For some years before the Civil War, this frontier town was a center of experimentation with concrete. At least two citizens had their own formulas, and competed for contracts to put up some large structures. Dr. John E. Park, a Georgia-born physician and chemist who moved here in the late 1840s, was one of them. Years before Portland cement was patented, he had developed and patented his own formulas for "limecrete" that used materials obtained locally.

Teams of slaves dug gravel and caliche on site, and brought sand and water from nearby streams. These were mixed with trace ingredients like clay and ash, and with lime produced from Hill Country limestone and brought by wagon from San Marcos.

The resulting material was not so different from the adobe bricks widely used in West African buildings. But the construction technology was decidedly American.

The African American workers poured the mix into wooden forms they had built, about a foot high and from one to two feet wide. These forms were joined by iron rods to keep them from spreading apart, and held the set width apart by oak rods. When a layer hardened, in about a week, the forms were raised and another layer poured. The iron rods were driven out and used again. The oak rods remained imbedded in the thick concrete walls. It required skilled labor. The crews had to get the proportions just right -- and if it was too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry -- or the concrete would not set properly.

But it was worth the effort. The resulting load-bearing limecrete walls were solidly insulated and fireproof, and when whitewashed or painted, the buildings glowed like marble temples amid the log cabins and timber buildings of the raw frontier community.

Remarkably, by the time of Park's death in 1872, this town with a population of less than 1,000 had almost 90 concrete buildings -- houses, churches, even the courthouse and other public buildings. And countless structures such as cisterns, fences, animal pens, retaining walls, and so forth were made of what was traditionally called "Park's concrete."

No other place in the U.S. is known to have had such an extraordinary concentration of concrete buildings by late 19th century. Indeed, no other place claims to have had more of them, though it is possible (but almost unknowable) that some big city back East may have had a higher total.

The arrival of the railroad in 1875, bringing in cheap lumber and other materials, and the establishment of several brickworks around town, made homes of concrete unfashionable even in Seguin.

Today only about 20 of the limecrete relics survive here. Sadly, every so often another one of these irreplaceable artifacts is destroyed.

Built by Col. Joshua Young and completed about 1856, Sebastopol is an outstanding example from the period when this town was called "The Mother of Concrete Cities."

Note the most unusual layout of this grand antebellum house. Wide stairs lead up to a Greek Revival porch almost as large as the enclosed part of the building.

The Classical architecture was popular during this period before the Civil War for political reasons: Greece and Rome had slaves, thus slavery was justified. Here the argument was made in concrete, ironically by a slave owner using African-American slaves to build the striking structure.

The front porch wraps around rooms that have no interior hallway. And no interior stairway connects the lower level, where the slaves did their domestic work, with the upstairs rooms where the family lived.

Sebastopol was occupied for about 20 years by Young's sister, Mrs. Katherine LeGette, and her family. Then it was sold to a family friend, Joseph Zorn, Jr., a local merchant. Zorn wasthe son of a German immigrant to Inidiana. He served as Seguin's mayor for 20 years, and was head of the school board when the town's public school system was established. Zorn family members lived in the home into the 1950s.

Permanent exhibits at Sebastopol recount the original construction. Temporary exhibits recount aspects of life in the 19th century.

Corner of West Court and Erkel,
Open: Friday - Sunday 9 am - 4 pm,
Adults $3, only $1 for kids.
Group tours on other days by reservation.
830-379-4833

Few early homes here rivaled Sebastopol, but drive by the limecrete Johnson House (a privately owned residence). It is perhaps the grandest antebellum plantation home still standing west of the Brazos River Valley. Slaves once worked vast cotton fields in thefertile river bottoms below. Over the years the two-story house lost its front and side porches, and recently a portion of one wall collapsed (it is under repair). But the handsome house retains a timeless, graceful elegance. At 761 Johnson St., a few blocks southwest of Sebastopol.
Not open to the public.

Two other plantation houses still survive on the western edge of old Seguin. One is the Campbell House, also built of limecrete in the early 1850's, and today well hidden among a stretch of oaks west of the upper reaches of Walnut Branch.
Not open to the public.

Another is Elm Grove, well hidden behind a used car lot on West Court St. This remarkable antebellum mansion was built in the 1850s by Andrew Herron and his son who used slave labor to finish and assemble the stones. For many years the story was told that the stones themselves were ballast left behind at Indianola by a trading ship from Europe and laboriously hauled here by oxcart. The present owner believes that the stones were from a local quarry, but he has been unable to determine its location. A barn on this property was built of Park's concrete.
Not open to the public.

Magnolia Hotel

Since about 1843, the Magnolia Hotel has been standing a block east of the courthouse square. Stagecoaches stopped here overnight before heading on to San Antonio, for almost 30 years, until the railroad came through in the 1870's. (One popular stagecoach route ran Indianola, Victoria, Cuero, Gonzales to Seguin, then west to San Antonio and California.)

A bell believed to have come from the Alamo once hung on the corner. A slave boy would climb on a stone (still in place) and ring the bell to announce the daily arrival of the stage -- with its load of important news, mail, express packages, and passengers.

The older, rear portion of the Magnolia Hotel was built of limecrete. Its fireproof quality must have given peace of mind to guests well aware that others nearby were drinking, smoking, and keeping themselves warm beside a roaring fireplace.

When Frederick Law Olmsted traveled through Texas in the 1850s as a correspondent for the
New York Times, he called this "the prettiest town in Texas [because of] its shaggy live oaks, which have been left untouched…" and he observed that Seguin had a fine hotel.

See Joe Comingore's Walking Tour of Seguin for more about the colorful early owners of the Magnolia Hotel.

At the corner of S. Crockett and E Donegan Streets.
Not open to the public.

Some old concrete buildings can be found downtown. One is a former Baptist church on the southwest corner of Donegan and Camp Streets. It was given a make-over in Mission Revival, or in this case, the style called "Alamo Revival." The older limecrete portion is separating from the rest of the building with a long crack in the wall.

Another smaller building of limecrete or Park's concrete stands beside the old Bartholomae house that has been restored as offices, on the corner of Mountain and River Streets.