Visiting Nacogdoches, Texas: A Thousand Yesterdays, Endless Tomorrow
The first thing a visitor notices when arriving down town Nacogdoches is brick streets. They’re a relatively recent addition, being put down in 1913. Most of the buildings along those streets were built long before. Turn east onto the brick of Main from Business 59, or North Street. Go one block. The Nacogdoches Visitors’ Center is on the right in the center of the square. The Visitor’s Center occupies a building constructed in 1917 as a post office. Later it was given to the city and served as the city library for many decades. Friendly hosts are quite ready to tell about the city, its past, and its many attractions.
The Visitors’ Center offers a brochure marking out a walking tour of downtown. A whole lot of Texas history transpired within walking distance of the square, known once as the Plaza Principal, a center of commerce in colonial Nacogdoches. Southwest of the square the New Orleans Grey’s bivouacked before going on to fight and die in Central Texas at Goliad and the Alamo. A few blocks north and west of the square lies Oak Grove Cemetery where prominent Texans such as Thomas J. Rusk and Haden Edwards are buried. Rusk and three others buried there were signers of the Texas Declaration of independence.
A burial mound left by Nacadoche Indians, part of the Caddo Confederacy, circa 1250 AD, is north on Mound, across from the Old University Building. A Brisk stroll farther north and east on Park is where Father Margil, a Spanish mission priest, is said to have performed a miracle by striking a rock and getting water during a summer drought. To the west on North Street sits the Acosta-Taylor House, homestead to one of Nacogdoches’ original settlers Anders De-Acosta then later owned by Thomas J. Rusk and other prominent Texans. The walking tour offers a good workout while visitors get a taste of the history that took place in Nacogdoches.
Three different rebellions were born in Nacogdoches. The timbers of Y’Barbo’s trading post just north of Plaza Principal on Washington Square served as headquarters for all of them. Y’Barbo’s house, dubbed The Old Stone Fort, became billet for Mexican troops in the 1820’s. The battle of Nacogdoches in 1832 cleared Mexican troops out of East Texas for good four years before Texas’ independence was declared at Washington on the Brazos. One could make the case that Texas Independence as well as Texas Statehood was born in Nacogdoches.
Sam Houston first settled in Nacogdoches. The house he was baptized in as a Catholic, now a museum open to the public, is a short walk from the visitors center. Thomas J. Rusk of Nacogdoches led troops to San Antonio, represented Nacogdoches at the convention, during the republic, and as one of the first two Texas Senators. Houston was the other one. Many of the men who gave their lives at the Alamo and Goliad spent time in Nacogdoches, not only the New Orleans soldiers but Kentuckians like David Crockett.
After the Texas revolutionary war Nacogdoches grew steadily. Nacogdoches University, founded 1844, was the only secular college established while Texas was a Republic. The Old University Building still standing on Washington Square was built in 1859. Confederate troops headquarted in the University building after cession. Federal Troops replaced them during reconstruction. The old building has been the home of two universities, served Nacogdoches school children and had many prominent Americans visit it. Today the doors are open to visitors leading to a treasure of Texas history inside.
In the 1920’s the Old University building was the first home to another prominent state institution of higher learning: Stephen F. Austin State University. Originally a teachers’ college, SFA’s first students arrived at the Old University building in 1923. A year later they moved to a new campus. SFA today has an attendance of twelve thousand students. The campus, one of the most beautiful in the country, covers 360 acres in the heart of Nacogdoches.
Down the street from the Rusk building on the SFA campus, just across from a new student parking garage, is a replica of The Old Stone Fort. Y’Barbo’s original house was torn down in 1902 after falling into disrepair. The Old Fort had been many things, from trading post to birth place of rebellion to saloon. When the walls came down a local women’s study group called the Cum Concilio Club bought the remains and stored them until they could be used to build the replica in 1936 on the SFA campus.
Y’Barbo’s original house stood at the crossroads of El Camino Real, the King’s Highway, and El Calle Del Norte, an ancient north-south trade route. State Highway 21 follows the El Camino Real from Central Texas to where it meets highway six in Louisiana. U.S. 59, North Street in the city, takes the route of El Calle Del Norte. They remain the major routes into and out of the city today.
No matter what direction anyone arrives in Nacogdoches from, the drive is a nice one. Agriculture has been the foundation of Nacogdoches’ economy since it outgrew being a trading post in the early 1800’s. Cotton fields took the place of virgin forestland, cut down by the wagonload during timber boom in the 1830’s. Massive old growth that centuries of Native Americans lived beneath disappeared. Hard economic times left fields fallow after the civil war. New timber grew until in the 1930’s more than half the county was once again covered with trees. Highways into Nacogdoches are lined with trees and occasional grazing land for cattle. Forestry and husbandry form the basis of Nacogdoches’ economy today.
The University’s presence insures Nacogdoches has plenty of motel space. Rooms fill up when families come to help new students get settled or to attend graduation. One of the best places to stay is The Fredonia Hotel, a Nacogdoches original. City leaders developed the hotel in the mid’50’s. They wanted to provide a nice place for travelers and visitors. The hotel was operated by a group of businessmen under the Nacogdoches Community Hotel Corporation until the sixties when it was sold. The property was not well cared for by new owners. It closed in 1985. Fredonia got a new lease on life after the Mayor’s office pulled together the community and obtained funding to refurbish the hotel. A restored Fredonia Hotel opened in 1989. The Hotel offers excellent rooms, cabana rooms, suites, several conference halls and a popular restaurant.
Besides the Fredonia Hotel and several chain motels, Nacogdoches has a number of Bed and Breakfast establishments in homes that have been standing since Nacogdoches’ colonial days. The Hayden Edwards Inn, next to the Sterne-Hoya House where Houston was Baptized and Crockett slept, offers several rooms. The original lower floor of the house was built in 1840. A second floor was added in the 1890’s. The Brick House Inn on Virginia Avenue, built in 1886, has three rooms. Mound Street Bed and Breakfast, built 1899, The Jones House, built 1897, and the Hardeman Guest House, built 1892, add more opportunities for a visitor to experience living history.
Nacogdoches has a mix of college students, transplanted city folks and residents whose roots go back to the Revolution. The city’s makeup is more eclectic than any other town in East Texas. Besides an appreciation of the city’s past, residents enjoy simple pleasures and a slower pace of living. This is evident in the careful restorations of historic structures, quiet streets downtown, and a number of cafÃ?©’s and restaurants where locals and students mingle and get along quite nicely.
Preservationist thinking and modern tastes have lead to the opening of several cafÃ?©’s down town in restored buildings. Yakofritz and The Lumber Yard (SFA’s mascot is a Lumberjack) are good places to have a sandwich or coffee. The Hayter House (1903) Restaurant near the campus on North Street is another eatery where excellent food, courteous service and historic ambiance combine to make dinner an exceptional experience. Nacogdoches has something for any appetite, from Japanese to Mexican. There’s no reason to go hungry here.
It takes at least a couple days to take in all the historic buildings and sites in and around Nacogdoches. But there’s more to Nacogdoches than history. Within half an hour of the city visitors can find recreational opportunities and shopping plentiful enough to take up another day or two. Toss in a day to relax to finish the week out. It’s a vacation that will give more than it takes.
Summers are hot in East Texas. Shirtsleeves are the dress most of the year. Winter rain keeps things soggy and occasionally ice-laden the first couple months out of the year. Spring or fall is the best time to visit. Temps are lower. In the spring, flowers and budding trees are everywhere. Fall foliage along 21 and other canopied two-lanes out of town rival anything in New England.
Seasons change. Life changes. Change is a constant. Some places change quickly while others take their time. Nacogdoches is one of those towns which has enough of a hold on its heritage that it slips through time slowly, carefully, only absorbing tidbits of modern culture at one time. The sights of yesterday stir the sounds of yesterday in the minds of visitors. Nacogdoches, like Texas, is enduring, stable, and solid. With such a solid foundation, it’s a city that’s likely to see an endless tomorrow. It is a destination to stir the imagination and fill the heart all at once. A destination not soon forgotten.
