Pybus-Koerber House
Palacios, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1915, builder Joseph Pybus erected this home, designed by C.F. Emmons. James L. and Ina Mae (Perryman) Koerber bought it from the Pybus family in 1924. Owner of the Palacios Garage and Auto Co., J.L. also served as mayor, 1948-52. Other business interests included a canning operation and travel court on this site. The travel court, along with rooms in the house, provided space for military personnel and families from Camp Hulen. The bungalow cottage features a pyramidal roof, central hipped dormer, three-bay porch and textured concrete blocks with oyster shell aggregate. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1915 to a design by C.F. Emmons, this trim bungalow cottage—pyramidal roof, hipped dormer, and concrete blocks flecked with Gulf oyster shell—passed in 1924 to the Koerber family. James L. Koerber ran the town garage, served as mayor, and operated a canning business and travel court on the property. During the World War II years, those rooms and cabins gave shelter to service members and families tied to nearby Camp Hulen.
Why it matters
The home is a small but vivid record of how a Gulf Coast town's everyday commerce and lodging bent to support the vast wartime training machine of the 1940s.
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Related people
- · Joseph Pybus
- · James L. Koerber
- · Ina Mae Koerber
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Begun in 1925 as a summer training ground for the Texas National Guard on land donated by Palacios citizens, this bayside camp grew into one of the U.S. military's largest field-training sites after it was renamed for Major John A. Hulen in 1930. During World War II the War Department expanded it for anti-aircraft training and quarters for 12,000 personnel, and from 1943 to 1945 it held German prisoners of war. Returned to the Guard in 1946, it was gradually dismantled and the land sold off by the mid-1960s.
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