The Magnolia Hotel began in 1839 as a two-room log cabin built by Seguin's co-founder, Texas Ranger James Campbell. He then added a large basement under the cabin as a safe place for the women and children during Comanche attacks. After Campbell himself was killed by Comanches, his cabin was converted into Seguin's first (and longest running) stage-coach station. The cabin's basement then became S
eguin's first jail. In 1846, a 3 room limecrete inn was built behind the stagecoach station (which still stands today.) This inn is where the famous Texas Ranger Captain John “Jack” Coffee Hays married Susan Calvert, the daughter of the Inn's owner. In 1850 the property was sold and the two story wood structure was added in the middle combining all three buildings. It had 10 hotel rooms upstairs, a massive restaurant on the bottom floor along with a very active saloon. This building, (with the hard work of its owners, Colonel Thomas Dickey Johnston and his wife, Catherine) would become known as the Magnolia Hotel, "Queen of Seguin." It was considered one of the finer hotel's in Texas and a hub for social gatherings, gala events, funerals, etc.. It is said that many notables stayed at the hotel such as Sam Houston, Ulysses S Grant, Robert E Lee, Governor Ireland, John Twohig and even Bonnie and Clyde have been rumored. The hotel once came into possession of the actual ALAMO Bell which hung in front of the building for 50 years. Later with a grand celebration conducted, it was returned back to the Alamo where it hangs today. After the Johnston couple's deaths in the early 1900's, it changed hands many times where the hotel slowly began to die. It would become a boarding house, brothel, lodge for a secret society, low income apartments then sadly Seguin's worst drug house. By 2012 it was destine for demolition and placed on the "Top Ten Most Endangered Places in Texas" in hopes that someone would rescue it. Once Jim and Erin Ghedi discovered it, they fell madly in love and purchased it. After years of painstaking restoration and using their own private funds, it is back to it's original glory days. The hotel's top floor is now a Bed and Breakfast where the public can once again enjoy the comforts of an overnight stay at the elegant "Queen of Seguin", the Magnolia Hotel.
