A Richly Layered History and a Modern Present

Seguin is one of the oldest towns in Texas. In 1838, a group of frontier Rangers laid out a settlement among beautiful live oaks beside Walnut Springs on the Guadalupe River.

They soon named the town for Col. Juan N. Seguin, a Tejano who fought beside the Angle settlers against the brutal Mexican dictator Santa Anna.

During the remaining years of the Republic of Texas, many settlers arrived from the South, hoping to establish cotton plantations.

Some say the Old South ended here, because few plantations -- if any,took root west of those built here. An early census showed that some 30% of the county's population were African-American slaves.

Meanwhile the frontier town was a center of experimentation with using concrete as a building material. By the late-19th century, about one out of ten structures here was made of the locally invented "limecrete".

As a result, this small town had the greatest concentration of concrete buildings in the country! (A big city back East may have had a larger number in total, but this possibility cannot be proved or disproved.)

Only about 20 of these rare concrete relics survive, including Sebastopol State Historic Site.

Immigrants from Germany began to pour into the area during the 1840s. They came in a steady stream through the rest of the 19th century, briefly interrupted by the Civil War, 1861-1865.

From about 1848 until after the railroad arrived in 1876, stagecoaches made an overnightstop at the Magnolia Hotel, on the route from Indianola and Port Lavaca on Matagorda Bay to San Antonio.

For many decades, King Cotton ruled hereabouts, and the town's prosperity largely depended on the surrounding rich farms and pasture lands.

Then in 1930, the discovery of the Darst Creek Field set off an oil boom here. Other boom towns sprang up like gushers and as quickly fell into decline. But because Seguin was already an established city, it survived its oil boom -- and accumulated a prize collection of civic buildings and park facilities from the period.

New industries arrived after World War II. Today plants making steel, electronic products, mowing equipment, construction material, etc. provide a solid industrial base. A huge, highly efficient, gas-powered electric generating plant came on line recently.

The thriving service sector includes a highly rated and fast-growing liberal arts university anchoring the western side of the city. A modern, well respected hospital adjoins a sprawling district for shopping, eating, and lodging on the eastern flank.

The beautiful Guadalupe River cuts through the city's south side. A fine public park was built alongside it, beginning during the Depression years when Seguin enjoyed its oil boom.

A scenic drive lined with picnic tables shadows the river for a mile or so, flanked by an 18-hole golf course. Nearby are the fairgrounds, volleyball courts, ballparks, and a country club.

Nowadays both Interstate 10 and a main line of the Union Pacific pass through the town's north side, where most manufacturing is located.

Today the heart of the city is filled with fine old homes in traditional neighborhoods. And the city is ringed by contemporary residential developments as well.

In addition, just outside the current city limits, hundreds of handsome riverfront homes sit along the shores of Lake McQueeney, Lake Placid, and Meadow Lake on the beautiful Guadalupe River.

Looking for an Old House to Call Your Own?

The historic downtown, listed on the National Register, is the still-vital heart of an 'old Seguin.' This old Seguin district stretches a mile or so from the railroad tracks to the river's banks, from the westside college campus to near the hospital on the east.

This historic heart of old Seguin contains perhaps a hundred houses from the 19th century and many more from the early 20th century, when this was one of the most prosperous towns in the state.

On the first weekend of each December, some of these fine old homes are put on display in the Heritage Tour of Homes, sponsored by the Seguin Conservation Society.

If you are looking for a fine old house to make your own, this area could mean happy hunting for you.

Indeed, if you are seeking that very special old home, a heritage house, or even a trophy house perhaps, this is the place.

A few homes here survive from the log cabin period -- with add-ons over the years completely enclosing the original log cabins still found within.

A handful of plantation homes remain, along with a dozen or so rare relics dating from the era when this was called "The Mother of Concrete Cities." Sebastopol is one, but others remain in private hands.

And yes, Sam Houston slept here, in an antebellum house shaded by live oaks and elms.

The city has been home to such prominent people as the Confederate Generals -- and brothers -- Ben and Henry McCulloch; John Ireland, a Governor of Texas; Harry Wurzbach, a Congressman who served in the 1920s; and Alvin Wirtz, who became a Deputy Secretary of the Interior under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Among other noteworthy and collectable houses are several striking mansions from the late Victorian era. A few are brickwork in the Italianate style. Some are shingle-style, their facades of wooden patterns. A handful were built of a locally made cast-stone called Zonka stone.

These period homes were built by leading professionals, bankers, and businessmen, who also erected the town's brickyards, gins and mills, waterworks, electric plant, and streetcar line. Other fine houses remain that once were home to leading public servants.

The most characteristic style may be the charming Queen Anne, represented by the Weinert House Bed & Breakfastand the Moore House, owned by the Seguin conservation Society. In tribute to the fashionable style, the porches and eaves of scores of vernacular Victorian homes were clad in delightful gingerbread.

From the years after the turn of the century (from the 19th, that is, not the turn of the millennium) you can find numerous Classical Revival beauties. These include Tara-style Greek Revival temples paid for with fortunes made from King Cotton.

Later on, even into the 1920s, bungalows were erected, showing the influence of the Arts & Crafts Movement when styles were being popularized in California.

Old Seguin even contains a handful of Art Deco style houses from the Depression years, when few could afford to build fine homes.

During this same period, several surprisingly sedate brick mansions were put up, made possible by the Darst Creek oil boom.

These comfortable homes still feature hardwood floors, wood trim, high ceilings, spacious lots with mature trees, and other amenities.

Here families can live on tree-shaded streets in well established neighborhoods, among people of all ages, incomes, and diverse backgrounds.

We invite you to come look for a comfortable home to call your own in this old town.