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Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast » South Central Texas » New Braunfels to Bandera » New Braunfels (Comal County) » Faust Hotel

Faust Hotel

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1929, Harvey P. Smith. 240 S. Seguin Ave.

The Faust Hotel is a remarkable survival, a major hotel building in a Texas county seat. Constructed to lure tourists to New Braunfels, the hotel operated successfully through the Great Depression and World War II, when it was popular with military personnel from Randolph Air Force base in nearby San Antonio. It is important as an example of a new building by Smith, who was best known for his early work on restoring such historic structures as the Spanish Governor's Palace ( SA47). The four-story hotel is faced with tawny brick, highlighted by cast-concrete panels of Spanish Baroque ornament. The hotel lobby occupies most of the ground floor, featuring a polychrome tile floor laid to resemble carpeting and a series of elaborate ceiling fans, a reminder of the fact that the hotel predated air-conditioning. The hotel reopened in the 1980s, providing visitors to the area with an alternative to the usual chain motels.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

First Protestant United Church of Christ
Huffman Building
Stephen Klein House
Schmitz Hotel (Guadalupe Hotel)
Comal County Courthouse

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Faust Hotel", [New Braunfels, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-01-NB4.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: Central, South, and Gulf Coast, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2013, 200-201.

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