Site of the Somerville Harvey House

The Harvey House fed a railroad yard. When the Santa Fe's Navasota line reached Somerville in 1883, joining the Galveston-Caldwell spur, the new town gained a depot, repair shops and a roundhouse for servicing engines. The railroad kept a division headquarters here, and for decades its tie plant was the county's only large industry. In the early 1900s the depot restaurant called the Harvey House stood among an electric plant, a cotton gin, an ice house, a bottling works and a bank. Somerville rivaled Caldwell commercially and passed it in population after the First World War.

What the plaque says

Site of the Somerville Harvey House Fred Harvey, a native of England, began operation of his Santa Fe Railroad dining rooms in 1876. In 1900 a Harvey House opened in Somerville, divisional headquarters of the Santa Fe line. The 2-story, galleried structure was 260 ft. long and contained a dining room, guest rooms, library and reading room. The Harvey House served travelers and railroad workers in an atmosphere of elegance. It became the social center of the town and boosted the local economy. The Harvey House closed in 1940 and was dismantled in 1943. The present depot is a part of the original building. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 11 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 12 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 20 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 22 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• 1906 Reunion of Hood's Texas Brigade — steps away
• Somerville — steps away
• Thomas J. Gary — 0.4 mi
• Lake Somerville — 1.0 mi