Winedale Inn Complex
a.k.a. Stagecoach Inn;Winedale
Off FM 1457, Winedale, TXThe Stagecoach Inn at Winedale in northeast Fayette County was purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, daughter of former Governor Jin Hogg, and given to the University of Texas. It is historically significant, though not in the more obvious sense. No major political or military events occurred in or around this building. It is not even claimed that the peripatetic Sam Houston ever slept here. of its half dozen early owners, none was spectacularly famous and only two were widely known in the Texas of their day.
Still, this lovely restoration in the valley of Jack's Creek is a striking symbol of much that is important in the history of Texas. It is on a homesite established in the Mexican colonial period in the heart of an area that drew settlers even before Stephen Austin, making it a part of his first colony.
The Inn itself is believed to have been built by Will Townsend in 1834 as a stout one-room frame structure with heavy cedar timbers and a loft above. The property was purchased by Samuel K. Lewis and in about 1850 this structure was more than doubled, the loft turned into a full second story and an identical section was added to the north with a wide, open hallway between the two halves of the house, upstairs and down. A broad two-story gallery was added across the front.
Architecturally and historically, the Inn combines the Anglo-American and German elements which flowed together in Fayette County to contribute to the cultural ferment which eventually produced one aspect of Texas culture. Paintings in the Inn, for example, are thought to have been done by Rudolph Melchoir, one of a family of artistic German immigrants who settled Round Top in the 1860s. German decorative motifs abound throughout the Inn.
Winedale Properties include various outlying buildings: Hazel's Lone Oak Cottage, built in 1854; the Lauderdale House, an Innkeeper's cottage; two barns; a log kitchen, smokehouse, and the MacGregor House of 1859. Today, the University of Texas uses the Winedale buildings for conferences and festivals. There is a day school and there are museums and restoration workshops. Scholars performing area research in academic fields related to ethnic studies frequently visit the Inn, and a museum that depicts early German settlement in Texas is open to the public. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark 1967. (The Stagecoach Inn.)
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
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.