National Museum of The Pacific War - Nimitz Hotel

Nimitz Hotel

Charles Henry Nimitz, German merchant marine and grandfather of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, was born in Bremen in Germany. He emigrated to the United States by way of South Carolina in 1844. In 1846, Nimitz moved to Fredericksburg with the initial settlers. In 1848, he married Sophie Dorothea Mueller, and nine of the couple's twelve children lived to adulthood. Local trouble maker James P. Waldrip tried unsuccessfully to recruit Nimitz into Die Haengebande. Charles Nimitz built the Nimitz Hotel in 1852, and deeded it over to his son Charles H. Nimitz, Jr., in 1906. Locals referred to it as the Steamboat Hotel because of the ship's bow front. The hotel had its own saloon and brewery, a ballroom that doubled as a theatre, a smokehouse, and a bath-house. In its heyday, the hotel hosted such guests as Horace Greeley, Johnny Ringo, President Rutherford B. Hayes, General Robert E. Lee, General James Longstreet, General Phil Sheridan, William Sydney Porter and General Ulysses S. Grant.

Anna Henke Nimitz, the wife of his son Chester Bernard Nimitz became pregnant with their only child Chester William Nimitz. The senior Chester died before his son was born on February 24, 1885. Little Chester's grandfather Charles served as a father figure the first five years of his life. In 1890, the widow Nimitz married her husband's brother William Nimitz and moved with him to Kerrville where he managed the St. Charles Hotel. While still a teenager, Chester was accepted for enrollment in the United States Naval Academy, where he graduated seventh out of a class of 114. Chester Nimitz rose to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Forces in World War II. Fleet Admiral Nimitz died February 20, 1966.

The Nimitz Hotel was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1989, Marker number 10089.