Seguin is a small town in Texas with the population of about 29,000 people. Seguin was founded in 1838, and it is one of the oldest towns in Texas. Seguin was named in honor of Juan Seguín, a Tejano Texian freedom fighter and early supporter of the Republic of Texas. Seguin’s rich history put its downtown district on the National Register of Historic Places. We enjoyed touring Seguin’s downtown and nearby neighborhoods. It has a lot of charming restaurants, shops and historic buildings. Our daughter had fun tossing a coin in the Alfred H. Koebig art deco fountain at Seguin’s Central Park and running up and down in the gazebo in front of the courthouse. We highly recommend going on the Heritage Village tour at Los Nogales. Kids will get a kick out of the Dietz Doll House on 415 South River Street. In addition to historic houses, wells and churches, we saw a wheeled calaboose with barred windows that hauled prisoners to work on country roads. We also toured Seguin’s Power Plant restaurant and the adjacent Max Starcke park. Seguin’s Power Plant built on the Saffold Dam has truly majestic views. The park and dam were designed in 1938 by Robert Hugman, the architect of the famous River Walk in San Antonio, TX. The power plant is no longer working; however, most of its machinery is still in place. The city leased the abandoned building to The Power Plant Grill restaurant and to a tube launching venue for floating the river. Seguin also has a state-of-the-art playground, Kids Kingdom Playscape, located across the road from the golf course and Seguin Wave Pool at Max Starcke Park. The park used to be a pecan orchard prior to the park's dedication in 1938. The park also has natural fishing area, paddling trail, walking trail (0.8 miles), tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, and the Little League baseball-softball complex for kids. Interesting facts: In the 19-th century, Seguin had the largest concentration of concrete buildings in the United States. An esteemed inventor Dr. John E. Park moved his family to Seguin in 1846 to work on his special recipe of concrete also known as limecrete. Seguin had all materials necessary for concrete production such as gravel, sand, lime, and clay. By 1870-s the town had about a hundred buildings made of limecrete, including the courthouse, churches, schools, houses and structures like cisterns and walls. About 20 of these buildings are still standing today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFamily-friendly travel tips from the Hupps ArchivesCategories |