Seguin ( ) is a city in and the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of
Guadalupe County,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, United States.
The population was 29,433 at the
2020 census,
and according to 2023 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 36,013.
Description
Seguin's economy is primarily supported by a regional hospital, as well as the Schertz-Seguin Local Government Corporation water-utility, that supplies the surrounding
Greater San Antonio
Greater San Antonio, officially designated San Antonio–New Braunfels, is an eight-county metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The metropolitan area straddles South Texas and Central ...
areas from nearby
aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...
s as far as
Gonzales County. Several
dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
s in the surrounding area are governed by the main offices of the
Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority
The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority or GBRA was formed in 1933 by the Texas legislature. Its main concerns are water supply and water Conservation ethic, conservation in the Guadalupe River (Texas), Guadalupe River Basin, which includes the Blanc ...
, headquartered in downtown Seguin.
Seguin, named in honor of
Juan Seguín
Juan Nepomuceno Seguín (October 27, 1806 – August 27, 1890) was a Spanish-Tejano political and military figure of the Texas Revolution who helped to establish the independence of Texas. Numerous places and institutions are named in his hono ...
, a
Tejano
Tejanos ( , ) are descendants of Texas Creoles and Mestizos who settled in Texas before its admission as an American state. The term is also sometimes applied to Texans of Mexican descent.
Etymology
The word ''Tejano'', with a ''J'' instead ...
Texian
Texians were Anglo-American immigrants to Mexican Texas and, later, citizens of the Republic of Texas. Today, the term is used to identify early Anglo settlers of Texas, especially those who supported the Texas Revolution. Mexican settlers of tha ...
freedom fighter and early supporter of the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...
, is one of the oldest towns in Texas, founded just 16 months after the
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...
began. The frontier settlement was a cradle of the
Texas Rangers and home to the celebrated Captain
Jack Hays, perhaps the most famous Ranger of all.
At this time, the Seguin area was a part of Gonzales County, the remaining portion known as present-day
Belmont.
The Rangers had found this was a good halfway stop between their patrol points. It had been maintained as a base camp by the Rangers since the early founding of the
Dewitt Colony.
History
Seguin was the home of Dr.
John E. Park, who experimented in construction using concrete made from local materials. The nearly 100 structures—the courthouse, schools, churches, homes, cisterns, walls, etc.—made up the largest concentration of early 19th-century concrete buildings in the United States.
About 20 of them remain standing.
The use of concrete largely ended when the railroad arrived in 1876, bringing cheap lumber and the equipment needed for brick-making. The town had five brickworks, and the wooden buildings of downtown were completely replaced with brick by the beginning of World War I.
For almost 100 years, the town was dependent on the rich surrounding farmland and ranches. Then, the
Texas oil boom
The Texas oil boom, sometimes called the gusher age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in the U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas. ...
came just as the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
was taking down other towns and cities. The town commemorated its centennial by opening
Max Starcke Park, with a golf course, a pavilion, picnic tables, and BBQ pits along a scenic river drive, and a curving dam that created a waterfall.
To preserve some of the historic character of the town, Seguin became one of the state's first
Main Street cities, and the downtown district was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. Fine homes by leading architects J. Reily Gordon, Solon McAdoo, Leo M.J. Dielman, Atlee B. Ayers, and Marvin Eickenroht dating from the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century can be found on many streets. However, the city does not have any officially designated historic residential districts.
The postwar era had industrial development, including a small mill that turned scrap metal into construction products.
In 1972
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...
built a plant to manufacture
automotive electronics
Automotive electronics are electronic systems used in vehicles, including engine management, ignition, radio, carputers, telematics, in-car entertainment systems, and others. Ignition, engine and transmission electronics are also found in tru ...
. It was bought by
Continental AG
Continental AG, commonly known as Continental and colloquially as Conti, is a German multinational automotive parts manufacturing company. Headquartered in Hanover, Lower Saxony, it is the world's third- largest automotive supplier and the fo ...
in 2006, became
Vitesco Technologies
Vitesco Technologies Group AG (known until autumn 2019 as Continental Powertrain), headquartered in Regensburg, is a German automotive supplier for drivetrain and powertrain technologies. Vitesco Technologies was a business area of Continental AG ...
in 2021, acquired by
Schaeffler in 2024, and is the city's largest employer with 1,750 employees.
Caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...
opened a
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...
assembly plant in 2008 which is the second largest employer.
Prehistory
The Seguin area was once inhabited by the
native
Native may refer to:
People
* '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood
* '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth
* Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory
** Nat ...
hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
Native Americans of Texas. An ongoing archeological dig indicates campgrounds dating back 10,000 years or so, with trade items from Mexico and Arizona. The early visitors may have come to gather pecans, because the native trees bearing the tasty nut thrive in the river bottoms of the
Guadalupe. By the time the first European explorers passed through, predominantly
Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...
s lived in the area, camping around the Guadalupe and other streams in the area. Eventually, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo settlers started farms and ranches in the location that would become Seguin.
Early history
José Antonio Navarro, one of the earliest settlers and an important figure of Texas history, developed a ranch near Seguin. In 1831, land was granted to Umphries Branch by the Mexican government. The Branch and John Newton Sowell Sr. families settled in 1833 in the western part of
Green DeWitt's colony.
["Seguin, Texas"](_blank)
''Handbook of Texas Online'' Sowell was a farmer, and in 1833 he and his brothers became the first Anglo-American immigrants to raise corn in future Guadalupe County.
Between 1827 and 1835, 22 families came to the area as part of the
DeWitt Colony; by 1833, 40 land titles were in the region, 14 of which received grants directly from the Mexican government. In 1836, John Gladden King lived near Seguin. His farm neighbored the Sowells on the northwest and Branch on the southeast. A son, William Philip King, reportedly was part of a cannon crew and was the youngest defender killed during the
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a siege of the Alamo, 13-day siege, Mexico, Mexican troops under president of Mexico, President Antonio L� ...
. These homesteads were abandoned in the
Runaway Scrape
The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of the Alamo through the decisive Ba ...
.
Old Seguin
The town of Seguin was founded August 12, 1838, 16 months after Texas won its independence at the
Battle of San Jacinto
The Battle of San Jacinto (), fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day La Porte and Deer Park, Texas, was the final and decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Samuel Houston, the Texan Army engaged and defeated General A ...
, making it one of the oldest towns in Texas. Members of
Mathew Caldwell's
Gonzales Rangers acquired land originally granted to Umphries Branch, who had departed during the
Runaway Scrape
The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of the Alamo through the decisive Ba ...
and sold his land to Joseph S. Martin.
At this time, the Seguin area was a part of
Gonzales County, the remaining portion known as present-day
Belmont. The Rangers had found this was a good halfway stop between their patrol points. The big oaks and walnut groves along the
Walnut Branch, had become a familiar and pleasant location. It had been maintained as a base camp by the rangers since the early founding of the
Dewitt Colony.
19th century history
Under an ancient live oak, 33 Rangers signed the charter for the town. Many were surveyors who joined Joseph Martin in laying out the lots for the town. Its original name was Walnut Springs, but was changed just 6 months later to honor San Jacinto veteran and then a Senator of the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...
,
Juan Seguín
Juan Nepomuceno Seguín (October 27, 1806 – August 27, 1890) was a Spanish-Tejano political and military figure of the Texas Revolution who helped to establish the independence of Texas. Numerous places and institutions are named in his hono ...
.
The surveyors' plan for the city included a main north–south street that ran straight and flat for a mile and more. The streets form a grid, around a central square of two blocks, today's Courthouse Square and Central Park, formerly known as Market Square.
A tree called the Whipping Oak grows across from the courthouse. In the 19th century,
runaway slaves
In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th centuries to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called fre ...
as well as criminals were bound to an iron ring embedded in the tree, then whipped as a punishment.
Manuel Flores, veteran of
San Jacinto and brother-in-law of Juan Seguin, established a ranch just south of Seguin in 1838. It became a safe-haven for
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
families and a staging point for counterattack when Bexar was overrun in 1842 by
Santa Anna's forces under
Ráfael Vásquez and
Adrian Woll.
Leading the resistance forces from this location was
Texas Ranger John Coffee "Jack" Hays. When duty allowed, Hays was a familiar resident of Seguin. In 1843, Hays set up a gathering point at the "Walnut Branch Ranger Station in Seguin, where the classic Ranger character was born. He met Susan Calvert, whose father owned the
Magnolia Hotel, where they married in April 1847.
Serving under Hays were two other famous Ranger residents of Seguin:
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters
* Henry (surname)
* Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone
Arts and entertainmen ...
and
Ben McCulloch
Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch (November 11, 1811 – March 7, 1862) was a soldier in the Texas Revolution, a Texas Ranger, a major-general in the Texas militia and thereafter a major in the United States Army (United States Volunteers) ...
. Their home known as "
Hardscramble" still stands and was designated a Texas State Centennial historic site in 1936. Colonel
James Clinton Neill, commander of the Alamo, was known to be buried here. The site was also historically marked during the 1936
Texas Centennial Exposition
The Texas Centennial Exposition was a world's fair presented from June 6 to November 29, 1936, at Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, it also celebrated Texas and Western ...
.
Seguin was named the county seat, and Guadalupe County was organized, early in 1845, as Texas became a state. The first county judge was
Michael H. Erskine. The town was incorporated in 1853, and a city government was organized under acting Mayor John R. King, until elections were held later that year and John D. Anderson became the first elected mayor.
A few years later, another town was laid out on the west side of Seguin, on land that had been titled by the Alamo defender
Thomas R. Miller, and sold in 1840 to Ranger James Campbell in partnership with
Arthur Swift and Andrew Neill. This area became part of Seguin within a few years, but 150 years later, the east–west streets still do not match up to cross through the old Guadalupe Street border.
When
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels
Prince Carl (Karl) of Solms-Braunfels (27 July 1812 – 13 November 1875) was a German prince and military officer in both the Austrian army and the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. As commissioner general of the Adelsverein, he spearheaded ...
and his German colonists were making their way in 1845 to the land they had bought to settle, Calvin Turner and Asa Sowell from Seguin were hired to guide them. Later, Seguin became a stopping point and trade center for German immigrants along their route from the ports of
Indianola and
Galveston
Galveston ( ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal resort town, resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island (Texas), Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a pop ...
to the German settlements around
New Braunfels and
Fredericksburg. Many Germans ''en route'' heard of the hard times in those Hill Country settlements and decided instead to buy land and settle around Seguin.
After Texas became a state, many settlers arrived from the Old South, bringing in hundreds of slaves in total, though only a few plantation owners held more than a dozen slaves. Most of the slaves lived on small farms with their owners, who remained subsistence farmers for years after settling their land. The contributions of African Americans to building the community are all but ignored in local histories written during the period when slavery was still being excused as justifiable due to the alleged low development of those enslaved. In fact, for the first 50 years or so, and probably for the first 100 years of the town, blacks did most of the construction work, including the main concrete buildings such as Sebastopol.
Education was important to the town. By 1849, it chartered a school. The first schoolhouse was built in 1850; it burned and was soon replaced by a two-story limecrete building. This Guadalupe High School, now a part of the St James parochial school, was recognized by a historical marker in 1962 as the oldest continuously used school building in Texas.
Seguin was home to
Dr. John E. Park's concrete (
limecrete). Called "the Mother of Concrete Cities" in the 1870s, the town once had nearly 100 structures made of limecrete, including the courthouse, schools, churches, houses, cisterns, and many walls. So many limecrete walls and corrals were built that Seguin gave the effect of being a walled city. This was the largest and most significant concentration of 19th-century concrete buildings in the U.S.
About 20 of these vintage buildings survive today.
In 1857,
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
, later famous as the landscape architect of New York's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
, toured Texas, writing dispatches to the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''. Olmsted exclaimed at the concrete structures he found here, almost on the edge of the frontier, and described the city as "the prettiest town in Texas."
One surviving concrete home, the
Sebastopol House; built in 1856, is a
Texas Historical Commission
The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the U.S. state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas.
The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Histor ...
landmark and is on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
due to its unusual limecrete construction and architectural style.
Stagecoaches began to serve the town in 1848, connecting coastal ports to San Antonio and points west. The Magnolia Hotel was an overnight stop for the exhausted, hungry, and dirt-covered riders. A young slave had the duty of standing on a stone to pull the bell rope alerting the community to the arrival of the stage, which brought visitors, the mail, newspapers, and special merchandise. Heading west from the Magnolia, the stage route went through town, passing the courthouse. Today, a mural commemorates its path. During the Great Depression, workers from the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...
traced part of the route with stone walls, showing how it moved downhill, crossed Walnut Branch (a spring-fed tributary of the Guadalupe River), and climbed the other side.
The historic
Wilson Pottery site is on Capote Road, near Seguin. The pottery was the first successful business in Texas owned and operated by freed slaves, beginning in 1869.
During Reconstruction, the freed slaves in Seguin organized their own congregation, the Second Baptist Church, and in 1876, a school that came to be known as the Lincoln School. In 1887, they established
Guadalupe College, comparable to a junior college today, with a heavy concentration on vocational education. These institutions were begun with the help of Rev. Leonard Ilsley, an abolitionist minister from Maine, but William Baton Ball, himself an ex-slave, Union soldier in the Civil War, and former
Buffalo Soldier, became their leader. He was greatly assisted by his friend and benefactor
George Brackenridge of San Antonio. (The main buildings of Guadalupe College burned due to a boiler malfunction during a bitterly cold night in 1936, and the college ended.)
The railroad reached Seguin in 1876'' en route ''to San Antonio, when the oldest railway in Texas, the
Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad, chartered on February 11, 1850, as the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company built the first Seguin depot. It became part of the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...
, and now the main southern line of the
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...
.
John Ireland
John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian-American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles i ...
was mayor of Seguin in 1858. Elected the 18th Governor of Texas 1883–1887, he had an important part in the construction of the
Texas State Capitol
The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the U.S. state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 188 ...
—insisting on using native stone, red granite from the Hill Country, instead of limestone imported from Indiana. He also presided over the opening of the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
.
20th century history
From before the Civil War until at least World War II, cotton was the money crop of the local farms, and the county had at least a dozen gins, with three in the town of Seguin, but agriculture was more diversified than in many counties where cotton was king, with corn, peanuts, hogs, and cattle, as well as wheat, oats, sugarcane, and most notably, pecans. The tiny but tasty native nuts were an early export. The crops improved as the bottomlands were converted to orchards, and eventually bigger varieties of nuts were grafted onto the local trees. This was one of the first counties to have a pecan growers' association, and in 1921, its leader, P.K. DeLaney, helped start the
Texas Pecan Growers Association. The county remains one of the state's leading producers. Seguin has been called 'a big orchard with a small town in it' because almost every house is shaded by a pecan tree in the yard. A tribute to the nut's importance is "the World's Largest Pecan" erected on the courthouse lawn.
Small mills were put on the Guadalupe River even before the Civil War.
William Saffold established a mill at what is today
Max Starcke Park. Later,
Henry Troell made major improvements there, and in 1894, used hydroelectric power to light the town. The City of Seguin took over the dam and electric plant in 1907. The supply of cheap and reliable electricity helped to make possible several gins, mills, silos, an ice plant and ice cream maker, a cold meat storage facility, and other types of
agribusiness
Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy,
in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise.
The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...
.
In 1912, citizens of Seguin lured a struggling church school to the city with cash, and 15 acres of land donated by Louis Fritz. It grew to a junior college and then into a four-year college to become today's
Texas Lutheran University
Texas Lutheran University (TLU) is a private Evangelical Lutheran university in Seguin, Texas.
History
The university traces its roots back to 1891 with the foundation of an academy, named Evangelical Lutheran College, by the first German Eva ...
, with some 1,400 students and boasting high rankings on the ''
U.S. News & World Report'' comparisons of universities.
During this time, Texas
State Architect
Many national governments and states have a public official titled the state architect or government architect. The specific duties and areas of responsibility of state architects vary, but they generally involve responsibility for the design and ...
,
Atlee Ayres designed several commercial, public and residential buildings in Seguin. In 1912 he designed the Starcke Furniture Company, the Seguin High School building aka Mary B. Erskine School (1914), the Aumont Hotel (1916), Langner Hall at Texas Lutheran University and the Blumberg and Breustedt mansions.
During the 1920s, the county began to enjoy a foretaste of an oil boom. While the first fields were at the far edge of the county, near Luling, the paperwork of deeds and leases (as well as any resulting lawsuits) passed through the Guadalupe County Courthouse. Then in December 1929, the
Darst Creek Field was opened, only 15 miles east of Seguin. (The creek had been named for colonist and landowner Jacob C. Darst. He was one of the original "Old Eighteen", defenders of the Gonzales cannon and then a member of the
Gonzales Ranging Company
The Immortal 32 was a Relief (military), relief force of thirty-two Texian Militia from the Gonzales, Texas, Gonzales Ranger Company who reinforced the Texians under Siege of the Alamo, siege at the Alamo. They are "Immortality, immortalized" as t ...
relief force to the Alamo during the siege in 1836.)
With the Darst Field, Seguin became a supply center, and residents were able to rent out rooms to oil field workers for cash even during the worst years of the depression of the 1930s. As a result, Seguin was able to collect taxes when other towns just had to give up. It used the money to match federal grants for what some derided as "make-work" projects. Under the leadership of the popular mayor,
Max Starcke, Seguin was transformed, with a new post office, a new
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
City Hall, courthouse, jailhouse and fountain in Central Park, new storm sewers and sidewalks, and a small park along Walnut Branch, with rustic stone walls that protected the historic springs and traced the route of the stagecoach as it headed west through town. The little city had three swimming pools, one for whites, one for blacks at the segregated high school, and one for Spanish-speaking citizens at the Juan Seguin school.
Max Starcke's biggest achievement was a large park along the Guadalupe River, designed by
Robert H.H. Hugman, famous now as "the Father of the
River Walk" in San Antonio. The park featured a handsome Art Deco recreation building designed by Hugman (now offices) with changing rooms for the swimming pool. The nine-hole course was designed by
John Bredemus, a prolific course designer who has been called "the father of Texas golf". The park offered picnic tables and bar-be-que pits between a scenic river drive and the river. Most of all, at a disused mill, Hugman and the young men of the
National Youth Administration
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a New Deal agency sponsored by Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. It focused on providing work and education for Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. ...
put a curving dam. As the 1938 dedication marker tells, funds were raised in part by public subscription. Dozens of groups and individuals made contributions to build the park that the town named for its popular mayor, who was moving on to, and soon to head, the
Lower Colorado River Authority
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is a nonprofit public utility created in November 1934 by the Texas Legislature. LCRA's mission is to enhance the lives of the Texans it serves through water stewardship, energy and community service. ...
in Austin.
After World War II, entrepreneurs fresh out of the university used electric furnaces to melt scrap into reinforcing bars with a company then called Structural Metals. The minimill (now CMC Steel) has been joined by manufacturers including Alamo Group, building roadside mowing equipment; Schaeffler (was Vitesco Technologies, Continental Automotive Systems, originally Motorola), making electronic powertrain control modules and emissions sensors; Hexcel, producing reinforcements for composites using glass fiber, carbon fiber, aramids, and specialty yarns; Minigrip, manufacturing re-closeable plastic bags for food and home storage;
Tyson Foods
Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of broiler industry, chicken, beef, and pork after JBS ...
, processing chicken. In 2009 Caterpillar opened a plant assembling diesel engines. Most recently Rave Gears, a make of precisions gears, opened a plant and headquarters.
Geography
Seguin is located in the center of Guadalupe County. It is east-by-northeast of downtown
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, on
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...
, which serves Seguin with five exits. It is approximately south of
Austin
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
on
Highway 123, via
Interstate 35
Interstate 35 (I-35) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route. It stretches from Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican bo ...
, or by
Highway 130, a toll road.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and , or 0.58%, are covered by water.
The
Guadalupe River flows through the southern side of the city, reaching the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
south of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
.
Weather and climate
On the northern edge of the
South Texas
South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of th ...
Plains, Seguin enjoys a mild winter. The sunny days of spring bring on spectacular shows of wildflowers from March into June. Like most of Central Texas, it suffers very hot, humid summers from June into September. Then
cold front
A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface Trough (meteorology), trough of Low-pressure area, low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropica ...
s pushing down from the north usually trigger precipitation and make October a rainy month, bringing "a second spring" of wildflowers. At their worst, fall and winter have "northers", fast-moving cold fronts with wind, often rain, and rapid drops of temperature, frequently falling 30 °F (17 °C) or more during one day. Northers give way to warm spells, right through the winter.
Demographics
As of the
2020 census, there were 29,433 people, 10,542 households, and 7,026 families residing in the city. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 11,563 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 53.5%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 6.5%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.8%
Native American, 1.1%
Asian, 0.1%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 17.2% from
some other races and 20.8% from
two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 53.74% of the population. 21.7% of residents were under the age of 18, 6.0% were under 5 years of age, and 16.9% were 65 and older.
Government
The
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...
's
12th Flying Training Wing
The 12th Flying Training Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Education and Training Command's Nineteenth Air Force. It is headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. The wing is the parent organization for the 479th Fly ...
operates an airfield for practice approaches and touch-and-go landings, known as Randolph AFB Auxiliary Field/Seguin Field. It was originally constructed with three runways about 12 miles east-northeast of
Randolph AFB
Randolph Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Bexar County, Texas, ( east-northeast of Downtown San Antonio).
Opened in 1931, Randolph has been a flying training facility for the United States Army Air Corps, the United ...
, in 1941. Today it has a single active 8350-ft runway. Normally unattended, it is supported by a manned runway supervisor unit and aircraft rescue and fire fighting vehicles when conducting flight operations.
The main offices of the
Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority
The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority or GBRA was formed in 1933 by the Texas legislature. Its main concerns are water supply and water Conservation ethic, conservation in the Guadalupe River (Texas), Guadalupe River Basin, which includes the Blanc ...
are located on East Court St. in Seguin. The GBRA manages
Canyon Dam, upstream on the Guadalupe, as well as four small dams in the county and other facilities.
The Schertz-Seguin Local Government Corporation, half owned by each city, was created in 1998 to develop and operate a wholesale water supply system. Using wells in the Carrizo Aquifer in Gonzales County, production began in September 2002. It now also supplies Selma, Universal City, and Converse, as well as Springs Hill Water Supply Corp., and the San Antonio Water System. Its offices are in Starcke Park, near the Seguin waterworks.
The
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails ...
operates a parole office in Seguin.
The
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
operates the Seguin Post Office at 531 West Court St. and the Seguin Annex at 1500 East Court, in the mall next to Bealls.
State and federal districts
Seguin was represented in the
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. There are no Term limits in the United States, term limits. The ...
from 1983 to 2010 by the
Republican Edmund Kuempel. He was noted for helping to get the State of Texas to restore the 19th century mansion called Sebastopol and operate it as a Historic Site for 25 years. A native of
Austin
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
, businessman Kuempel died in office two days after being unopposed for reelection.
John Kuempel, Edmund Kuempel's son, won the
special election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections.
A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...
on December 14 of that year to succeed his father in the District 44 seat in the Texas House. He was reelected in 2012 and 2014.
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY)
**Democratic Part ...
Vicente Gonzalez has represented Guadalupe County in the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
as part of Texas' 15th Congressional District, since 2017. One of the "fajita" districts, the 15th runs in a narrow strip from Seguin down to McAllen in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Education
The city is served by the
Seguin Independent School District, with about 8,000 students in 14 schools. Under the 2013 accountability ratings released by the Texas Education Agency, Seguin ISD and each of its campuses received "Met Standard" ratings based upon the new performance standards. The performance index-based rating system applies one of two labels to districts and public schools across the state: Met Standard or Improvement Required. The public schools include:
*Joe F. Saegert 6th Grade Center (Saegert 6th Grade Center received the Distinction Designation for Academic Achievement in Reading, as did Koennecke Elementary School)
*A.J. Briesmeister Middle School
*Jim Barnes Middle School
*Seguin High School
*Lizzie M. Burges Alternate School
*Mercer-Blumberg Learning Center
On May 4, 2019, Seguin ISD voters approved a $64.7 million bond package with 1,569 (66.23%) votes for and 799 (33.73%) against.
Bond 2019 was passed by voters and passed renovations for AJ Briesemeister Middle School, Matador Stadium rebuild, Jefferson Elementary, play areas and shade canopies for all Seguin ISD elementary schools, Land purchase to replace McQueeney Elementary, and various campus improvements.
Navarro Independent School District Serves students in northern Seguin and rural areas beyond.
Private schools
* St. James Catholic School A Historical Marker notes original concrete portion from 1854 makes this the oldest continuously occupied school building in Texas.
* First Baptist Christian Academy
* Emanuel's Lutheran Day School, for students 18 months through four years
* Seguin Lifegate Christian School
Higher education
Texas Lutheran University
Texas Lutheran University (TLU) is a private Evangelical Lutheran university in Seguin, Texas.
History
The university traces its roots back to 1891 with the foundation of an academy, named Evangelical Lutheran College, by the first German Eva ...
, with about 1,400 students, is located in Seguin and affiliated with the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...
. It has a diverse student body, with 27% Hispanic, 10% African-American, and only 20% describing themselves as Lutheran. Texas Lutheran recently joined the
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), founded in 1962, is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas. Difficulti ...
, NCAA Division III, so its teams play
Austin College
Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.[Colorado College
Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...](_blank)
,
Centenary College in Shreveport,
Schreiner University
Schreiner University is a Private university, private Presbyterian Church (USA), Presbyterian university in Kerrville, Texas. The university enrolls an estimated 1,300 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers over 40 four-year undergraduat ...
,
Southwestern University
Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwester ...
,
Trinity University, and the
University of Dallas
The University of Dallas is a Private university, private Catholic church, Catholic university in Irving, Texas, United States. Established in 1956, it is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Southern Associat ...
.
Central Texas Technology Center, one of
the Alamo Colleges, is located north of Seguin. It offers specialized education and workforce skill development to meet the needs of existing and prospective employers. Seguin's Economic Development Corp. also funds its Manufacturing Technology Academy, which offers dual credit courses and internships for high-school juniors and seniors.
Libraries
The city operates the Seguin Public Library free of charge for residents of Seguin and Guadalupe County at 313 W Nolte St. The Blumberg Library at TLU is also open to for use by adults who pay an annual membership.
Health and hospitals
The Guadalupe Regional Medical Center (GMRC) doubled in size following a $100 million expansion, with 750 employees supporting 65 physician specialists. GRMC's services include an Emergency Department, a Wellness Center, and an orthopedic surgery department.
Transportation
*
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is about an hour away via I-35 or the Hwy 130 toll road.
*
San Antonio International Airport
San Antonio International Airport is an international airport in San Antonio, Texas, United States. It is in Uptown Central San Antonio, about north of Downtown. It has three runways and covers . Its elevation is above sea level. SAT averag ...
is 45 minutes to an hour away via I-10 and I-410 or Hwy 281.
* Huber Airpark, 2475 Rudeloff Rd, is a privately owned field for general aviation.
Greyhound offers daily service to Houston and San Antonio. Tri City Taxi Service is based in Seguin.
Highways and scenic routes
*
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...
, Jacksonville-Houston-Seguin-San Antonio-Fort Stockton-El Paso-L.A.
*
US Highway 90
U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. It generally travels near Int ...
, Columbus-Luling-Seguin-San Antonio-Del Rio-Alpine-El Paso-L.A.
*

Alt. US 90, Houston-Sugar Land-Rosenburg-Eagle Lake-Halletsville-Shiner-Gonzales-Seguin.
*
State Highway 46, Seguin-New Braunfels-Boerne.
*
State Highway 123, San Marcos-Seguin-Stockdale-Karnes City.
*
State Highway 130 (Toll Road), off I-35 Georgetown-Austin-Lockhart to I-10 at Seguin.
* , Kirby-I 35-Randolph AFB-Schertz-Cibilo-Marion-McQueeney-Seguin.
* , Seguin-Fentress-Lockhart.
*
FM 466, Seguin-Monthalia-Cost-Gonzales.
Culture
Newspapers and radio
Seguin is one of the very few cities in the country with competing daily papers. The ''Gazette'', a broadsheet, has been publishing for more than 125 years, since 1888. It is now part of the Southern Newspapers chain. The ''Daily News'' is part of the news operation of the locally owned and independently programmed radio station KWED.
* ''
Seguin Gazette''
* ''
Seguin Daily News''
*
KWED 1580 AM
Attractions
*
ZDT's Amusement Park, a family-owned, family-oriented amusement park, features over a dozen attractions. Repurposed century-old agribusiness structures provide Texas' highest indoor playground with tunnels and slides, wall climbing up former silos, and riding go-karts through, and on the roof of, an old warehouse, as well as modern parachute drop and a water ride. A new, old-style wooden roller coaster, called Switchback, opened in 2015.
* The
Texas Agricultural Education and Heritage Center, the "Big Red Barn", helps kids and others learn the mechanics and history of farming in Central Texas, with sample crops and gardens, barnyard animals and poultry, and displays of vintage equipment and tools. A collected village has houses, barns, a one-room schoolhouse, a pharmacy, a blacksmith shop, a gas station, a church, and other relics from the rural past. Many events are held on weekends, and tours are given by appointment.
*
Sebastopol House Historic Site is perhaps the finest surviving 19th-century concrete building west of the Mississippi. Here on the frontier, settlers began experimenting with concrete construction years before the Civil War, and built 100 or so structures of "lime-crete", as it was called. A team of slaves built this mansion, mixing local gravel, sand, lime, and some organic materials, then pouring the mix into wooden forms. When the concrete was solid, they raised the forms and repeated the process. A journalist declared Seguin "the Mother of Concrete Cities". Sebastopol House, a well-preserved architectural masterpiece, built in 1856 in
Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
style, is now a museum offering free tours.
* The Fiedler Museum displays geological examples, with various types of rocks from across the state in a small garden at Langner Hall on the TLU campus.
* The "World's Largest Pecan" is a 5-ft-long, two-and-a-half-ft-wide concrete nut erected in 1962; it sits in front of the county courthouse. This county is a large producer of
pecan
The pecan ( , , ; ''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River.
The tree is cultivated for its seed primarily in the U.S. states of Georgia ( ...
s and often claims the nickname "Pecan Capital of Texas". Seguin has been described as "a big pecan orchard with a small town in it". A new pecan-shaped sculpture, 4 ft longer than the previous record holder, was unveiled on July 4, 2011, to ensure its place as the "World's Largest". It can be seen at the Texas Agricultural Education and Heritage Center. The original and still photogenic "big pecan" remains at its downtown location.
* ''
True Women'' – Seguin is one of the settings of the 1994
Janice Woods Windle historical novel ''True Women''. The author grew up here, learning the women's side of history from family members. A self-drive tour of sites in the book is available at the Chamber of Commerce or a
The best-selling novel was the basis for the 1997
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
miniseries
In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
adaptation, ''True Women'', starring
Dana Delany
Dana Delany (born March 13, 1956) is an American actress. After appearing in small roles early in her career, Delany received her breakthrough role as Colleen McMurphy on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television drama ''China Beach'' (1 ...
,
Annabeth Gish
Anne Elizabeth "Annabeth" Gish (born March 13, 1971) is an American actress. She played roles in the films '' Shag'', '' Hiding Out'', '' Mystic Pizza'', '' SLC Punk!'', '' The Last Supper'' and ''Double Jeopardy''. On television, she played Spe ...
, and
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie ( ; born Angelina Jolie Voight, , June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Angelina Jolie, numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards ...
.
*
Park West – The 47-acre community park includes athletic fields, a skatepark, a playscape, a basketball court, a splash pad, a group pavilion, picnic shelters, and nature trails.
*
Max Starcke Park – Windshield Tourism: a scenic River Drive passes a waterfall on the Guadalupe, beneath towering cypress and pecans; golf, 18-hole regulation course; picnic areas and pavilions; Little League baseball-softball complex; volleyball, basketball, tennis courts; two paddling trails for canoes and kayaks; and Kids' Kingdom Playscape.
* Seguin Events Complex/Fairgrounds Park – home of the
Guadalupe County Fair & PRCA Rodeo (held the second weekend of October), a rodeo arena, baseball fields, 14 volleyball courts, and meeting spaces; it is used as the site of Buck Fever, Freedom Fiesta, and other annual events
*
Walnut Springs Park – trails, hiking, former stagecoach route, historic markers, sculptures
* Central Park – Statue of Tejano hero Juan N. Seguin by the sculptor
Erik Christianson of
Bulverde; fountain, trade days, band concerts, car shows, and other events
* Historic Main Street District – walking/driving tours, fine early 20th-century buildings by some of the state's leading architects:
J. Riely Gordon,
Leo M.J. Dielmann,
Atlee Ayers,
Marvin Eickenroht,
Lewis Wirtz and
Harold Calhoun,
Henry Steinbomer
* Seguin Outdoor Learning Center
* Max Starcke Park Golf Course – 18-hole course along the river, the original 9 holes designed by
John Bredemus, a prolific course designer called "the father of Texas golf", the 9 holes added later and designed by
Shelley Mayfield make their way through a former pecan orchard
* Golf Club of Seguin / Chaparral Golf Course
* Lake Seguin/Seguin Paddling Trail – canoeing and kayaking at Max Starcke Park
*
Meadow Lake – fishing, boating
*
Lake Placid – fishing, boating, jet skiing
* The
Seguin River Monsters, a
Collegiate summer baseball
Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...
team that participates in the
Texas Collegiate League
The Texas Collegiate League (TCL) is a collegiate summer baseball league made up of teams from the states of Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The league's headquarters are in Coppell, Texas. Uri Geva, owner of the Brazos Valley Bombers, is the le ...
, one of the most competitive collegiate summer baseball league's in the country. Family fun minor league style atmosphere.
Performing arts
The
Mid-Texas Symphony is the area's only professional orchestra. Performances occur in venues in both Comal and Guadalupe counties. In addition to a subscription series of six classical and pops concerts, MTS produces four free children's concerts each season: two in Seguin and two in New Braunfels. More than 3600 fourth- and fifth-grade students attend a free symphonic concert each season. The symphony was founded in 1978 by Anita Windecker, a music professor at Texas Lutheran University, with the support of leaders of both communities. In 2016,
David Mairs marked his 20th season as music director of the Mid-Texas Symphony. As of 2021, the music director is
Akiko Fujimoto.
Teatro De Artes De Juan SeguinTeatro De Artes De Juan Seguin (Teatro) is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2022–2023. Teatro is a non-profit organization that promotes a better understanding of the Mexican American culture by the study, teaching, practice, and performance of the arts and has called Seguin, Texas home all 40 years. It is through their deliberate teachings that youth and adults are able to reclaim, maintain, and celebrate their Mexican American roots, customs, knowledge, and celebrations through community education. Teatro is home to the famous Ballet Folklórico De La Rosa, Mariachi Juan Seguin, Conjunto Juan Seguin, Dia de los Muertos events, Noche De Gala Vocalista Competition, Summer Agriculture, Culinary, and Visual Arts Camp and many other family friendly events including humanities events. The Teatro De Artes De Juan Seguin Cultural Arts Center is located on the westside of Seguin and has called the former Our Lady of Guadalupe Church/Church Hall home since 1996.
Public art
* "The World's Largest Pecan", on the courthouse lawn, a popular folk art piece, plaster over concrete, created by a local dentist and master plasterer Monroe J. Engbrock, 1978
* Eagle, atop the Guadalupe County Veterans Memorial on the courthouse lawn, by Erik Christianson, 2006
* "Stagecoach Road", a 90-foot wide mural by Brent McCarthy, on the route where stagecoaches passed from the Magnolia Hotel, 2008
* Statue of
Juan N. Seguín, a hero-on-horseback in Central Park, by Erik Christianson, 2000
* Art Deco fountain in Central Park, designed by an unknown architect, 1930s
* Bas-reliefs of Justice and Wisdom, on the courthouse high above the entryways, sculpted by Harold Calhoun, 1936
* Bas-relief of the town seal high above the Municipal Building (City Hall) entrance, carved by Harold Calhoun, 1935
* Bird sculptures in Walnut Springs Park, eight wood and metal works by Marika Bordes and a team of her students, Barry Duncan, Howard Crunk, and Jimmy Schmidt, 2012
* Statue of Martin Luther, in front of Beck College Center, near entrance to Texas Lutheran campus off Court at Prexy Dr., by Elmer P. Peterson, 1976
* Three Graces Sculpture, on TLU campus, south of the Schuech Fine Arts Center
* Sculpture Garden, on TLU campus north of the Schuech Fine Arts Center, works by various artists, faculty and students
National Register sites
Guadalupe County has about a dozen sites listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
, most of them in Seguin:
*
Sebastopol House (added 1970)
* Erskine-Holloman House (1970)
*
Los Nogales (1972)
*
Wilson Utility Pottery Kilns Archeological Dist. (1975), on Capote Road
* Joseph E. Johnson House (1978)
* Robert Hall House (1979)
*
Saffold Dam (1979)
* Park Hotel, or Plaza Hotel (1980)
* Commercial Historic District (1983), with a boundary increase (2003)
* Edward and Texana Tewes House, on Linne Road (1997)
* Sweet Home Vocational and Agricultural High School (1998)
In addition, the county boasts 80 Texas State Historical Markers, with about 25 of those within Seguin's city limits.
Sister cities
Seguin has three
sister cities
A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties.
While there ar ...
, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc (SCI):
*
Millicent,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
, Australia
*
Vechta
Vechta (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Vechte'') is the capital and largest city of the Vechta (district), Vechta district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is home to the University of Vechta.
It is known for the 'Stoppelmarkt' fair, which takes place every ...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
*
San Nicolás de los Garza
San Nicolás de los Garza, sometimes known only as San Nicolás, is a city and coextensive municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the Mexican state of Nuevo León that is part of the Monterrey metropolitan area. It has become primarily a city ...
,
Nuevo León
Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...
, Mexico
Notable people
*
Jacob De Cordova
Jacob Raphael De Cordova (6 June 1808 – 26 January 1868) was the founder of the ''Jamaica Gleaner''. He settled in Texas in 1839 and lived in Galveston. After living in Galveston, De Cordova moved to Houston, Texas, where he was elected ...
, land agent, Member, Texas House of Representatives, 1808–1868
*
Manuel N. Flores, rancher, served with Juan Seguin (his brother-in-law), in the Texas Revolution, 1801–1868
*
Sam Flores, educator, political activist, 1925–2007
*
Drew French, current bullpen coach for the
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...
, 1984-
*
Maud A. B. Fuller, Baptist leader and educator 1868–1972
*
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Caroline Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program ''Austin City Limits'', starting in 1985 during season 10. In 1990, Griffith appeared on th ...
,
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
-winning singer, guitarist and songwriter, 1953–2021
*
P.J. Hall,
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
defensive tackle for the
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
, 1995–
*
Chuck Hartenstein
Charles Oscar Hartenstein (May 26, 1942 – October 2, 2021) was an American professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for five different teams between the 1966 and 1977 seasons. Listed at , , Hartenstein bat ...
,
Texas Longhorns baseball
The Texas Longhorns baseball team represents The University of Texas at Austin in NCAA Division I College baseball, intercollegiate men's baseball competition. The Longhorns currently compete in the Southeastern Conference.
The University of Tex ...
pitching star, MLB relief pitcher, and MLB coach, 1942–2021
*
John Coffee "Jack" Hays,
Texas Ranger, 1817–1883
*
John Ireland
John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian-American actor and film director. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia and raised in New York City, he came to prominence with film audiences for his supporting roles i ...
, Governor of Texas, 1827–1896
*
Ron Jones, MLB player for the
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...
, 1964–2006
*
J. R. E. Lee, born a slave, 20 years president historically black
Florida A&M, 1864–1944
*
Joel Nestali Martinez, elected 1992, bishop of the
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...
, 1940 –
*
Shelley Mayfield, pro golfer and course designer, 1924–2010
*
Ben McCulloch
Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch (November 11, 1811 – March 7, 1862) was a soldier in the Texas Revolution, a Texas Ranger, a major-general in the Texas militia and thereafter a major in the United States Army (United States Volunteers) ...
, Confederate general, killed in action, 1819–1862
*
Henry McCulloch, Confederate general, 1816–1895
*
Forrest Mims
Forrest M. Mims III is a magazine columnist and author. Mims graduated from Texas A&M University in 1966 with a major in government and minors in English and history. He became a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, served in Vie ...
, amateur scientist and popular author on electronics, 1944–
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José Antonio Navarro, rancher, signer of the
Texas Declaration of Independence
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and was form ...
, 1795–1871
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John Park, inventor, builder using concrete, 1814–1872
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Freddie Patek, MLB shortstop for the
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...
, three times
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...
All Star, 1944–
*
Zachary Selig, artist, author,
spiritist, 1949–2016
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Max Starcke, Seguin mayor and longtime head of LCRA, 1884–1972
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Ferdinand C. Weinert
Ferdinand C. Weinert (July 14, 1853 – February 19, 1939) was a merchant and politician from Seguin, Texas, who served in the Texas Legislature, four years in the Texas Senate, Senate and four terms in the Texas House, House, and well as servi ...
, State Representative, State Senator, Secretary of State, 1853–1939
*
Rudolph Weinert, 1936–1963 State Senator, 1894–1963
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John P. White, elected 1876, Presiding Judge 1879–1892, Texas Court of Appeals, 1832–1905
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"Smokey" Joe Williams,
Negro league
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...
pitcher,
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...
, 1886–1951
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Janice Woods Windle, author of historical novels, 1938–
*
Harry Wurzbach, Member, U.S. House of Representatives, 1874–1931
See also
*
List of municipalities in Texas
Texas is a U.S. state, state located in the Southern United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, 29,145,505 (93.14%) of the 31,290,831 residents of Texas lived in a Municipal corporation, municipality in the 2024 estimate.
...
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List of museums in Central Texas
The list of museums in Texas encompasses museums defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or ...
References
External links
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Convention and Visitors BureauSeguin Area Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control
Cities in Texas
Cities in Guadalupe County, Texas
County seats in Texas
Populated places established in the 1830s
Populated places established in 1838
Greater San Antonio
Populated places on the Guadalupe River (Texas)
1838 establishments in the Republic of Texas