Rice Hotel and Saddlery

Uvalde grew up around the railroad. It became a shipping point on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway in 1881 and was incorporated on July 6, 1888; by 1890 it had about 2,000 people and sixty businesses. The Crystal City and Uvalde Railroad reached Crystal City in 1911, and the Uvalde and Northern ran to Camp Wood from 1921 to 1942. By 1914 the town had three banks, a library, about 4,000 residents and eighty businesses, and by 1940 it had 5,286 people and 100 businesses.

What the plaque says

Rice Hotel and Saddlery This building, constructed in 1909-10, has long been a part of Uvalde's commercial development. The first floor originally was used for ice storage and a meat market. While the upper story served as a dance hall, private club, and Grand Jury room. In 1913, Prentice Carrington Rice (1848-1934), a Uvalde saddle maker since 1883, purchased the building and moved his saddlery and harness business to the first floor. The second floor later was partitioned into rental units and operated as The Rice Hotel. Later owners continued the hotel business until the 1940s. 1984

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Uvalde Grand Opera House — steps away
  An 1891 Victorian opera house on the Uvalde square with a turret and a dragon weathervane, once owned by John Nance Garner and still staging volunteer theater upstairs.
• Briscoe-Garner Museum — 0.4 mi
  The Uvalde house of John Nance Garner, the vice president who made the office a power in Congress, now a free museum to him and to Governor Dolph Briscoe.
• Fort Inge Historical Site — 2.5 mi
  A county park on the Leona River below a 140-foot volcanic plug, where an army post guarded the new road to El Paso from 1849 to 1869 and Texas Rangers camped after.

More markers nearby

• The Uvalde "Leader-News" — steps away
• Kincaid Hotel — steps away
• Uvalde County — steps away
• Fort Inge, Camp Dix, C.S.A. — steps away