Tax Credit Program Highlight: Hotel Fredonia

History

At its grand opening in 1955, the Hotel Fredonia drew a crowd of 6,000 onlookers, eager to tour what would quickly become the premier hotel and convention center in East Texas. The hotel was conceived by residents of Nacogdoches, led by local businessmen Jack McKinney, J. Elbert Reese, and R.O. Muckleroy. Their vision was to increase the city’s tourism, economic vitality, and prestige by making it a travel destination. Construction of the Fredonia was supported through community fundraising: 1,100 local businesspeople invested in the project. This ultra-modern hotel boasted air conditioning, 100-plus rooms, conference facilities, and a luxurious cabana-style patio with a swimming pool. The building’s unique architectural design, by J.N. McCammon of Dallas, combined the sleekness of the International Style with more traditional features like ornate New Orleans-inspired iron balconies. The property was so successful in its first decades that it was expanded to house more guest rooms and a larger conference center.

Rehabilitation Project

Many decades after its heyday, the Fredonia had fallen on hard times: it closed in 1985, reopened a few years later, then shut its doors once more in 2013. The state and federal tax credit programs were instrumental in bringing the Fredonia—the largest and most storied building in Nacogdoches— back to life again. The rehabilitation project focused on stripping away the dropped ceilings, carpets, and paneling from the 1980s renovation, to bring back the hotel’s original character, while upgrading and improving its systems and amenities to please modern hotel guests.