Beaumont, Texas

Historic pride flourishes in this Texas Main Street City, especially in the Crockett Street Entertainment District, where abandoned historic buildings became restaurants and nightclubs. The opulent 1927 Jefferson Theatre’s Mediterranean-influended interior features a white marble staircase and an organ athat rises from the orchestra pit on a hydraulic lift. The 1903 Tyrrell Historical Library, a former Bapitist church, houses thousands of books on Texas history, genealogical resources and art collections. The nearby cultural district is home to the Texas Energy Museum, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas and the Edison Plaza Museum. “The world’s largest fire hydrant” and the historic 1927 Beaumont Fire Department Headquarters mark the location of the Fire Museum of Texas.

Bordering downtown is Old Town, where 100 years’ worth of luxurious furnishings fill the 1906 Classic Revival McFaddin-Ward House. Visitors glimpse another side of life at the turn of the 20th century while strolling through a reconstructed boomtown at the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum. For an overview of all the area’s attractions – and to learn about the pioneering golfer who earned the title “the greatest woman athlete of the first half of the 20th century” – visit the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center.