Beaumont Enterprise

The Enterprise began as a weekly when John W. Leonard first printed it on November 6, 1880. The Handbook of Texas says that weekly ran until 1889 and that a daily of the same name began in 1897. William P. Hobby, who joined the paper in 1907, bought it outright in 1920 while serving as governor of Texas, according to the paper's Wikipedia history. Jefferson-Pilot bought the Enterprise and its sister Journal in 1970, and the Hearst Corporation acquired the Enterprise in 1984.

What the plaque says

Beaumont Enterprise Near this site on November 6, 1880, the first "Beaumont Enterprise" came off the press. The newspaper, founded by John W. Leonard, is one of southeast Texas' oldest continuing business institutions. Over the years, "The Enterprise" has had a number of outstanding editors and publishers, including William P. Hobby, who came to "The Enterprise" in 1907 and later became governor of Texas. The "Beaumont Enterprise" attained national stature under James L. Mapes, who came to the newspaper in 1908 and in 1931 acquired the business. Mapes served two years as president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. When he died in 1936, his widow, Kathryn Smythe Mapes, served as president. Upon her death in 1948, she left the majority stock in trust to her grandnephew. The "Beaumont Journal," founded in August 1889 by Robert Emmett Kelley, was published under the same ownership as "The Enterprise" from 1921 to 1983, when "The Journal" was merged into "The Enterprise." The "Beaumont Enterprise" serves a Texas-Louisiana community extending from the Trinity River on the west to the Calcasieu River on the east, and from the Redlands on the north to the Gulf of Mexico. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 0.9 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 3.8 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 12 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 18 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Travis Street Substation — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Beaumont — steps away
• First Security National Bank — 0.2 mi
• The Clubhouse, The Woman's Club of Beaumont — 0.3 mi