DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere in Grimes County, there's a stretch of ground that used to be a whole lot more than it looks like today. This is the story of Piedmont Springs Resort.
Now, as early as 1850, people were already making their way out here — and the draw was three sulphur springs sitting right nearby. Three of them, each one a little different from the last, ranging in taste from mild to strong. You could take your pick, apparently.
Drinking places and bathhouses were spread across the grounds so guests could move freely about, sampling the waters, soaking their troubles away. It was a health spa and resort, and folks treated it seriously. Then, around 1860, somebody decided this place needed to announce itself to the world in a bigger way.
They built a grand four-story hotel with one hundred rooms. One hundred. Four stories.
Out here. That was not a small statement. And the guests who filled those rooms — they weren't just there to sip sulphur water.
They were playing billiards, sitting down to poker, watching horse races. This was the social center for the whole area. And here's the detail that tends to stop people cold: General Sam Houston once danced the Minuet right there on those grounds.
The Minuet. Now the marker doesn't say how it went, and I won't speculate — but I'd have paid good money to see it. The resort rode high for years, and then 1865 arrived, and the Civil War arrived with it.
The hotel became a hospital. It became the headquarters for John G. Walker's Greyhound Division of the Confederate army.
That grand ballroom energy gave way to something altogether different. When the war ended, the resort tried to find its footing again, but the 1870s brought a financial panic, and the owner, losing money in the wreckage of that panic, closed the building. Just like that, the dancing was done.
The sulphur springs are still out there somewhere, mild to strong, same as they always were. The hotel is not.
What the marker says
In operation as early as 1850 as health spa and resort because of three nearby sulphur springs (varying in taste from mild to strong). Numerous drinking places and bathhouses allowed guests to move freely about grounds. Grand four-story hotel with 100 rooms, built about 1860, was social center for area, where guests enjoyed billiards, poker, horse races, and Gen. Sam Houston once danced the Minuet. In 1865, hotel became hospital, headquarters for John G. Walker's "Greyhound Division", Confederate army. Owner closed the building after losing money in panic, 1870s. (1967)