This town offered lodging to travelers as early as 1843, when the Magnolia Hotel was one of the first inns to open its doors back in the days of the Republic of Texas. It still stands on the edge of downtown, South Crockett and East Donegan Streets.

Remarkably, part of this frontier tavern and inn was built of an early experimental form of concrete. The fireproof quality of the concrete must have given peace of mind to guests aware that others were drinking, smoking, and keeping warm beside an open fireplace.

Stagecoaches made their overnight stops here for about 30 years, from 1848 until the coming of the railroad in 1875.

This town, the county seat, was situated slightly off the shortest distance between Houston and San Antonio, the way followed by the surveyors for the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway. But John Ireland, then the local representative (he was later elected Governor), was able to get a bill through the legislature requiring railroads to route their lines within one mile of a courthouse.

Soon a mule-drawn streetcar began to carry mail, express packages, and passengers from the depot over a very carefully measured mile to downtown, from about 1885 until 30 years or so had gone by.

Drive north, up Austin St. to the railroad tracks to see the physical evidence of the era when the world moved by rail.

A few years ago our beloved passenger depot was demolished on orders of Southern Pacific's management, not so long before it disappeared in the merger with the Union Pacific.

Now when you hear the mournful whistle blowing, you could wonder if the railroad is haunted by the loss of its depot, the trains crying out as they search for it in the lonesome hours of the night.

Turn left on New Braunfels St.

One striking landmark structure remains from the heyday of the Southern Pacific, when this was the main line carrying the famed Sunset Limited to San Antonio, El Paso, and on to Los Angeles. Well, it still is the main line from the Gulf to the Pacific, but the Sunset Limited doesn't stop here anymore.

A huge S.P. freight depot stands beside the tracks a couple of blocks west of Austin St. Today it is a feed store, but the current operation does not hide the strength of its century-old thick walls and its powerful brick arches.

Before you leave the depot district, other buildings are worth a look.

Go back to Austin Street.

Across the street, as close to the tracks as it could get, is a fine little building that once housed a saloon. It seems to consist of pressed tin, cast metal, the locally made artificial cast stone called Sonka stone, brick, cement, glass, and wood -- is there any building material they failed to include in this structure? Drive up beside it for a better look.

Cattycorner, at Austin and New Braunfels, see what must be a relic from the early years of the motor age. This was surely one of the first, if not the very first, buildings here erected to serve as a gas station.

And on the southeast corner of Austin and New Braunfels Streets, is a Starcke store building, part of a business district that built up around the depot. The corner of the building is sliced off to provide a corner entrance, and, in the fashion of a century ago, to show respect to the intersection.

Back then this was a very important intersection indeed. Nearby were several stores, the Depot Cafe, and even a bank, as well as several fine homes. Families in this area had good jobs with the railroad or ran businesses that served it or its customers.

Go back west on New Braunfels St. a couple of blocks to Bowie St., and turn left.

Maybe you can still see the tracks embedded in the roadway.

Cross Kingsbury St., carefully.

Here you can explore an industrial ghost town, with several semi-abandoned factory buildings arrayed along the abandoned railroad spur that brought in carloads of raw materials and hauled out finished goods.

Here was the ice plant, a refrigerated storage locker, a milling operation, and assorted other factories. In their prime from the 1900s through the 1920s, these buildings slipped into disuse in the latter half of the past century. A few have been converted to other uses, and the old mill, a brickwork beauty, may find a new life as an office building. Turn left on Cedar (or any street as you head down Bowie) and go two blocks.

Turn right on Austin St. and go back downtown to the fourth light.

Early in the 20th century, rival groups of businessmen competed to erect the prospering town's first 'modern' hotel. In 1916, the Plaza Hotel (pictured here) opened overlooking the town square. Earlier the same year the Aumont made its debut a few blocks closer to the depot, on Austin at Mountain, hence its name.

The promoters of the Aumont had secured the services of San Antonio's leading architect of the time, Atlee B. Ayers, and he did fine work, as usual. The other group may have had divine guidance, for they put aside any religious prejudice they might have felt when choosing an architect.

In 1915, a new St. James Catholic Church was erected a few blocks from the site of the Plaza, to plans by Leo M.J. Dielmann.

Continue on Austin through downtown, turn right past the schoolyard onto Convent, and right again onto Camp St.

The bulk of Dielmann's practice was for Catholic institutions, but here, after his work on the local church was seen, he was hired for a very secular hotel.

Perhaps his work on churches gave Dielmann a very sure hand with graceful proportion and strong verticals. In any case, the architectural historian Jay C Henry, in his book, Architecture in Texas, 1895 - 1945, calls the Plaza "the most remarkable" among a crop of hotels erected in small cities during this period.

Stay on Camp St. to Nolte St, and turn right for a good view of the hotel.

With two hotels, the town ended up with plenty of rooms, and so the Chicago White Sox were enticed here for spring training in the early 1920s. Accounts vary, but it seems that the team coaches and managers may have stayed at the Aumont while the players were put up at the Plaza. The exhibition games (against the Giants, wintering in San Antonio) were played at the Fairgrounds, the site of the town's baseball field even today.

Meanwhile, around 1916 or so,, "The Old Spanish Trail" marked country roads for automobile traffic to connect St. Augustine with San Antonio and Los Angeles. It was not the exactly the route used by any Spanish explorers, missionaries, soldiers, or settlers, but it was a successful marketing ploy, and it did bring carloads of American tourists. In these parts that early route ran from Gonzales, along today's highway 90-A, and along Court St. in Seguin. On the north side of the Courthouse is a marker put up 30 years later, confusing this achievement of Southern Chambers of Commerce with the actual paths of famous Spanish explorers.

Go back up Austin St. to Kingsbury, make a left (going west). The Rock Courts are about eight blocks ahead on the right.

In the early 1930s, U.S. Highway 90 was laid out to follow the railroad tracks on that nearly straight line between Houston and San Antonio. It was a major east-west highway for 30 or 40 years. It left behind a fine piece of roadside architecture, the Rock Courts, built of field stone, a typically 1930s material in these parts. Now apartments, they still stand on West Kingsbury St, where a fork in the road used to go to the Hill Country.

Make a right as you pass the former Rock Courts. Go two blocks up to New Braunfels St., and turn right, back to Austin St., hugging the railroad as you go. At Austin make a right again. Yes, you are covering the same territory once more -- but in a different time period.

Later in the 1930s, Highway 123 was put through on a very straight route to San Marcos. Until then travelers had wandered over hill and dale, almost to Martindale, to get to San Marcos.

Soon after, where Highway 123 crossed Highway 90, on Austin and Kingsbury Streets in Seguin, you could find a service station on each corner, and a place to eat beside three of them. This intersection got to be known as Four Corners.

On the far right corner, the southeast corner of Austin and Kingsbury, is a onetime gas station. This prize example of the Mission Revival style in a commercial building was a Mobil Oil outlet. That company used Mission Revival as part of its corporate identity, along with the sign of the Flying Red Horse. Sadly, the Red Horse that once revolved above this station is gone. For that matter, so is the Mobil Corp.

Interstate 10 was completed in the 1970', and Four Corners began a long decline. But from here you can find your way home, or go back down Austin St. to the Chamber office, and start another tour of Old Seguin.

Today Interstate 10 passes along our town's northern edge. State Highway 46 frames the west-side campus of Texas Lutheran University. On the east side of town, the new State Highway 123 was built to bypass downtown congestion. Instead, it has become the new center of commercial activity.