Site of Mundine Hotel
Rockdale, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Mundine Hotel stood on this site from its construction in 1880 until its destruction by fire in 1888. Completed six years after Rockdale incorporated along the International & Great Northern rail line, the hotel was built near the depot to accommodate rail travelers. John Mundine of Lexington, Texas, built the inn, and it opened in 1881 under the management of Dr. and Mrs. W. A. Brooks. The fire that destroyed the three-story structure also killed 11 of its 13 occupants. Never rebuilt, the Mundine Hotel remains a part of Rockdale's history and its significant association with the railroad. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1880 beside the International & Great Northern depot, the three-story Mundine Hotel opened in 1881 to serve the rail travelers pouring into the young town of Rockdale. John Mundine of Lexington built the inn, run by Dr. and Mrs. W. A. Brooks. A fire in 1888 destroyed the building and killed 11 of its 13 occupants, and it was never rebuilt.
Why it matters
It captures how the railroad conjured hotels and whole towns into being across Gilded Age Texas—and how fragile those wooden landmarks could be.
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Related people
- · John Mundine
- · Dr. and Mrs. W. A. Brooks
Related events
- · 1888 Mundine Hotel fire
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Railroads in Rockdale
Rockdale, TX
Rockdale was born of the railroad, laid out along the International & Great Northern line in 1873-74 and quickly becoming a shipping point that gave area farmers access to distant markets. Two more lines followed, including the San Antonio & Aransas Pass and, in 1923, a short line built to haul local lignite coal, layering rail commerce onto the town's growth for nearly a century. Passenger service ended in 1970, but the rails remain woven into the community's identity.
City of Rockdale
Rockdale, TX
Rockdale sprang up in 1874 as a stop on the new International & Great Northern Railroad, and it grew fast—soon boasting churches, schools, cotton gins, grist mills, an opera house, a bank, and a newspaper. The city organized formally in 1875, and in 1895 work began on a city hall to the design of Austin architect A. O. Watson. That building housed city offices, social gatherings, and the volunteer fire department for eighty years, and still stands as a reminder of the town's railroad-era rise.
First Baptist Church of Rockdale
Rockdale, TX
Rockdale grew up around a railroad camp in 1873, and the following year the Rev. B. B. Baxter gathered 18 charter members into a Baptist congregation that first met in a room above a dry-goods store. A simple sanctuary went up in 1881, replaced by a new building in 1919 as the church grew with the town. A Latin American mission begun in the 1950s later became its own Southern Baptist congregation.
Rainbow Tourist Camp and Courts
Rockdale, TX
As Americans took to the roads in the early twentieth century, roadside lodging evolved from simple campsites into clusters of tourist cottages. N.M. Bullock opened his Rainbow Tourist Camp near Rockdale in 1918 and, with his wife Lenora, added cottages through the 1920s; when U.S. Highway 79 came through town in 1936, business boomed. Many original mission-revival cottages still stand in their classic U-shaped court, and Lenora's irises still bloom on the grounds.