No longer limited to modest motels and homey B&Bs, Fredericksburg, Texas’ newest hospitality options range from luxe offerings to those that tap into the gumption of small operators with DIY talents and unlimited imaginations.
Take Dallas-based Mod Motels. The new venture is focused on converting cherished roadside motels into modern destinations. Among the properties in the company’s portfolio is the forthcoming 33-room Mimi on Main, which will be walkable to the downtown shops, restaurants, and bars.
Here, we look at a handful of offerings changing the landscape of the winery-thronged Texas town.
Boutique Bound
A rendering of the Albert Hotel
The county seat of Gillespie County will soon unveil its first boutique hotel, the 109-room Albert Hotel, which incorporates several 19th-century buildings once owned by the family of the hotel’s namesake Albert Keidel, an architect and historic preservationist. “The design leans heavily on natural materials, fabric wallpaper, and Mexican tiles,” says New Waterloo‘s design manager Olenka Hand. The team’s designers, Adrian Larriva and Melanie Raines, were inspired by Keidel’s “belief that good design should always include a feature and a vista,” says Hand.
The Menagerie; photo by Brittany Dawn
Meanwhile, upscale inn the Menagerie opened this winter with 14 guest accommodations sprinkled between a Queen Anne mansion, its outbuildings, and a row of 1930s bungalows across the street. “The client is a maximalist,” says Austin-based designer Sarah Stacey, who was tapped for the project after working on the owner’s personal home. The riotously patterned rooms “play off of the wallpapers and are filled with antique casegoods and rugs,” she adds. “We were going for what I call dopamine interiors: spaces that are full of color and use very little white.”
About eight miles from town, Longneck Manor is a giraffe and rhinoceros conservation facility that opened in 2021. Last summer, it introduced four new villas, as well as a gift shop and welcome center. “Clad in a gray board and batten siding, the villas are topped with a red metal roof, a signature for the property,” says Austin-based architect Lea Rogers. “The coloring, texture, and shape of the limestone rubble walls are a nod to the iconic coat of a giraffe.” Interiors by local designer and retailer Jill Elliott are neutral with accents such as geometric African textiles and light fixtures reminiscent of bundled twigs.
Nontraditional Offerings
The Rosé wine barrel cabin
Woven into the rolling hills, yurts, treehouses, and wine barrels have all found a home in Fredericksburg. The Wine Barrel Cabins, for instance, debuted last summer courtesy of the husband-and-wife team Josh and Kerri Wolcott.
The Wolcotts came up with the idea of the four 400-square-foot barrels as their own way of standing out, Josh says. “We designed them to be like a flight of the wines here in Texas Wine Country. For the Tempranillo and Cabernet cabins, I mixed different wood stains to get the hue we wanted.” Throughout, quartz countertops, textiles, and tilework pull from colors of the particular wines.
Katie and Jacob Rhodes, another couple, are behind HoneyTree and launched four treehouse accommodations in 2018. Last December, they unveiled a dozen more on a different parcel of land called Blue Sage. “We’ve landed on an aesthetic of white and wood with brass accents and earthy tones,” he says. “I take the odd-numbered cabins, which tend to be more bohemian with vintage knickknacks from flea markets and garage sales. Katie takes the even ones, which are much sleeker and more minimalist.” In all cases, he adds, the duo favors objects that sport burnished patinas or were fashioned by bygone techniques.
Blue Sage No. 2, one of HoneyTree’s 12 new cabins
“We were exploring nontraditional lodging, and yurts were one of the only structures not already in Fredericksburg,” says Melissa Tansor, who opened Haven Yurts with her husband, Don, last summer. Built from kits, the four yurts sport wooden dome ceilings with skylights made for star-gazing. Tansor designed the spaces with accents in neutral hues like blush, champagne, and deep olive suggestive of the wines and terroir of the region.
“Fredericksburg went from a local hidden gem to being nationally ranked in the travel and wine scene,” says Tansor. “That growing interest has brought people from all over to build world-class wineries, venues, and lodging concepts. I’m in awe of all the amazing accommodations that now exist here.”
Haven Yurts comprises four individual accommodations across four acres
More from HD:
How Hospitality Companies Can Shrink Their Carbon Footprint
AvroKO Designs the Jay Hotel in San Francisco
Former NFL Player Michael Bennett Tackles Furniture
