Seguin Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

The Seguin Commercial Historic District (Boundary and Period of Significance Increase) encompasses the city's central business district dating from the 1850s to the early 1950s. The district captures the building forms and development as a regional trade center from the late 19th through the early 20th century. Most of the buildings are 1- and 2-part commercial, government, and institutional buildings typical in material and form to other Texas communities of the period. The district was listed in the National Register under Criterion A in the area of Commerce and Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance. The boundary increase adds nine properties on three separate blocks, all of which are immediately adjacent to the original district boundaries. These properties represent all of the eligible commercial or institutional properties on the periphery of the original district.

Seguin, Texas, located off of U. S. Interstate 10 at the intersection of State Highway 123, was originally part of a Spanish land grant of 1831 to Humphries Branch, a settler from Missouri brought by Empresario Green DeWitt to Gonzales. The branch sold his tract to Joseph S. Martin and Thomas R. Miller in 1834. The land began to be settled but later had to be abandoned upon the approach of Santa Anna's army in 1834. Miller, subsequently, died at the Alamo. Two years later Martin, along with Arthur Swift, James Campbell and Matthew Caldwell split the site into 44 shares which were sold off with the provision that the buyers would move onto his share and build a house within a certain time frame.

Formed when Texas was just a Republic, in 1836, it is one of Texas's oldest towns and is now the largest town in the county of Guadalupe. Originally, it was called Walnut Springs after the area it was located in. Finally, in 1839, after much debate about the names of Seguin or Tuscumbia, the founding fathers chose the name Seguin, after Juan Nepomuceno Seguin, hero of the Texas Revolution. In 1845, Seguin, Texas became part of the United States after President Polk signed the Texas Admissions Act.

By 1846, the Texas State Legislature formed a new county out of Gonzales and Bexar counties, named Guadalupe County. The City of Seguin was designated and remains to this day, the county seat. In May of 1846, Seguin received a United States Post Office. By the end of 1848, the courthouse was built because prior to that time, county business had to be conducted under the live oak trees and in private homes.
The first commercial construction boom began in the late 1840s and continued into the 1850s. This was a significant period in the Seguin construction business because Seguin became known as "Concrete City" due to the widespread use of cast concrete as a building material. It is during that time that as many as 100 buildings of all kinds were constructed, including homes (Sebastopol), hotels (Magnolia Hotel), and stores (Ezra Keyser Store, 111 S. River), some of which still survive.

The 1850 census showed a population of 1176 people, a total of 216 families. Within three years, on September 24, 1853, Seguin published its first newspaper, The Seguin Mercury, under the leadership of Mr. H.T. Burke. In December 1853, the Seguin Mercury published a social and business census as follows:
Seguin has seven stores, three bakeries, beer establishments, two groceries, and two tailors. It has one carriage factory, one saddle and harness maker, a Masonic Lodge, a flourishing division of the Sons of Temperance, and a division of the Order of the Good Samaritan and Daughters of Samantha. There are three hotels, one newspaper, good schools, and Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal Churches.

The period 1845 to 1860 can be judged as perhaps one of the most industrious and enterprising periods in Seguin's history. The settlers did not watch the world go by. They made things happen - self-rule, county government, organized education, and sent six representatives to the State Legislature (Arthur Swift, Ben McCulloch, Henry McCulloch, Andrew Neill, Isham V. Harris, and T. H. Duggan). Roads were laid out, stagecoach routes came, and the city had mail services, recreation activities, clubs and organizations, technological innovations in construction, newspapers, and agricultural enterprises; all of these made Seguin a bustling community by the eve of the Civil War.

Growth in Seguin ceased during the Civil War and Reconstruction as it did elsewhere in Texas during the same period. By this time most of the platted area of Seguin had been filled. During Reconstruction, the only business that thrived and aided an otherwise failing economy was the cattle business. Eventually, prosperity returned as the railroad arrived in Seguin in 1877, thus bringing additional population and a new building boom in the 1880s and 1890s. New large, private homes were built, many of Victorian style. The new construction boom brought commercial buildings of brick, primarily due to the new Brickyards (five total including Dietz, Sonka and Blumberg brickyards) that started production in the 1880s.

Development was concentrated along Austin Street which was the first street car route and around the two public squares. Eventually, it extended north to the railroad station. Initially, 2-story commercial buildings were constructed of local brick. Active buildings continued into the 1920s, including the Aumont Hotel and Plaza Hotel, which became local landmarks. The effects of the Great Depression advanced slowly in Seguin, but by the mid-1930s, Seguin could not escape the difficult economic days. Eventually, even many professionals found themselves unemployed. New construction ceased. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Rudolph Weinert and his political clout, Seguin became the beneficiary of the New Deal. The New Deal and its second phase known as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) came to Seguin and performed many long-term services for Seguin. Several accomplishments included the construction of the present-day courthouse and city hall, a U.S. Post Office building and various street projects. Three projects in Seguin built during the New Deal which are reflective of the architectural revival style are the Seguin Post Office, Starcke Park and the Guadalupe County Courthouse.

In the immediate postwar years, the Seguin commercial district continued to function much as it did in previous decades. Representative examples of postwar architectural design is reflected in several buildings in the district, most notably the modern Palace Theater, featuring a large vertical neon sign and horizontal marquee (314 S. Austin), and the 1949 Masonic Lodge, a 2-story buff brick symmetrical modern building featuring paired metal sash windows and ornament limited to raised brick banding on the upper portion (200 S. Crockett). These buildings represent continued change within the district after World War II and exemplify popular postwar design without detracting from the qualities which made the district eligible when it was listed in 1983. The Seguin Commercial Historic District (Boundary and Period of Significance Increase) is nominated for listing under Criterion A in the area of Commerce and Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance. The district, as revised and with boundary increase, incorporates the entire commercial district of Seguin developed through the middle of the 20th century.

The nine buildings included in the boundary increase contributions to the district's architectural and historical significance, and illustrate key points in Seguin's development. The Tips House is an important local example of antebellum Greek Revival architecture and was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in the 1930s. The Tips Cottages and related small commercial buildings represent the evolution of the property from strictly residential use to mixed commercial/residential use by the 1930s. The addition of tourist cabins to large residential lots near commercial centers was not uncommon in the 1920s and 1930s, as "auto touring" became a popular form of middle-class recreation, and these backyard businesses provided extra income for families during the Great Depression. The former First Baptist Church is one of the few 19th-century concrete buildings remaining within the National Register district and is significant as a rare example of this building technology and as a good example of a Mission Revival Style church. The former US Post Office is significant as a depression-era government building displaying elements of the Mission Revival Style, and its location on the periphery of the business district is in keeping with the location of post offices throughout Texas and the south-central United States. The 1-part commercial block north of the post office features the characteristics (storefront configuration and decorative parapet) typical of many commercial buildings within the original district. All of these properties merit listing in the National Register as important components of the Seguin Commercial Historic District.