Site of Moore Hotel
Moulton, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
William J. and Mary O'Daniel Moore moved to Texas from Alabama with their family in 1845, and settled in Lavaca County in 1853 on 500 acres. Moore was a farmer and raised livestock. Their son Samuel B. Moore also became a farmer and rancher. In the 1860s, Samuel and his brother William Moore bought 12,000 acres of land now lying between the towns of Moulton and Shiner. The Moore brothers granted right-of-way out of their land to the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad in 1887. A townsite was platted, and the new town of Moulton was established. The Moore Hotel was built in 1888 to accommodate travelers. Constructed here east of the railroad depot, the 32-room hotel included a large room built for traveling salesmen to display their wares. The dining room and parlor in the hotel became a gathering place and the social center of the area. The Moore Hotel was sold to Christian Kotzbue in 1890. He added 10 more guest rooms and a wine cellar. The hotel was operated by the Kotzbue family for several decades, but gradually went out of business and was razed in 1940. A grocery store built in its place was converted into a cafe in 1942.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Moore brothers granted a right-of-way across their vast Lavaca County ranchland to the railroad in 1887, they helped conjure the town of Moulton into being. The next year the thirty-two-room Moore Hotel rose east of the depot, complete with a showroom for traveling salesmen and a dining room that became the social heart of the area. Later expanded by the Kotzbue family, the grand hotel outlived its heyday and was finally razed in 1940.
Why it matters
The hotel's rise and fall trace how the coming of the railroad birthed new towns across Texas and made the depot-side hotel a center of frontier commerce and society.
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Related people
- · Samuel B. Moore
- · William Moore
- · Christian Kotzbue
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Boehm Store
Moulton, TX
When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad reached Lavaca County in 1887, the town of Moulton simply picked up and moved to meet the tracks, and Edward Boehm opened the first business in the new townsite. His frame store grew with the community, enlarged in 1897 and rebuilt in native stone by 1906, and passed to his sons in the family tradition of small-town Texas merchants.
Moulton
Moulton, TX
Moulton was founded in the early 1850s a couple of miles from its present spot, then relocated after 1887 when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad ran its line through and placed a station here. Brothers Sam and Will Moore led the building of a notable school in 1901, and the town has remained an agricultural and shipping center ever since.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church
Moulton, TX
When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad reached this area in 1887, the old town of Moulton picked up and moved to meet the tracks, drawing German and Czech immigrant families who broke ground on new farms. Answering their wish for a Catholic parish, Rev. John Forest of Hallettsville founded St. Joseph's, and a small frame sanctuary rose in 1888. The parish grew into an independent congregation by 1892 and ran a school taught by the Sisters of Divine Providence for more than seventy years.
Old Moulton
Moulton, TX
Named by tradition for Moulton, Alabama, this Lavaca County town took root in the 1850s, with James Walker as its first postmaster in 1856. It won statewide renown for the Moulton Institute, run from 1874 to 1895 by Melvin and "Aunt Thank" Allis, whose faculty included the noted music teacher Sallie McLean. When the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad laid its line two miles east in 1887, the town slowly picked up and followed the tracks, leaving the original site behind.