Winedale Stagecoach Inn
Round Top, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built by William S. Townsend about 1834. Of cedar timbers-- one large room, fireplace and loft for sleeping quarters. Purchased in 1848 by Samuel k. Lewis; enlarged to present form. Became known as "Sam Lewis' stopping place" for many years. Restored by Miss Ima Hogg, 1964. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built about 1834 as a single cedar-timbered room with a sleeping loft, this structure became a waypoint on the early Texas roads. Samuel K. Lewis bought it in 1848 and enlarged it into "Sam Lewis' stopping place," a well-known stagecoach stop for travelers. Philanthropist Ima Hogg restored the inn in 1964, preserving a rare survivor of the Republic-era hospitality trade.
Why it matters
The inn recalls the stagecoach network that carried travelers across early Texas, and the mid-20th-century preservation movement that saved its landmarks.
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Related people
- · Samuel K. Lewis
- · William S. Townsend
- · Ima Hogg
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Samuel Knight Lewis
Round Top, TX
Samuel Knight Lewis left a Mississippi plantation to bring his family to Texas in 1838, serving Austin County in the Republic of Texas House of Representatives before settling near Round Top in 1848. Sensing opportunity along a planned stage route, he bought land whose home grew into a welcome stopping place for travelers, later known as the Winedale Inn. Given to the University of Texas in the 1960s, the property became the heart of the Winedale Historical Center.
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Before highways and railroads knit Texas together, travel meant long, uncertain journeys broken by roadside inns like the Sam Lewis Stopping Place near Winedale. Begun in 1834 as a two-room log cabin and enlarged over the years with the help of German craftsmen, it sheltered stagecoach passengers who shared family meals and a bed for the night. Such inns changed horses, fed travelers, and often handled the community's mail—humble institutions on which whole towns and stage lines depended.
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