The Nueces Hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas, was a luxury hotel that also served the city as a center of social and political life during the early 20th century and was for years the largest building in Texas south of San Antonio. Beginnings In the early 1900s, leading Corpus Christi citizens realized that the city needed such a hotel to attract tourists and business and decided to build one downtown. They chose the site of Hopson's meat processing plant and the Anderson family salt mill, including the Andersons' two-story house that also stood on the site. The six-story hotel, built by Ayers and Ayers Architects during a spate of municipal improvements, was completed in 1913, occupying the block between Water Street and Chaparral Streets and having its main entrance on Peoples Street. It was named the Nueces Hotel, also the name of a hotel in La Pryor, Texas. In 1919, wealthy rancher W. W. Jones (1858–1942), who in 1929 built the nearby and still extant Jones Building, bought out the other stockholders to become the sole owner. Amenities The Nueces was a large brick building with all the modern amenities, including its own laundry and electric power plant (with Claude L. Stephens as electrical engineer). It had a classical-style lobby with Corinthian columns, decorated ceilings, and marble and tile floors, that was furnished with huge, plush chairs and couches. The sun parlor had fine brickwork, potted plants, area rugs, and wicker furniture, and tall windows admitted abundant daylight, creating a pleasant dining experience with an outdoor atmosphere and indoor comfort; the tropical outdoor garden let guests and others enjoy their meals among palm trees, sheltered by walls from the street and from the prevailing winds that cooled the east lobby. A barbershop and a number of stores were in or near the main lobby, including such specialty stores as Al's Men's Wear and the Hardy Shoe Store. Location and staff Originally, the hotel stood almost on the bayshore (Water Street, on its east side, at that time ran along the water's edge), thus was convenient to one of Corpus Christi's main attractions. Until the present landfill and seawall were built, Peoples Street extended out as a covered pier over the water, covered in deference to ladies' modesty, that ended in a pavilion. In 1922, this was replaced with the Pleasure Pier, a similar wooden wharf-like structure for fishing and mooring