Wharton, Texas: Gateway to the Texas Gulf Coast

On our quest to drive down the Texas Gulf Coast, we found ourselves in Wharton Texas. Because of it's location on the Colorado River and it's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, it's called the Gateway to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Wharton is a cool little town that sits on the Colorado River. It was originally a stop on the Caney Mail Route that was established by the Republic of Texas. It’s the county seat of Wharton County. Both the town and county were named after brothers William and John Wharton who were leaders in the fight for Texas Independence.

As we were driving in, we passed the TeePee Motel. I guess you can rent one of these and stay the night? That's not my thing. I just thought it was kind of funny.

Meanwhile, the original settlers came in 1846 and were part of Stephen F. Austin’s initial group. By the 1850s, immigrants were coming from everywhere. There were enough Jewish immigrants to have the only Jewish synagogue within three counties!

Wharton was mostly a farming community. The big crops included potatoes, cotton, rice and corn. The New York, Texas and Mexican Railway came in 1881 followed by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe a couple of years later. This helped the town ship their crops and brought in additional settlers to Wharton.

In 1889, they built their county courthouse in the center of the town square. Like most small towns, the original courthouse was a log structure that was built in 1848. In 1851, they built a new two-story building using the lumber from the first courthouse to build bookshelves for the second. In 1888, they voted to build a new Victorian Style courthouse. While not a popular idea, it still passed. In 1940, they “remodeled” the courthouse removing the Victorian elements and replacing them with an Art Deco style. That was never my favorite. 

Apparently, it wasn’t the favorite of the townspeople either. In the early 2000s, the courthouse was restored to its original glory resulting in an uptick in businesses returning to the town square. I like this way better.

There are some pretty cool buildings that are on the square, including the Plaza Hotel and Plaza Theater. The Plaza theater was built in 1904. On the first floor was a large dining room and the second floor had 20 rooms. In 1929, Opera Houses were the rage, and one was added to the hotel in an expansion. In 1941, the hotel was sold and it was gutted to become a movie theater. That’s how it stayed until the 1970s when the theater closed. Now it’s a live performance theater. 

This Wharton County Jail building was erected in 1938. The Historical Society for Wharton has a Facebook page where they posted a photo of the jail. Like most jails at the time, there was a residence for the Sheriff. On the Facebook page, people posted recollections of parties at the Sheriff’s house. I would love to go in there now and take a look around. I read that at some time, it was a private residence. Now it just looks abandoned.

If you drive down Milam Street there are several cool historic buildings. One is the G.G. Kelley building that was erected in 1919. The building sits on land where Judge Kelley once had his house behind a white picket fence. The building was renovated in 2019. The ground floor has original tiles on the floors and is all set up for retail. The second floor can be either office space or a residential area. Wouldn’t it be cool to renovate the whole thing into a house?

Speaking of, the W. A Harrison building was just that. It was built in 1913 by William Alexander Harrison. The building served as a dry goods store, a local telephone exchange and a café. Upstairs, however, was converted to a residence for William’s wife, Elizabeth. She lived there until she died in the 1980s. The space where she lived is now a luxury apartment loft and the retail space is an event center. I like to imagine what the town was like in its heyday. This would have been a great place to live.

The next set of buildings across Polk Street from the G.G. Kelley Building is the Queen Theater and the Davis Building, which used to be the Davis Hotel. Both were built in 1925. At one point the Queen Theater was a furniture store but it’s now an event center. The Davis Hotel was a hotel upstairs and a grocery store on the ground floor. The upper floor has been renovated to be a luxury residential space.

And, finally, at the end of the street is a building that says Deaton Grocery at the top. It appears to be in the process of being taken over by nature. It began as the Locke Feed Store back in 1901. I tried googling the history of the building but can’t find anything about when it became Deaton Grocery or who the Deaton’s were. Still, a cool building.

There’s also the old Railroad Depot that belonged to the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was built in 1912 and was called the “macaroni” line in honor of the 1,200 Italians who helped lay the track for the NY, Texas and Mexican Railroad back in 1882. Is that racist?  Anyway, the depot is now a museum but it’s only open on Saturdays.

Wharton has two very cool museums. The first is the Wharton County Historical Museum. It shows the history of the county and includes the house for one of the town’s more famous sons, Dan Rather. He’s from Wharton and lived here until his family moved to Houston. It’s an interesting museum. 

There are some cool old photos, remnants of old Post Offices and school buildings. May favorite is a sign that gives the rules for teaches back in 1915. Seriously? No hanging out at the ice cream parlor?

The second museum doesn't really have anything to do with Wharton other than it was started by a person who lived there. It's the 20th Century Technology Museum. It's at the back of the first museum and it contains what I call, A Walk Down Memory Lane. There are historical cameras with flash bulbs (remember those?) and an old Wurlitzer juke box, several old radios, telephones, cell phones, computers, record players and even video games.

It was fun to walk through those things and remember when we actually had some of them.

There are about 8,600 people that live there. They have an H-E-B, a Walmart and a Buc’cees. They have your standard fast-food places but no chain restaurants that I saw. They did have a cool little park right on the Colorado River where you can hang out and relax and watch the river float by.

I liked Wharton. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. They give tours of the Courthouse on some Saturdays and the museums were great fun. If you’re in the area, check it out!