Faust Hotel

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rollin' through New Braunfels, Comal County, and there's a building here that has been putting a roof over travelers' heads without a single interruption since 1929. That is not nothing.

That is a streak worth talking about. The story begins with a name: the Travelers Hotel. That's what they called it when it was completed, sixty-three guest rooms ready and waiting, and the year was 1929.

Now, you know what else was happening in 1929. The economy of the wider world was about to have a very bad time. But this corner of Texas, this New Braunfels area, was reflecting something different.

The marker says the hotel reflected a thriving economy, and somebody believed in that enough to build sixty-three rooms and mean it. Then comes 1936, and the hotel gets a new name. They called it The Faust, after the prominent family whose homesite this very ground had been.

So the building carries that family's name now, a kind of permanent tip of the hat to the people whose land it stands on. And the building itself is worth a long look before you walk through the door. Spanish Colonial Revival design, the marker says, and the thing that makes it sing is the ornate terra cotta decorative work.

That's not plain construction. That's a statement. Somebody wanted this place to mean something to the eye as well as to the weary traveler.

And here's the thing that lands this story square: from 1929 to right now, the Faust Hotel has remained in continuous use as a hotel. Not converted, not abandoned, not reinvented as something else entirely. A hotel.

Still a hotel. Some buildings just know what they are.

What the marker says

First known as the Travelers Hotel, this inn was completed in 1929 with 63 guest rooms and reflected the thriving economy of the New Braunfels area at the time. Renamed "The Faust" in 1936 for the prominent family on whose homesite it was built, the structure has remained in continuous use as a hotel. Its Spanish Colonial Revival design is highlighted by the ornate terra cotta decorative work. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984