Meyer Hotel Complex

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Comfort, Texas, there's a place called the Meyer Hotel Complex, and the story behind it stretches across nearly a century of one family's stubborn determination. It starts with a man named Frederich Christian Meyer, a German native born in 1828, who came to Comfort in 1862.

Now Meyer was a wheelwright by trade, but a wheelwright with an eye for opportunity. He was running a stage stop and weight station right here on this very site. He later purchased the property, which at that point included a small log cabin.

Meyer, being the practical sort, didn't tear it down. He built up. Added a second story and called it done.

Then in 1869, he constructed a two-story stone residence, and he built it for his wife, Ernestine Mueller Meyer. Ernestine was a midwife, and this community needed her. By 1872, a separate wooden structure had gone up south of the original log cabin, built specifically for her work, housing maternity rooms for the women of the surrounding ranch country.

Two callings under one roof, more or less. Now fast forward to 1887. Rail lines were completed through the area, and Comfort started showing promise as a resort community.

The Meyers read the moment. That same year, they constructed a two-story frame building south of their residence to serve as a hotel. Guests on the upper floor.

A large kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. A proper establishment. Then 1889 arrived, and Frederich Meyer died.

That could have been the end of it. It wasn't. Ernestine, with the help of their eight children, kept right on operating the hotel.

She did it despite a fire that damaged the family home. She did it until her own death in 1910. And then the story kept going still.

In 1920, a daughter, Julia Meyer Ellenberger, added a second guest house east of the first hotel. Julia ran that business until her death in 1956. Nearly a century from when Frederich first set up a stage stop on this patch of Texas ground, the family was still at it.

Some legacies you build in stone and timber, and some you pass down through your children's hands.

What the marker says

German native Frederich Christian Meyer (1828-89) came to Comfort in 1862. A wheelwright, Meyer also ran a stage stop and weight station at this site. He later purchased the property, which included a small log cabin he enlarged by adding a second story. In 1869 he constructed a two-story stone residence here for his wife Ernestine (Mueller) (d. 1910), a midwife. A separate wooden structure was built for her work, south of the original log cabin in 1872. The building housed maternity rooms for use by the women of the surrounding area ranches. In 1887, when rail lines were completed through the area, Comfort began showing promise as a resort community. That same year, the Meyers constructed a two-story frame building south of their residence to serve as a hotel. The upper floor of the structure was used for guests and the ground floor housed a large kitchen and a dining room. With the help of their 8 children, Ernestine continued to operate the hotel after her husband's death in 1889, despite a fire which damaged the family home. A second guest house was added east of the first hotel in 1920 by a daughter Julia (Meyer) Ellenberger, who operated the business until her death in 1956. (1981)