Guadalupe Hotel
a.k.a. Schmitz Hotel;Plaza Hotel
471 Main Plaza, New Braunfels, TXThe Plaza Hotel, built shortly after the founding of New Braunfels, is one of the oldest public buildings remaining in the city. Located on the town square, the building represents an important historical, as well as architectural landmark for the city.
New Braunfels was the first settlement founded by the German Immigration Company, the Verein, which brought German settlers to Texas in the mid-1840s. After his arrival in Texas in 1845, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels realized that it would be suicidal to immediately take settlers to the land on the San Saba and Llano rivers that his association had purchased. Instead, he purchased a league of land on the Comal River, took his settlers there, and gave them each building lots and 10-acre plots of farmland. New Braunfels, named for the city's founder, became an incorporated municipality in 1858.
The site of the present Plaza Hotel, located around the original public square, was acquired by Rudolph Nauendorf in 1850. Around 1851 Nauendorf constructed a two-story limestone structure, known as the Nauendorf & Coll Building, for a business enterprise. The Comal County Commissioners Court approached Nauendorf in 1852 about buying the building for a courthouse, but they were unable to pay the asking price of $3500.
In 1858 Nauendorf sold the building to Jacob Schmitz for $1500. Schmitz, a local innkeeper, had come to New Braunfels with the original founders. Originally bound for Castro's Colony (See National Register Submission, Castroville Historic District, 1970) Schmitz and other Castro colonists were stranded in San Antonio when he first arrived in 1843. Schmitz contracted with Prince Solms-Braunfels for five months and became one of the founding colonists of New Braunfels in 1845. In March 1847, he accompanied John Meusenbach, successor to Prince Solms Braunfels as an administrator of the new settlement, on his expedition into Indian country to make a peace treaty with the Commanches living on the land originally purchased by the Verein. The innkeeper served as the cook on the expedition.
Before buying the Nauendorf & Coll Building, Schmitz operated a one-story inn on South Seguin Street known as the "Guadalupe Hotel." Famed journalist Frederick Law Olmsted recorded his stay in 1854 stating that the Guadalupe Hotel was reminiscent of inns of the Rhineland. In 1858 Schmitz moved his hotel into his new building, retaining the former name of his inn. A two-story gallery across the front changed the appearance of the hotel in 1865 and in 1873 the name changed to the "Schmitz Hotel" with the addition of a third floor and a three-story gallery.
During the Schmitz era, the Guadalupe or Schmitz Hotel served as the official stage stop of New Braunfels. The city was a regular stop at the end of a day's travel from San Antonio to Austin or Houston. It served as the stage headquarters until 1880 when the railroad was built from Austin to San Antonio by way of New Braunfels. An old hotel register, now displayed at the Sophienburg Museum in New Braunfels, records the signatures of such famous guests as Sam Houston, Jefferson Davis, General H. H. Sibley, O Henry, and many others.
Jacob Schmitz died in August 1874. Mrs. Schmitz conveyed his numerous properties to her daughter, Mrs. Paula Claessen in 1882. In June 1882, Mrs. Claessen leased the hotel to Emil Braun. He ran a hotel and was granted the right to run a bar and billiard saloon in one of the rooms. Mrs. Schmitz, Mrs. Claessen, and her children returned to Germany in that year. Finally, in 1910 the Claessen family sold the hotel to Charles Koch.
Sometime during the Twentieth century, the name of the hotel changed to the "Plaza Hotel." The only major alterations were the removal of the front galleries in 1933, the addition of a first-floor store facade, and the addition of iron balconies on the second and third floors. In 1961 the hotel was sold to the Guaranty State Bank which has since leased the bottom floor to businesses and the second and third floors as apartments. The New Braunfels Conservation Society has bought the old hotel and they plan to restore the building to its 1873 appearance.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.