Paul Christiansen
Downtown Nacogdoches, featuring the town's iconic red-bricked Main Street.
Awash in the early morning light, the brick streets of downtown Nacogdoches glowed a brilliant red as we walked the historic district before the town awakened. My family and I strolled down the peacefully quiet Main Street that many years ago served as a footpath for travelers on the El Camino Real de los Tejas. The 2,500-mile-long trading route connected Mexico City to Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Legend has it, Nacogdoches in Texas and Natchitoches in Louisiana were named after two Caddo Indian brothers, twin sons of a Caddo chief. When the brothers grew old enough to start their own tribes, their father sent them each three days away. Nacogdoches went west, and Natchitoches went east, and each settled their respective towns. The road between them became the eastern terminus of the El Camino Real de los Tejas. Evidence of the El Camino’s early travelers can be seen at the Lobanillo Swales east of Nacogdoches in Geneva, Texas, where parallel ruts up to eighteen feet deep were created by thousands of travelers bringing their wagons and animals along this path.
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As the oldest town in Texas, Nacogdoches has a storied history, openly told through the plaques attached to nearly every building downtown. The Spanish started early missions here in the early 1700s, and in 1779, Don Antonio Gil Y’Barbo brought in a group of settlers and established a government in his stone house known as the Stone Fort. Over the years, the town saw countless battles fought for its land, and nine different flags flew over the region until Texas joined the United States in 1845.
Paul Christiansen
The replica of Antonio Gil Y’Barbo’s eighteenth-century Stone Fort, which houses a museum inside documenting East Texas history, at Stephen F. Austin State University.
We came here to both discover Nacogdoches’s history and explore its present-day appeal, spending a packed two days uncovering the town’s mysteries and delights. We arrived late Thursday evening at the Fredonia Hotel, a “luxury meets local” overnight within walking distance of the downtown historic district. It was Thanksgiving evening, and the packed Nine Flags Bar beside the lobby was serving specialty cocktails and decadent desserts to celebrate. The bar, as well as the hotel’s 1st City Café and Republic Steakhouse, caters to more than just the overnight travelers, with locals often gathering here to enjoy a meal or catch up with friends.
Friday morning, after our early forays along the red-brick Main Street, we set off to Lanana Creek Trail, which begins at Liberty Hall on East Main and cuts across the eastern edge of town. The scenic creek traverses a secluded forested area to a marker denoting the “Eyes of Father Margil de Jesus,” a fabled spring said to have started flowing in 1718 when, during a severe drought, a Franciscan missionary had a vision to strike, with his staff, the overhanging rock shelf—from which water gushed forth.
The nearly six-mile trail follows the creek north toward Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA), a public college known for its five gardens expanding across 138 acres of greenspace. Part of the College of Forestry and Agriculture, the gardens offer brilliant displays of color throughout the year, from the spring azaleas to the fall-blooming camellias.
We opted to drive to the university, stopping along the way to see the circa 1878 Zion Hill First Baptist Church, one of the oldest African American Baptist congregations in Texas, and historic Oak Grove Cemetery, the final resting place of four of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Paul Christiansen
Azaleas in the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden at Stephen F. Austin State University, the largest azalea garden in Texas.
At SFA, we walked through the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden—the largest azalea garden in Texas—and caught some off-season color from the flowers before traveling beneath the weeping bald cypress tunnel to “The Plantery,” the university’s student botanic garden. On the west side of campus, we visited a replica of Antonio Gil Y’Barbo’s Stone Fort, which houses a museum inside documenting East Texas history.
Nacogdoches has a long history of public education; the first nonsecretarian institution of higher learning in Texas was chartered here in 1845. The university occupied an adobe and frame building, known today as the Old Nacogdoches University Building, from 1852 to 1855. It still stands on Washington Square, about a mile south of SFA on the highest point between Lanana and Banita Creeks. Today a museum, the brick building features its original curved staircase and a bell cast at the Henry N. Hooper Company; Hooper himself was an apprentice of the famed midnight rider Paul Revere who took over Revere’s foundry and changed the name to his own.
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Back on Main Street, we turned west to reach the picture-perfect Nacogdoches Railroad Depot. Built in 1911, the depot served as a hub for train passengers until 1954. Today, it hosts a railroad museum exhibit, and since we were there for the holidays, we got to see the Loblolly Model Train display, with miniature trains zooming around tiny versions of local buildings and landmarks. On our way out, we were handed bags of colorful popcorn, compliments of SuSu’s Popcorn and Candy Café. Of course, this led us down the street to SuSu’s storefront, where the kids spent the next half hour picking out their favorite specialty popcorns, old-school candies, and never-before-seen sodas.
We ended the evening with a picnic at Lake Nacogdoches West Side Park, gazing out at the glistening reservoir while the kids fished for the trophy-sized largemouth bass rumored to lurk in these waters. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in their endeavors, but we did walk off some of our sugar high by traipsing along the shoreline and following the frisbee golf trail through the trees.
Paul Christiansen
Lake Nacogdoches West Side Park, where there is a great view of the reservoir and opportunities to catch largemouth bass and play frisbee golf.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, all the downtown shops open their doors to celebrate “Small Business Saturday” with a friendly competition known as Wassail Fest. Shoppers are beckoned inside with promises of tasting the award-winning wassail—a hot mulled cider popularized in old England. The entire town shows up for this popular event, where sidewalks are bustling with visitors chatting to neighbors juggling shopping bags and multiple cups of wassail.
We began our journey at Dead Tree Dreams bookstore, a short jaunt from the Fredonia Hotel. Intrigued by its name, we entered the expansive used bookstore, shelves stocked with books covering every topic imaginable. Atticus, the resident cat, kept us company while we browsed and sipped on hot chocolate with all the fixings—the bookstore’s alternative to wassail.
From here, we crossed the railroad tracks and visited the community Farmers Market, eating our way through steaming meat pies and freshly made pretzels, and picking up jars of honey to bring home. Retracing our steps down Main Street, we admired the town’s hand-painted welcome sign, one of many along the Mural Tour. A separate Statue Trail leads past a litany of effigies of historical figures and prominent townspeople, such as “The Storytellers” right outside the Fredonia Hotel. This particular statue depicts four men, Frances Edward “Ab” Abernethy, Charles Raymond Bright, Bryan Holt Davis Jr., and Robert W. “Bob” Murphey, gathered around a table regaling each other with tales of the past.
At last, we reached the shops on Main Street and began our wassail tasting, jotting notes and picking out our top contenders from a list distributed at the Visitor Information Center. We popped in every shop, browsing both antiques and boutiques, and leaving with quite a few treasures. One of our favorites was the General Mercantile and Oldtime String Shop, the building dating back to around 1904. It was once the location of Stone’s Café where Bonnie Parker, of Bonnie & Clyde fame, worked prior to meeting up with Clyde Barrow. The shop is filled with wooden toys from the olden days and a variety of string instruments, which are sold, repaired, and played here during regular jam sessions.
Paul Christiansen
The circa-1835 Durst-Taylor Historic House and Gardens.
Out of money and loaded down with souvenirs and gifts, we left the busy shopping area and walked to some of the nearby historic homes, including the 1830 dogtrot house called the Sterne-Hoya House Museum and Library and the circa-1835 Durst-Taylor Historic House and Gardens. Both were closed for the holiday weekend, but we could still drift around the grounds and admire the architecture of the early homes.
We topped off the day back at the Fredonia Hotel in the 1st City Café, feasting on burgers and overstuffed sandwiches. As we sat around the table reliving our favorite moments from our trip, it dawned on me that we were carrying on the tradition of The Storytellers, regaling each other with tales of this vibrant small town steeped in history and tradition.
Disclaimer: This trip was partially funded by Visit Nacogdoches, though the opinions of the writer are entirely her own and formed independently of this fact.
