{"nrhp_refnum":"76002036","name":"P. A. Smith Hotel","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Railroad St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Navasota","county":"Grimes County","state":"TX","lat":30.387692659000038,"lon":-96.08847523399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-04-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story limestone and cast iron commercial building on Railroad Street in Navasota, Grimes County, Texas, built in 1876 by Captain Philip Aurene Smith as a hotel.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is a distinctive Texas blend of native limestone construction and sophisticated cast iron detailing, unusual among 19th century commercial buildings in the state. It is also tied to P. A. Smith, a Navasota businessman and civic figure who built the hotel, a newspaper and the opera house.","narrative":"Built in 1876 on Railroad Street in Navasota, this three-story hotel combines rough limestone rubble walls with a cast iron ground-floor facade, cast iron sills, arched decorative lintels and a pressed tin cornice. The walls are about two feet thick at the first floor, thinning to twelve inches at the third. Upstairs, the original layout survives: a central hallway lit by a skylight and lightwell, rooms on both sides, wainscoting, a balustrade and feather-grained doors with painted room numbers. Captain Philip Aurene Smith built it and ran it as a hotel until his wife died in 1890, after which the Smith family lived on the upper floors and the ground floor was leased for commercial use. Smith also founded a newspaper and built the Navasota Opera House. The building was listed for its architecture, a rare Texas pairing of local stone and cast iron, and for its link to Smith's role in the town's commercial and cultural growth. A local historical committee planned restoration.","period_of_significance":"1876","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Grimes County Historical Survey Committee, which was raising funds for restoration; a data sheet notes it as not in use, with restoration in progress.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:18.657685-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/0/9722/40972200/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/76002036.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002036/d8f325b034-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002036/d8f325b034-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smith_hotel_navasota_2008.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smith_hotel_navasota_2008.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"82001737","name":"Navasota Commercial Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/texas/navasota-commercial-historic-district-82001737/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972200","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107317623"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/grimes-county/p-a-smith-hotel-76002036/"}