blocks east of the county courthouse.

You can read about it here... http://wildabouttexas.blogspot.com/2011/05/aumonta-seguin-architectural-gem.html

The Aumont Hotel in its early years

Not to outdone, Leo M.J. Dielman, a German-born architect who had made his reputation designing churches, was hired to design the Park Hotel (later changed to the Plaza), which was built on the corners of River Street and Nolte Street, two blocks west of the courthouse. It was completed on January 9th, 1917, so it had it's 95th birthday, yesterday!

Here is a quote from a description of the events surrounding the construction of the two new hotels:

In 1916 the businessmen of Seguin decided they needed a new hotel. Times were good. In fact building permits were issued for $200,000 worth of buildings in just ten months. That was nearly as much as from the entire previous history of Seguin. A recent fire had taken out an entire block of buildings downtown and Seguinites were eager to rebuild.

The proposed hotel was announced on November 12, 1915 and an artist's conception of the $50,000 building was soon placed where everyone could see it - Serger's Drug Store. Everyone was excited in the special way people always get excited about a new hotel. Everyone that is, except the businessmen who weren't included.

So three weeks later it was announced there would be a second new hotel and the people of Seguin were again happy. But they had so exhausted themselves over the news of the first hotel, that they hired people from Gonzales to dance in the streets for them (the first and last time this was ever done).

It's still not known where the rivalry originated. It has been suggested that the two factions were divided on lines of political allegiance, ethnic origin, or simply whether they lived north or south of Court Street. It's true they were split Republican - Democrat, but they were also either "Square heads" (Germans) or "Raggedies" (English).1

The Park Hotel was completed at a cost of $75,000 and decorated with beautiful cast concrete embelleshments. Their stark and ornate grandeur are highlighted best when the deep blue Texas sky frames them.

There are a couple of architectural details that I particularly love. The first are the black wrough iron curlicue bars which support the awnings that hang over the sidewalks.