Meyer Hotel Complex

The county the Meyers served was more mixed than its German reputation suggests. In 1870 native Germans made up 25 percent of Kendall County's people, other Europeans 3 percent, Black residents 6.5 percent and native Mexicans 2 percent; the rest were from Texas or other states. Immigrants arrived from England in the 1880s and 1890s and from Mexico soon after 1900, and by the 1930s Mexican Americans were more than 11 percent of the county. The Black population grew from 101 in 1870 to 253 in 1910, then was drawn away to the cities, falling to twenty-four by 1980.

What the plaque says

Meyer Hotel Complex 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Treue der Union Monument — 0.7 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.
• Old Tunnel State Park — 11 mi
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Schreiner Mansion — 15 mi
  The 1879 downtown home of Charles Schreiner, the Alsatian-born merchant, banker and rancher whose store and mohair trade built Kerrville.
• Luckenbach — 17 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead — steps away
• Peter Joseph Ingenhuett Homestead — 0.2 mi
• Comfort Community Theatre — 0.3 mi
• Freidenker — 0.6 mi