Tarpon Inn, building in Port Aransas, Nueces County, Texas
The Tarpon Inn is a small historic hotel on East Cotter Avenue in Port Aransas, Texas, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It consists of a row of low wooden buildings grouped around a central lobby, sitting a short walk from the waterfront.
The building dates to 1886, when it was put up using timber salvaged from Civil War barracks to house workers constructing the Mansfield Jetty. A hurricane in 1919 left it badly damaged, and the rebuild that followed gave it deeper foundations and stronger pilings.
The name comes from the tarpon, a fish that drew anglers from across the country to this stretch of coast. In the lobby, thousands of autographed fish scales cover the walls, each one signed by a fisherman who caught a tarpon here, making the room feel more like a record book than a hotel reception.
The hotel sits in a walkable part of Port Aransas, close to local shops and the water. The lobby is open to visitors who are not staying overnight, so it is worth stepping inside even on a short visit.
To mark its 100th anniversary in 1986, the hotel had ceramic tiles made where guests, staff, and local residents pressed their handprints and left personal notes. The tiles are still on display on the exterior today, turning one side of the building into a kind of shared record of the people who passed through.
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