DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Now, if you were standin' right here in Rockport back in 1889, you'd have looked up and seen something that covered this entire city block — three stories of ambition, wood, and sheer Texas nerve. That was the Aransas Hotel, built by a man named John H.
Traylor, civic leader, politician, and apparently a fellow who did not think small. About a hundred rooms. A dining room so massive it could seat two hundred people at once.
Just sit with that a moment — two hundred souls, all under one roof, all eating at the same time, probably all talking at once the way Texans do. The Aransas Hotel wasn't just a place to sleep. It was a major tourist attraction.
Guests were entertained by orchestras. There were plays. There was a mounted bird display, which tells you something about the tastes of the era.
And if you tired of all that, you could wander down to the beach facilities, or climb aboard Traylor's own yacht and let the Gulf breeze remind you why you came here in the first place. If the water wasn't your preference, surreys from the livery stable would take you wherever your leisure demanded. Come the mid-1890s, the hotel got itself remodeled and renamed — the Del Mar, a little fancier-sounding, a fresh coat of identity.
It sold in 1910. But the truth is, things had already started slipping. By 1906 the place had deteriorated.
It sat unused during World War I, just standing there, a grand old structure waiting out the years. And then, in 1919, the fire came. That three-story monument to Rockport's golden tourist era — destroyed.
The Del Mar, the Aransas Hotel, John H. Traylor's great vision for this city block — gone in the flames. What's left is this marker, and the story, which turns out to be harder to burn.
What the marker says
Built in 1889 by civic leader and politician John H. Traylor, the Aransas Hotel covered this city block. The three-story structure, a major tourist attraction in Rockport, had about 100 rooms and a massive open dining room with a 200 person capacity. Guests were entertained by orchestras, plays, a mounted bird display, and beach facilities. They could also cruise in Traylor's yacht, or tour in surreys from the livery stable. Remodeled and named the Del Mar in the mid-1890s, it was sold in 1910. Deteriorated by 1906 and unused during World War I, the hotel was destroyed by fire in 1919. (1996)