Park Hotel
Tuleta, Bee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Reinhart C.M. Nelson, one of many midwesterners lured to the area by the promotional literature of land developers, moved his family here from Minnesota in 1905. He built this structure in 1910. Named for its park-like setting, it is an unusual example of standard 20th century hotel form. It features innovative concrete construction, distinctive cast concrete Classical columns, and a wraparound porch. The building was converted for use as a private residence in 1920. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Reinhart C.M. Nelson was one of thousands of Midwesterners drawn to South Texas by land developers' glowing promotional literature, moving his family from Minnesota in 1905. In 1910 he built this hotel, notable for its early use of concrete construction, cast concrete Classical columns, and a welcoming wraparound porch on its park-like grounds. By 1920 it had become a private home.
Why it matters
The building is a monument to the great land-boom migrations of the early 1900s, when railroad and developer campaigns lured Northern farmers to settle and reshape the Texas coastal plains.
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Related people
- · Reinhart C.M. Nelson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Tuleta
Tuleta, TX
In 1906 the Rev. Peter Unzicker led a band of Illinois settlers to this South Texas prairie, buying land from an old Spanish grant and founding the town of Tuleta, named for a rancher's daughter. He organized one of Texas's earliest Mennonite churches in 1909, and townspeople opened the innovative Tuleta Agricultural High School the next year. For a time the town thrived as a marketing center for the surrounding farmland.
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Carved largely from San Patricio County in 1857 and organized in 1858, Bee County took its name from Barnard E. Bee, who served the Republic of Texas as secretary of war, secretary of state, and minister to the United States. A cattle region since Spanish colonial times, it became an important beef producer after 1865 and gained its first railroad, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass, in 1886. Oil was discovered here in 1929, and the county seat has been at Beeville since 1860.
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