Historic Inns

Excelsior House – 19th-century hotel numbered among its guests Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Jay Gould and Oscar Wilde. Guest rooms feature period furnishings of maple, cherry and mahogany and include marble-topped dressers, button and spool beds, many from original furnishings when hotel opened in the late 1850s. Open daily for tours 1 and 2 p.m. 211 W. Austin St. Tour fee.

Jefferson Hotel – A cotton warehouse in 1861, converted to hotel 1900, restored as country inn and restaurant. Turn-of-the-century iron beds, Victorian dressers, rocking chairs; 22 rooms with baths. In front, old-fashioned benches overlook brick street. 124 W. Austin St.