Name/Title
Ingenhuett Hotel [Cover]Description
August 31, 1898 cover from "F.G. KERR / PHARMACY / VAN BUREN, ARKANSAS" to “Mrs F.G. Kerr / Comfort / Texas” and “C/o Ingenhuett Hotel."Context
In 1880, Peter Ingenhuett and Marie Karger commissioned Alfred Giles to build Comfort's first hotel, and named it the Ingenhuett Hotel. Comfort was a growing German community, and many a person traveling by stagecoach enjoyed the comfortable accommodations of the hotel.
With the coming of the railroad, the original native limestone building soon became too small for the burgeoning town, so Giles returned in 1894 to design the addition, including iconic arched parlor windows and gothic lintel cross. Members of the Peter and Marie Ingenhuett family--including their son Ernst, and Marie's brother Charles Karger--operated the hotel until around 1905; it is currently Hotel Giles (named after the architect).
This cover is postmarked "COMFORT, TEX. / SEP 1 / REC'D" on the back, denoting it traveled 557 miles in 21 hours, from F. G. Kerr’s Drug Store on Main Street, Van Buren, Arkansas to the Ingenhuett Hotel.