The Excelsior House in Jefferson, Texas, was built in 1858 by Captain William Perry and his wife, Sardina, as a family home, offices and hotel. Perry was a riverboat captain, and much of the furnishing arrived by boat from New Orleans.
A port town’s hotel
The hotel sits on Big Cypress Bayou. In the steamboat era, boats connected Jefferson to the Red River and the Mississippi, and the town became one of the state’s busiest ports.
A line of owners
- 1866: Perry sold the hotel.
- 1878: Mrs. Kate Wood bought it and gave it the name Excelsior House. Her family owned it until 1954.
- 1954: Estella Mae Fonville Peters renovated it.
- 1961: After Peters died, the Jessie Allen Wise Garden Club purchased it.
Today it is managed by the Excelsior Foundation, a nonprofit, and operates as a 15-room boutique hotel. It describes itself as the oldest continuously operated hotel in Texas.
Know before you go
- A Southern breakfast has been served by reservation on weekend mornings. Check the hotel’s website for current details.
Excelsior House is a reminder that a business can also be a piece of local history.
Featured photo: Excelsior House by Nicolas Henderson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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