Town of Weimar
Weimar, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This land--once part of first Anglo-American colony in Texas--grew into a townsite in 1873 with coming of the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio rail line. D.W. Jackson donated half of land for town, which was named for Weimar, Germany. Post Office was established in 1873. Town incoporated 1875. By 1887 Weimar was enjoying a prosperous cotton economy, had many stores and 2 newspapers. Local opera house (150 yds.S), built about 1880, was one of the first between Houston and San Antonio. Present Economy is based on agriculture. Population is 2,050.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On land that was once part of Texas's first Anglo-American colony, Weimar grew into a townsite in 1873 when the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio rail line arrived and D. W. Jackson donated half the land. Named for Weimar, Germany, the town incorporated in 1875 and by 1887 boasted a booming cotton economy, many stores, two newspapers, and an opera house that was among the first between Houston and San Antonio.
Why it matters
Weimar's rise shows how railroads and cotton together powered the settlement and cultural life of the Texas coastal plain in the late nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · D. W. Jackson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Weimar Railroad Depot
Weimar, TX
Weimar owes its very existence to the railroad: in 1873 rail magnate T. W. Peirce built a depot on D. W. Jackson's land and the two men split the profits from selling town lots. Peirce named the new town for a German city he admired, and with transportation finally solving the region's isolation, Weimar grew quickly into a trade center. The first depot gave way to the present structure in 1925, and in 1972 the Southern Pacific donated it to serve as the town's public library.
Bedstead Truss Bridge (Mulberry Creek Bridge)
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Built in 1888 by the King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland with a Kansas subcontractor, this sixty-foot iron span carried the Old Praha Road across Mulberry Creek and opened easy access to the growing town of Schulenburg. A pin-connected, box-chord modified Pratt low truss — the "bedstead" type — it cost just $1,422 to erect and served a major travel route into the early twentieth century. Few bridges of its distinctive style still stand.
Site of Railway Hospital
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As railroads spread across Texas in the 1870s and 1880s, the companies took on the medical care of their far-flung crews. Dr. Robert Henry Harrison, trained in Cincinnati and Alabama, settled in Columbus as the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio line was building west, and served as medical director for the Southern Pacific's Atlantic Division. In 1880 he built a hospital for railway employees on this site, staffed by several physicians, until fire destroyed it around 1886 and it was never rebuilt.
Site of Svrcek Garage
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Frank Svrcek's 1890s building on the Fayetteville square found its calling in the automobile age, housing Walter Meinen's Chevrolet dealership in the 1920s and later a garage where customers drove in the tin doors and out the back. After World War II, Willie Svrcek returned home to reopen the family building as Svrcek Garage, adding fuel pumps and a concrete floor, and even carving out space for an appliance shop. It served as a feed store before being razed in 2012.